Ten years on

It was close to ten years to the date that the three of us first stayed at the Mount Trio Bush Camp in the Stirling Ranges.  On that first visit, in the school holidays, the place felt deserted and in subsequent years word of mouth did its job and the place got busier and busier.  More powered sites popped up and the facilities, whilst keeping that rustic feel, grew in size.  Over the last few years we haven’t been back as a family, but Lisa and I decided we would head there for our 20^th wedding anniversary:

The joys of Lisa having long service leave meant that we could head down for a long weekend and stay for three nights, during term time.  The place felt familiar as we drove in, other than the information bay looking a bit more swish and the camp kitchen having tripled in size.  We found a quiet spot and set up camp, then armed with both a cuppa and a beer we made our way to have a game of pong.  In the past you’d have to keep an eye on the pong room and be ready to duck in as soon as it was vacated, on this trip we didn’t see anyone else use it:

That was probably in part due to the place being relatively quiet, as John the owner explained to us that evening as we caught up.  He explained how the last few months had been really busy but in the last week or so things had eased off.  Today had been a steamy 32 degrees and while we were pleased to be back, Lisa had forgotten one thing and that was the flies.  They were out in force and it seemed impossible to escape them, but as the sun went down they disappeared as we soon also did retreating to our tent:

When camping we tend to hit the sack soon after it gets dark and then wake up early.  That doesn’t mean we both get up, Lisa enjoys having a snooze and read waking up slowly.  I’m the opposite being up and out ready for stuff.  From about 4am there was the sound of birds chattering, chirping and tweeting away.  Too many to mention and many with young so the noise levels were elevated, as the impatient young incessantly demanded feeding by their parents.  I was up just before 5 and it was another clear blue sky:

One of the things I really like about this spot is that it has a great patch of bush with a trail that runs through it.  The ground in spring time is littered with flowers, and if you hit the right part of spring this place is a haven for orchids.  So while Lisa read in bed I went for a wander.  I had started this trip with an upbeat feeling of possibly doubling my orchid tally for the season.  However, John had dispersed that aspiration the night before when he said that the orchid season had pretty well all dried up:

No matter the walk was still amazing and I spent a lot of time checking out all the flowers, completely mystified as to what they may be.  I have to admit to having got a little hooked on Questagame and was happy to find a few of the more specky looking flowers to chuck on the app to both share them and find out what they are.  Most, but not quite all, of the flowers would close up at night and some would only fully open when it was sunny.  As such I went on this trail at several different times of the day to see how they changed:

Whilst John had been a little negative about any opportunity to find orchids, I wasn’t completely put off and searched high and low.  Rongy had been here just a few weeks back and he had sent me some images of the orchids he had spied, surely there would be one or two left?  I found lots of frazzled, wrinkly and browned remnants of orchids but did luck upon this solitary Dragon Orchid.  Whilst similar looking to the Mantis and Spider Orchids, they are much smaller and clearly have a different shape with the apex sticking upright:

I persevered checking all the nooks and crannies thinking that the more sheltered spots might be where I would strike it lucky.  In amongst all the fallen dead trees I came across my first Hairy Rufous Greenhood Orchid, and subsequently found lots of them.  I’ve read that these species generally flower late in spring, and when I told John of my find he told me that and said he wasn’t surprised that I had found them.  There are several variety and I started to get excited that I had maybe found different ones, but on closer inspection back home they are all the same:

The short 1.2km trail took me close to two hours to get round, due to constantly stopping and searching.  This approach had paid off and as I returned to the camp area not even the clouds rolling in could dispel my happiness.  Lisa and I had been checking the forecast so we were not surprised by the clouds, and were in fact expecting rain.  What did surprise us was that the forecast for Saturday jumped from a nice mid-twenties to the mid-thirties, and when you are out camping there is little respite.  Lisa it seems has a built up a reduced tolerance not just to flies but also the heat:

After having a cuppa I managed to convince her that it was time to get some food into us, so we made our way to the camp kitchen to find it empty.  Everyone else had been and gone, all bar this Sand Monitor.  As we were busy preparing and cooking up a feast it wandered round the kitchen area checking for any food that might have been dropped.  Seemingly unaware of, or not worried about, our presence and even getting close to our feet:

It was already feeling hot and fly ridden, so Lisa returned back to the tent which was thankfully not heating up like an oven due to the cloud cover.  While I headed off once more but in a different direction, towards the national park.  There were huge fires here last December and they had reached this property by literally meters.  It was only saved by a southerly wind that thankfully never turned.  Standing on the edge of the property looking at the national park the contrast between the bush I had walked through and what was left in the park was clear, no understorey and blackened tree trunks:

