Cloimbing and hoiking!!
Have just spent the long weekend at Bluff Knoll in the Stirling Ranges. Its the highest peak in Western Australia at approx 1050metres. Looked at it thinking Dee has to climb 6 times this height at Kilimanjaro in around 12 weeks. Actually, the Bluff Knoll carpark is around 350m above sea level so its only around a 700m climb.
We stayed at Stirling Retreat which was pretty busy but a fantastic little place. We had an unpowered camp site but some friends has one of the family ensuite rooms and we had nice weather for the whole weekend. Nearly ran over an emu and her chick just near the Retreat (but didn’t)
We packed our backpacks pretty full and around 10 of us did the climb. It was like a big anticlockwise climb from the front of the mountain and ending near the back of it. I was just awestruck by the gliders that were there from the Narrogin Gliding club. They were towed up effortlessly and taken to just above Bluff Knoll where the updrafts from the mountain face kept them aloft for ages. They came close enough for the pilot and passenger to give us climbers a wave. Eerie watching them just slice through the air in near-silence. We saw a huge wedge-tailed eagle just beneath the glider. We could see the ocean near Albany looking one way, Ellen Peak off to our right, Mt Trio to our left. Beautful place, a lot cooler that I thought it was going to be. I saw one of our Front Runner crew up near the summit. I brought my little Kovea stove and we all managed to boil our water and have a hot coffee at the top. We had our lunch at the top and made our way down. Pretty slippery and lots of other people climbing up and down Bluff Knoll. Its hard to believe that whiteout conditions could make visibility vanish to just 5 metres at short notice. The Stirling Ridge walk looks difficult from Ellen Peak and 15.5kms to Bluff Knoll as the crow flies. If only we were crows.
I have so many people hooked on such a simple habit now. As soon as we say a word that an ‘I’ sound, we make it sound like Kath and Kim would say it. Hence the ‘cloimbing and hoiking’!! I will travel to Dunsborough for the day next week to do the Anaconda familiarization for the run leg (after leading several runners astray last year and getting lost a couple more times to boot!)
Our little Daihatsu Sirion did the trip at around 100kph for a total of 850kms all up. Waiting for our Supremo Wrap from Nando’s right now and chilling out. Nearly unpacked, washed all the clothes and ready for another working week. Bit of a wet week ahead but all is good with the world.
The dogs are thankfully still alive and the main source of amusement was a wind up torch/radio I bought from an auto shop that just wouldn’t work properly. So back it goes. Its seems people were winding me up all weekend about my futile attempts to wind the torch up.
Well done to the Hawks and Tassie. Another grand final we didn’t get to see. Last year this time, we were trekking Dwellingup to Swamp Oak hut and back.
Life certainly isn’t boring.
Reservoir
CHRISTO