Glamping

After such a wonderful time in the Stirling Ranges last year – more particularly Mount Trio bush camp – we went back this year for a slightly longer stay and had just as wonderful a time.  This year we have again had relatively late rains but they have been more prolonged than last year including a warm wet October.  The result being the wildflowers were amazing and the camera got a real workout.  We have tried to select some of the best images below so you can share our wonderful holiday experiences:

An early start meant brunch at our usual stop in Boyup Brook before the last
leg to Mount Trio Bush Camp.  With the annex to sort out the camp set up
took a mere hour or so:

The camp ground hadn’t changes much (thankfully) remaining gimmick free
as it only has a camp kitchen, toilet/shower block, communal fire place and
a pong table:

The 1km’ish nature trail right off the camp ground was ablaze with flowers and
many hours were spent searching for orchids:

On the first walk Moo spied a goanna, something we didn’t get to see last year:

The ground was full of paper daisies and button flowers, to Moo it felt like one
big fairy garden:

All the outdoor activities had it’s down side, one being the cleaning of Moo’s feet:

On Lisa’s birthday we went off for our first hike, which Lisa chose Talyuberlup:

The walk was a bit of a slog until we reached the rocky peak:

From a ledge there was the final ramp to the top”

Lisa wasn’t too keen on that bit so stayed on the ledge (if you can spot her):

Moo and I went on up the last scramble and took in the view:

On the way down we appreciated even more so all the flowers that we didn’t
really take notice off was we had trudged up with our heads down:

On the road home we helped a bobtail lizard off the road, but we wasn’t very
happy about it:

Lisa spent the afternoon tucked into a book, happy as a pig in pooh:

She was so engrossed in her book that she didn’t even notice a goanna that
was just a few meters in front of her:

The camp owners John and Margot kindly lent us some walk and climbing
books so we could explore some of the lesser advertised walks (we also did
a bit of kid share as their daughter Maddy came to play and Moo also went
to their house to play):

One walk we plucked from their books was up Red Gum Hill, a short but very
colourful walk and much more relaxing on the legs than Talyuberlup:

The top was more rounded with no rocks but no less beautiful, and abound with
even more flowers:

Some of which were incredibly striking, and worthy of a prickly walk through
thicker bush to get a closer look:

Back at camp we had brought games and books to keep us occupied during
the wetter times and evenings, we were all tucked into various stages of Harry
Potter books and for games Moo even started to learn crib:

In the second week some friends came to stay, and have a rock climb:

So for two days I managed to get out for a climb, and in usual style this meant
getting up before the sun to make the most of the daylight:

To get to the base of the climbs involved a walk of an hour plus, mostly up
steep bushy country. The big day was a 250m’ish climb up the front face of
Bluff Knoll.  The climbing is more like Alpine climbing with lots of blocks, ledges,
loose stuff and interesting route finding:

The climb took five hours to reach the top, and we were ever bit as beat as
Ryan looks in this image:

Part way down on the walk down we bumped into Lisa and Moo who had been
watching us as we had finished off the last bit of the climb:

On the drive back Lisa had a close encounter with a Tiger Snake:

Having almost been run over he wasn’t too happy, his flattened head told me
to stay well back.  After a while is calmed down and slithers back into the verge:

On our last day we fancied a more relaxed walk so went to the nearby
Porongurup Range to walk up Castle Rock, being a wetter area the flowers
seemed even thicker:

The hour’ish stroll through amazing colours led us to the rocky top:

The last bit was up a ladder to a glass sided, see through floored look out.
Lisa breathed in deep and also went up but only briefly:

Then Moo, Ryan and myself went for an explore, mostly we followed Moo
through narrow gaps and caves:

It was great fun but some were so ridiculously narrow only Moo could get through:

After our play we found Lisa and had a nibble under the balancing rock before
the walk down:

That night we watched the sun set on our last day:

In the morning Lisa got her last holiday fix of Harry Potter (she got through two
books and started a third while we were away!), and I went for a last look at
the flowers:

When I got back Moo was just getting up and was very excited to be heading
home to see her rats:

We managed to pack up most things before the drizzle came, then a stop at
John and Margot’s for a cuppa and chat before we hit the road home:

For those that haven’t had their photo fix yet here are a few of the orchid (many I didn’t see last year), flower and fungi images I took round the camp site:

Not sure but this may be an orchid cross between a white spider and zebra orchid:

This being a zebra orchid:

And this being a white spider orchid:

There were also tiny Leek Orchids:

Moo particularly liked the pink dwarf orchids:

Having a mix of weather allowed me to get a great variety of images:

The paper daises were prolific creating blankets of pink, closed in the morning:

Then magically opening up every day:

The pink carpet was interspersed with many other flowers:

If you looked even deeper there was another ‘layer’ of flowers underneath:

Lisa made a passing comment about how amazing the fungi were as they
forced there way out of the ground, and that got me taking images of these to,
I have no idea what were all are so will leave you to enjoy the images:

If you have made it this far down and are still concentrating we will now enlighten you as to why we chose the email title we did: John rightly so corrected us by telling us we are no longer going on camping holidays as what with our pop up caravan, side annex power and water site we are really glamping (or glamour camping for those that didn’t quite make the connection).