As such after a little wander in the remains of the park I decided to stay within the property.   As I was checking out the scrubby understorey I stopped suddenly; something close to me started to growl.  It turned out to be a roo that was maybe 6m away, which eventually decided it was easier to move on that try to scare me.  Searching for flowers in the undergrowth I found another orchid, one I have not seen before.  This one is however an invasive species called the South African Orchid, and was introduced in the mid-1990s in Albany.  It has now spread all the way up to Geraldton:

I also came across the Common Mignonette Orchid, which you may remember from Lisa and my walk closer to home near Dunsborough, in the Meelup Nature Reserve.  There are two types of these that can be commonly found and the other is the White Mignonette Orchid, which was also present.  The flowers for the former are a pale green and the second not surprisingly white.  The latter also tends to have less flowers up to 60, as oppose to the common variety that can have up to 100, and the frilly apex hangs down further and is much more prominent:

On arrival back at the tent Lisa was looking uncomfortable, hot and bothered.  So I suggested we might be better heading out somewhere, which would allow a bit of reprieve in the air conditioning of the car.  As we drove out the car was indicating a temperature of 32 degrees and it left muggy, so we headed not for a walk but the Bluff Knoll café for more reprieve from the furnace and where we could enjoy a cool drink and game.  I have no idea how I managed it but on the way back I suggested a walk would be better than the ten, as there seemed to be a breeze picking up and Lisa agreed:

Above we drove past Mount Trio, as we recalled that walk as having of a long series of high steps and my memory told me Mount Hassel was the easiest of the main peaks.  John had recounted to us how the fires had worked their way in a southerly direction up Mount Trio, then onto Mount Hassle and ended up on Mount Toolbrunup all of which could be clearly seen from the campsite.  On our last trip here the vegetation would be thick and hard to walk through, this time the land was open and splattering’s of life was just starting to come back:

It’s hard to believe that any of the charred trees would ever come back, but many still felt supple indicating that live wood may still be inside.  Lots of other trees didn’t fare so well and lay broken and blackened on the ground.  The life that was returning was mainly ground over and only is small amounts so far, but the grass trees all seemed to be doing OK.  Lisa however wasn’t do so well, my memory was obviously mistaken and the walk felt steep and hard or was it just the conditions:

The last section of the trail goes up a rocky pillar from where Mount Toolbrunup can be seen, as shown below.  That was our favourite peak that we have walked up, but we also knew it was one of the more challenging ones.  A good job we hadn’t aimed for that taller peak as Lisa wasn’t feeling this walk and didn’t follow me up the last section.  The rocky scramble was just that bit too much.  So I leapt onwards like a mountain goat while she sat on a large rock ledge on which the breeze coming up the valley provided some respite.  Needless to say I didn’t hang round and was soon on my way down:

I kept a beady eye out for anything that looked different but there were no orchids to be seen, some flowers were coming through but not the variety that we would expect to see in spring time.  The clear conditions did however allow us to spy the many variety of skinks that reside here and that included the King Skink, Common South West Ctenotus and South-Western Rock Skink, but sadly no snakes.  The last skink being my favourite with its bright yellow band round the eye and bright yellow gills:

It was a slow walk back down, and even slower for Lisa who was suffering.  I’ll be impressed if anyone can spot her bright yellow t-shirt in the following image.  That said she did confess that it was probably better to have been out, as oppose to suffering in the tent getting even hotter.  As we made our way back in the car while it was still toasty it felt like the temperature was finally dropping.  By the time we had a cold beer while playing a game of pong, without needing to wait for anyone else to finish playing, life seemed to seep back into Lisa:

Being our anniversary we had bought a bottle of bubbly along, which helped wash down a simple but tasty meal of cheese, tapas and toasted flat breads.  John and Margot joined us for a drink and we caught up.  It is strange but whenever we catch up, which I have done a bit more often with climbing trips here, it never feels like it has been a long time.  That is until we start mentioning how old the kids have gotten.  They left us to it, as it started to drizzle, inviting us to pop over in the morning for a coffee:

Needless to say I was up and out early, we had organised to catch up with John and Margot at mid-morning allowing me another chance to have a slow walk round the trail to see what I might find.  No new orchids this time, but I did enjoy watching the Currawongs feeding their young and also came across a couple of big roos.  This time I knew it was me that should move away, and leave them in peace.  I got back in the rain and made a cuppa for Lisa under the watchful eye of one of the resident magpies:

