Stirling Ranges to Pinjara

Stirling Ranges 

Leaving Cape Riche we decided to head inland to the Stirling Ranges.. I was on a mission! I was dying to do some more hiking and hearing that the highest mountain in Southern WA was located here,"Bluff Knoll" it was something I had to tick of my list! 

Bluff Knoll!!

Bluff Knoll stands 1094m above sea level. Leaving Gary with the girls in a bush camp at the bottom I set out to hike up the 3km steep track to the top. Pretty much every step I took was a large uneven step, so it was a great butt workout!! ;) The morning I went up the clouds where quite low so by the time I was 1km into my hike I had roughly 5m visibility! There was no wind at all until I was about 700m from the top.. I rounded a corner and I felt like I was in the middle of a blizzard! By this time I had got chatting with a lovely couple from South Africa and we tackled the last part together. Unfortunatly there was no view from the top what so ever due to the cloud cover.. Though it didn't really bother me as I really enjoyed the hike itself anyway! 

The Top!! 

Returning to camp I was on a high and I'm pretty sure the girls thought their mum was a little crazy for getting so excited over a hike.. But I just love these kinds of hikes especially!!! 

Later that day we left the Ranges and headed towards Albany. On the way we discovered "Castle Rock." Another hike! And this time the kids and Gary decided to join me! Yeah! 

The hike to the top was relatively easy and quite enjoyable. 

We got a pretty cool surprise at the top though when we discovered a recently installed "skywalk" and a ladder to climb up to it also! The girls loved it! Awesome!! 

The girls climbing the ladder

 

The sky walk at the top!

Albany 

After a day of hiking it was time to head back down to the ocean and into Albany. Setting up at a great free camp "cosy corner" on the beach front just outside the town itself we decided to spent the next 5 days exploring the coastline. First stop was "The Bridge" and "The Gap" 

The Bridge

The Gap 

We also visited a "Shelley Beach." A beautiful secluded part of the coastline with crystal clear waters and a fresh water creek that runs directly into the ocean (which we all spent a fun afternoon building our very own "Dam" to block the water from entering the ocean!) 

Tori doing some Cartwheels!

Ella leaping over the Stream 

Tori jumping over the stream 

Splashing in the dam we built :)

Messing around ;)) 

Centre Road Crossing Hut 

After 5 days in Albany we decided it was time to start making a bigger move up to Perth and above! The weather had finally started to show signs of Winter (we have been extremely lucky so far and have barely had any rain still most the trip!) but knowing it wont be like this much longer we decided to start the trip up to Perth! 

Along the way we stopped to explore the "Valley of the Giants" huge 400 year old  trees that are actually really quite impressive!!

We saw the Giant Tingle Tree also which had a girth of 24m at the base! 

Giant Tingle Tree

Gary and the girls messing around in a replica of the Giant Tingle Tree 

We arrived at our free camp for the night (a cosy little campers hut just outside of Walpole!) Not long after we arrived a lovely fellow traveller, that we had met the previous night in Albany turned up!!! 

Nonja, a friendly woman from The Neverlands and ourselves then spent the night sharing our dinner of potatoes, sausages and stew by latern outside the hut and then the rest of the night we sat inside roasting Marshmallows, playing Hangman and sharing a few stories.

Roasting marshmallows with Nonja

 Gary the girls and myself then slept the night by the fire in the hut. Was fun to get out of the caravan for the night and we all had so much fun! 

Ready for bed!!

By the time we left the next day we had drawn over the entire back wall of the hut with chalk!! 

The hut before we decorated it 

After we finished decorating!

we even found time to do a little extra schooling.. :)

Nonja also spent some time with Ella playing their Guitars together which Ella just loved!! 

Ella playing her Guitar 

Packing up the next day we travelled with Nonja to the Diamond Tree.

The Diamond Tree is a 52m high tree that had a crazy stair/ladder that you can climb to the top of. It used to be used as a "look out for fires" but surprisingly is still open to the public to come and climb as they wish!! 

Now I will be the first to admit that I am surprised they leave something like this open for people to climb without harnesses and with no one to monitor it/instruct you.. (Oh and at no cost!) Usually this kind of thing would be deemed unsafe and closed down long ago!! (Or atleast a inflated entry/climbing price, with a 3hr instructional course on how to climb a ladder with harnesses and a hard hat first ;))

 Anyway It was a LONGGG way up.. with not much to stop you falling if you slipped! Eeekkkk!!! Lucky for us this really cool tree climb is still open and 

we also all made it safely to the top and back down without incident! ;)) 

Us before the long climb up!! 

Nearly there!! 

And at the top!! 

After the Diamond tree we said our goodbyes to Nonja (after exchanging numbers of course!) and headed our separate ways. 

We spent the next night in a bush camp just outside of Manjimup - "Green Island." Ella and I played some ball games and we then cooked our dinner over a campfire and settled in for a family movie night!! 

Green Island camp 

Tonight we are in Pinjara for the night. Another free camp :) We spent the morning driving and the afternoon playing at a nearby playground. 

Tomorrow we plan to visit Mandurah and maybe head to Fremantle for the night, before catching up with Vanessa and Dan (the Family we met in Esperance) and then Gary's cousin Allan later in the week, both in Perth!