Stirling Ranges

Since being in WA I have wanted to get back onto some proper big multi-pitch climbing.  While I have climbed at Peak Charles and the Porongurup’s which are both a couple of hundred meter as the climbs I have done there have generally been on clean faces and bolted.  West Cape Howe got closer but only being two pitch it didn’t give that true out there experience.  The place to get that here is the Stirling Ranges, I’d attempted a climb on the big wall of Bluff Knoll in 2006 but route finding at the base of this 250m’ish wall is pretty hard and we were not confident enough to go any further than the first pitch.  However, a few weeks back I got a second chance to attempt this real big wall which was reputed to give you that alpine experience.

Lisa, Elseya and I were on a ten day camping trip at the Strilings and part way through Ryan, Rhys, Chris and Steve came down to meet us and take me out climbing:

The first day Chris and Steve headed out to Bluff Knoll to try the classic Hell Fire Gully grade 14 (VS 4b) and 250m long, as they had to leave the next day. As Ryan and myself also wanted to hit this climb on Bluff Knoll we wandered off for the day to Tallyubarup to sample some shorter two pitch routes and get acclimatised (with camera man Rhys in tow.  After a hour slog up a shaly path the towering walls with meandering routes certainly looked good:

Um the name of the first climb escapes me now, graded 12 (S) it was fun and had a good middle section and an exposed section straight off on the second pitch:

The next climb however was worthy of it’s three stars, Nail Bite (15 – VS 4c). Up flakes and a towering corner with a steep and exposed finish to a ledge under the capping roof in the image below:

The next day Chris and Steve (again with Rhys snapping away) went to the same place and did the same two lines, here they are up on the second pitch  of Nail Bite:

The two climbs didn’t take us too long but we wanted to save some energy for the next bigger day, so we tramped down stopping for a play on a boulder.  As we were heading back we decided to have a look at huge boulder at the base of Mount Trio that has had four bolted lines created.  We played on two of them, a 17 (HVS 5a) and 22 (E2 5c) and while they were fun they were pretty fingery and hard.  The rock was pretty good but the occasional hold did have a habit of crumbling and sending you flying making us think the grades of the routes probably increase with age:

We got back to camp early at just gone 4, and by 5:30 we though we better check on the other guys as there had been no word.  As we got there the evening cloud had covered the top and was starting to fall down the gullies. We got out the binoculars and watched them top out on the last pitch at gone 6 as dusk was coming in and 12.5hrs after they had left camp. They got back to camp at 8:30 and told us of a wet and scrubby climb that they were not to impressed with, they also had no phone reception on the face and only got some when they topped out:

Armed with this information Ryan and I still set off at 5 the next morning to Bluff Knoll but chose a line called Right Anti-Climax still going at grade 15 and being 240m long.  This climb followed faces rather than gullies so should have been drier.  Strangely we were the only ones at the car park:

The hour plus walk in was through scrub with patches of thick bush but on the whole not too bad, the morning light cast its shadows and slowly woke the world below us up

As we approached again route finding was hard, but Ryan spotted a wall that looked clean and not to bad to climb:

We set off but the first pitch took a long time a as gear was hard to find and the rock in places was a suspect.  The first three pitches were like this and we were in the sun the whole time, after these we hit Prickle Traverse, a massive ledge system that is just under half way’ish up the big wall.  It had taken a long time to get there and it was already 12 by the time we were ready to move on.  Both tired from the day before and the sun but food and water gave us the strength to carry on with the next six pitches (which we did in four):

I was knackered but slogged on whinging about steepening terrain and not knowing where I was heading, but Ryan kept me going (thanks Ryan J).  The first two pitches off Prickle Traverse were the most technical but the gear was far better than below.  After that the climbing was described as a scramble but there was no way we would have done them unroped.  The gear again grew sparse and the rock quality deteriorated and in some sections it was hard to find something good to pull up on:

We made good time and not sure how but managed to get up the four pitches in 2hrs, quick it may have seemed the end was a very welcome sight:

Up on top we had a quick celebratory snack and drink, packed up called Lisa and Elseya to say we were heading down at just after 2 and then headed down. The climb was as stated a true alpine experience, run outs, loose rock, hard route finding and we were always looking over our shoulders to check the weather which can change quickly here.  We are certainly coming back – maybe in autumn so not too long to wait and we are hoping Hell Fire Gully will be in better condition so we can have a play on that:

When we phoned they said they had just watched us finish the last pitch, and were waiting at the car park.  So as we walked down they walked up to meet us part way:

Kangaroo Point

I was lucky enough to sample six quality climbs at Kangaroo Point in Brisbane (Queensland) last weekend.  Sinead and my plans to head to Frog went amiss for a variety of reasons but at least we managed to have some fun on rock.  I was told a lot of people bag Kangaroo Point but if I had the crag in my backyard I would be very grateful.  Yeah some climbs are getting a little polished (nothing like Stanage or even worse Avon Gorge in the UK), but they were well equipped and a reasonable length so you can get stuck into them.  The climb that will stick in my mind is ‘Idiot Wind’ which was my first lead there and very worthy of the two stars it gets; but not so sure I’d give it the 21 it gets as it felt more like a 19 compared to my local south-west WA crag of Willyabrup – that may however be as it was very much my style being a thin technical face climb.