It was a cold and damp morning, the tops of all the peaks were shrouded in mist and the rain came and went.  Two good things resulted from this weather, which would surely make Lisa happy.  There were no flies and it was cool.  As such it didn’t take too much for Lisa to feel motivated and we were soon both up having brekkie and playing another game of Yahtzee and crib.  Arriving at John and Margot’s at 9:30, stepping in just as a delicious freshly baked banana cake came out of the oven.  The next hour and half with them flew past, and then we went on our way:

Today we headed for Mount Trio, and we braced ourselves for the steps.  Yesterday when we had got back Lisa had checked out the information board and it indicated that Mount Hassle was harder than Mount Trio and about an hour longer walk.  Margot and I were not convinced by this, so the proof would be in the pudding.  The same grim sight of a decimated landscape greeted us as we started up the track.  The track had been completely burnt out, offering a chance to make the steps less gruelling.  We were however told they had been built equally high:

Whether Margot or I were wrong or whether it was the cool conditions I will not say, but we both found the walk much easier.  Even the steps didn’t feel as bad as we expected nor did they go for as long.  Like yesterday the only greenery was the occasional ground cover, and the amount of flowers was very limited.  Mount Trio is also known as the flower mountain, but it didn’t live up to its name this time.  We soon hit the saddle and that meant the steep section was over and the rest of the hike was a gentle incline to the top:

We were greeted to cloud, there were no views to be seen but the rain and coldness of the clouds against our faces was really refreshing.  It was amazing how contrasting yesterdays and todays conditions were.  And based on the weather today we were already making plans for our next trip here to be earlier in spring time.  Allowing for hopefully cooler weather and also more orchids for me to hunt while Lisa lays in bed reading.  As we stood atop the peak the clouds started to lift, and then the closer peaks and eventually the entire Stirling Ranges came into view:

When spent a good amount of time on top taking it all in.  Eventually we started back down and behind us the clouds started to roll back over the peak.  This made it felt very special, and even more so as it felt like a present for us as we celebrated yet another anniversary.  It was 21 years ago that Lisa and I first met.   In the image below Mount Toolbrunup is in the background, and on our first trip here ten years back the three of us had walked first up Mount Trio and then the next day up Mount Toolbrunup:

Elseya had picked the second peak, on the basis that as we looked at it from the campsite it was in the clouds.  We told her the clouds may not be there by the time we walked up it, but back then just like our experience today the clouds covered the peak as we arrived and lifted while we were up there.  Now, as we caught up with John and Margot in the morning, he had hinted I might find an orchid or two atop Mount Trio and he was right.  There were lots of Red Beak Orchids, they look a little bedraggled but were still a great find and checking out the guide it seems that blackened ends are normal:

Back down at the car I had to make a quick detour to check out “the Mount Trio boulder”, which has a number of great climbs.  It comprises friable rock that loses a hold or two on probably every ascent.  The intention wasn’t to climb but just to check it out and see if these sheltered spots had any more orchids.  Unfortunately not, but I did find a bolt plate to add to my collection of climbing gear.  Back at the camp it was that time again, beer and pong.  Then we prepared another feast.  It is amazing how the simplest of meals tastes so great when you’ve been outdoors all day:

More games were played as we ate under the watchful eye of a magpie sat above us.  It was no doubt waiting for a momentary lack of concentration when you might leave your food unattended.  We also came across a Bobtail otherwise known as a Bluetongue Lizard sneaking about looking for what morsels might have fallen to the ground.  Afterwards Lisa went for a nana-nap while surprise, surprise I went for my last wander round the trail and various areas of the camp.  Ever hopeful to find something new, and while that didn’t happen I did manage to find a second Dragon Orchid:

The clouds hung overhead, as the sun started to dip towards the horizon and for a brief moment it looked like there may have been an opening to allow the rays of the sun to light up the sky with red.  That didn’t quite happen and before it got dark we started to pack the car leaving only the essentials in the tent for sorting in the morning.  The forecast was for rain, rain and more rain overnight and into the next day, with the possibility of a thunderstorm.  So we were being prepared and wanted to avoid too soggy a pack up:

As it was, at 5am when I got up, the rain had just started to ease off.  This allowed us an opportunity to cram the last of the gear into the car and then pull down the wet tent and throw it into the back.  We permitted ourselves time to make a cuppa for the road, and for the first morning on this trip we were the first in the kitchen.  In and out before anyone else was about.  Back on the road for the nearly four hour drive back home, it felt like we had been away for a week and felt refreshed.  We are already looking forward to a return trip next year: