Now and Then, Here and There: PORONGURUP N.P.

PORONGURUP N.P 1^ST – 5^TH FEBRUARY

In W.A. their long weekend was one week earlier then Victoria’s, thankfully a man at Bremer Bay tipped us off about this and we were able to get in at the one and only small C.P in Porongurup which is 40km North of Albany. When we phoned we were asked if we were coming for the wine festival!

Porongurup is a small N.P. and the C.P. is a small with lovely grassy areas and trees, it is owned by Cheryl and Les, ( actually it is for sale for $800,000!) We thought we might be in for a crowded and possibly a few very noisy nights, but not to be. Les and Cheryl run the park like a well oiled machine and put up with nothing.We had gotten there early Thursday and there was only one other caravan set up,by Friday night it was like a huge party was happening with caravans, tents, Maui and Apollo Campers scattered everywhere, quite a site to see but everything had it’s place and there was no noise after 10pm, Les and Cheryl had their fingers on the pulse. After the mad rush to get in it was a mad rush to leave,Monday morning 63 sites vacated!

We met a couple Steve and Carol with whom we hit it off with really well. Unfortunately Steve had just broken his ankle on one of the walks around here so he was in plaster from knee to toe. We found out we had lots to talk about with them because they left their home in Townsville QLD in June and were on their way back home. So needless to say we really enjoyed our first "long weekend" in W.A.

Porongurup has some amazing walks to do, one walk in particular which is a must do is the Balancing Rock and Castle Rock walk. The local council has recently put a fair bit of money into the area to try and promote its beauty and what a way to do it with a platform that goes around one of the many huge boulders.

After a good steady walk up hill you come to Balancing Rock;

Charlie

Tom

Here you can have some fun taking photographs .

Can you see the face, we thought this
was just like those rocks on Easter Island.

Moving on you come to a place where you have to make a choice, go rock climbing or just go to an easy lookout?

ROCK CLIMBING IN STYLE ON CASTLE ROCK

The start of the climb, you can just make out the ladder
in the background

This is what you climb up onto, a platform
where you can literally walk around the rock!

The end of the track.

Check out the view, if you look hard you can see the ocean

Yep, that is what we were walking on!! AWESOME

The other great walk is called the Hayward and Nancy Peak circuit and we also included a track up and back to Devils Slide. The peak walk was lovely walking across the ridge of the mountain with views either side and an awesome look at Devils Slide. The walk, or should I say climb up Devils Slide was very steep but well worth it.

This was the view on the Nancy Peak walk looking across
to Devils Slide that we walked up.

This is from the top of Devils Slide looking back across Nancy Peak
where we had just walked across the ridge. Great views!
The sign post says end of trail!

Up with the eagles, a wedge tail checking us out.

We needed a days rest after two days of climbing, so instead we walked down to the local market at the one and only general store in Porongurup. A little market with a bit of local produce but more second hand stuff. Our neighbour in the C.P. was there selling his honey then later that day when he came back to camp we had a great chat to him regarding being a Bee Keeper. We found out why honey is called a particular name for example black wood or red gum. It is because that was the type of tree that was in flower and the bees were collecting from it.... I know that makes sense now we just didn't think logically about it. The Bee keeper watches to see in which direction the bees are going to collect the honey from and knowing what trees are in which direction they then know what type of honey it will be.He was also telling us that he sells his honey to the big chain supermarkets totally untreated, straight from the hives, then the supermarkets treat it by heating it up which prevents it from crystallising,then they package and label it with whatever and put it on the shelf. We bought some honey from him which has had nothing done to it and the taste is amazing...

Tom and Charlie for the first time on our holidays actually got to interact with other kids which was great to see. They played cricket and had fun under the sprinklers Les let the kids play under. Pete and I must have this thing with picking the hot days to go inland. It reached 40 c one of the days here the others were high 30's, apparently unusual for this time of year, we sure can pick them!

Monday when everyone was going home we went for a day drive up to Stirling N.P. only 30 minutes up the road. We did the most popular track in this N.P. called the Bluff Knoll. Again another huge walk up hill with what the boys nicknamed "killer stairs", they weren't far from the truth... lot's of them and not the smallest either..
We were again rewarded with amazing views from above, especially this green carpet effect over the range.