Kangaroo Point has some 250 climbs and stands about 25m high:

Ground up me staring Idiot Wind (21**):

Good holds and nice moves make for a fun climb:

At the crux:

A Striling Range Holiday

We have just got back from a superb week long break in the magnificent Striling Ranges, where we stayed at the Mount Trio Bush Camp a rustic and basic but brilliant get away from it spot that suited all three of us down to the ground.  Every morning we woke up to the wonderful dawn chorus of a multitude of birds, the songs changed as the morning light moved into sunrise.

Something that attracted us to the place was the remote feel and the bush walking.  Being spring time there were flowers abound and the area is known for its mass of orchids, which takes a sharp eye and patient person to find them.  As the weather has been warming up we also got treated to an abundance of skinks and lizards and the occasional snake.  While we were not out walking Moo was in heaven riding her bike, making new friends of all ages every day and building up an impressive nature collection that has of course followed us home.

Now sat here at our computer it feels like we have been away for months, we all loved the place and time away and even Moo who usually is keen to get back after a week wanted to stay on for longer.  Below I have picked out some of the best photos to share some of our findings and experiences:

The camp spot was a great place for Moo to ride round, Lisa to relax in and
me to hunt flowers and birds in:

The camper trailer was a big hit again, making life that little bit more comfy
than being in a tent

Moo had a go on all the bikes, opting in the end for the big bikes:

The scarlet robin was one of the many birds that gave us wonderful dawn
chorus:

An early morning treat of a red capped parrot swooping down with Toolbrunup
Peak in the background:

One morning we were lucky to spy a family of emus passing through:

Moo isn’t one for enjoying walking preferring to ride a bike, however we gave
her the choice of which peak to climb and she chose Toolbrunup Peak as it
was rocky and in the clouds as we were driving towards it (it was also the
most challenging!):

The trek was steep and unforgiving, the last trip here four years back Lisa
climbed the only peak taller than this one (by 40m) and couldn’t walk for days
afterwards so she was a little worried.  Here she is a speck in the scree slope:

There was some fairly steep scrambles in the upper section, as the cloud
rolled in:

On top we had to put our layers on as the wind rolled the clouds in:

Moo was in heaven, rocks to clamber up and walking in the clouds:

In-between the clouds Lisa spotted a wedge tailed eagle flying above us:

He gave us a bit of a show, but eventually we had to make our way down:

Five hours after we had started we were back down having a cuppa in the car
park, with both Lisa and Moo having slightly wobbly legs:

Two days later, even though Lisa’s legs were still aching (Moo had made a
rapid recovery, which she put down to all the bike riding after the first walk!)
we headed off for the second walk, this time up Mount Hassell:

The photos do not do it justice but the flowers on this walk were amazing:

We also, with the help of Moo’s keen ears and eyes found heaps of lizards
and skinks, this one being a king skink (approx 45cm from nose to tail):

We have no idea of what this one was and he wouldn’t come out from his
hiding hole but he was wonderful:

From this point there was only the last rock scrambling left, and you can see
the car park in the background of the road:

The final scramble made Lisa work her legs with some high steps, but the
view from the top was well worth it:

Moo and Lisa on top with a good view of Toolbrunup Peak behind them:

In the last 20min of the decent the rain came in, slow to start but getting
heavier so instead of a cuppa at the base we headed for a café:

The next day being Lisa’s birthday, and also as we deserved a rest we
headed to one of our favourite coastal spots – William Bay.  Here we didn’t do
much but ate well and chilled out:

On the walk out we did come across a 1.7m (we guess it was as long as I am
tall) what we thought was a dugite:

Then driving back we came across this wonderful view of Toolbrunup Peak:

The second to last day we headed off for the third walk, up Mount Trio:

Another contrasting walk with a huge effort required in the first third as the
big steps just kept going up and up in a very steep fashion:

But after that the angles eased considerably and it was a lovely wander up
to the peak, where we were treated to yet another good view of Toolbrunup
Peak:

The walk down was not as bad as we thought is may have been, and Lisa’s
had no problems at all even claiming her legs didn’t ache anymore:

Couldn’t resist putting a few flowers photos in, many of them were small but
in big numbers covering the ground or hill side:

It took a bit of getting used to what to look for when searching for orchids, but
it was worth the perseverance, I think this is one of the spider orchids:

I was very lucky to find this donkey orchid on the last walk round the campsite:

Other larger flowers were also in full bloom like this grevillea:

Also some very specky dryandras:

But eventually we had to pack up and head home, on the road out of the
campground for the last time with Mount Trio, Mount Hassell and Toolbrunup
Peak in the background (from left to right):

If you managed to get to the end of all these photos and would like to see some more let me know, as we have quite a few more!