Stirling Ranges

The next stop on my journey is Stirling Ranges National Park. It’s a unique and beautiful park full of incredible biodiversity. It’s a really interesting place. It’s surrounded by acres and acres of farmland, much of it yellow with canola flower. The farmland around it is generally quite flat, just a few rolling hills, but in the national park there are 6 major peaks and surrounding hills. To drive across the park north to south it’s only about 30 minutes, but that 30 minutes is full of incredible biodiversity.

The 6 peaks are made of metamorphic rocks of quartz and shale making it extremely poor soil. This poor soil is one of the keys to the biodiversity of the region which allows for highly specialized plants. This small park has 87 endemic plant species, some found only on single mountaintops. It’s such a cool and unique place. 

Quentin headed to Bremer Bay and decided to meet me here in a few days. The first day I was ambitious and climbed two mountains. Mt Hassel and Talyuberlup both were about 4k round trip and 800m in elevation gain. They were very steep as you can imagine, and the trails were made of loose rock until the top where I climbed the more study quartz boulders. I felt good, but tired the first day, having seen some really incredible views. I sat at the top of the mountains thinking about life and reflecting on my time here in Australia. October 1st will be 1 year since I left Florida. It’s been incredible. 

The next morning… I really felt it in my quads. I think the slow measured descents from both the mountains really destroyed my legs. I took it easy and met Quentin in a beautiful local camp ground where I’d spend the next 3 nights. The campground has beautiful walking trails marked with signs for the native plants, many orchids were blooming, and it was just a great place to stay. 

The next day we did the biggest climb, Bluff Knoll, a 1000m 5km hike. The trail was busy with other hikers and it was a great sunny day. At the top were incredible yellow fields of wild wattle (acacia) as well as many small orchids. It was a really great way to spend the morning before a restful evening. 

The two days were rainy and gusty, Quentin tried to talk me into climbing a mountain, but I’m very adverse to mountain climbing in the rain and storms. Not only is it unsafe, but even if you don’t think it’s unsafe, it’s definitely not fun to be cold and wet. I spent the days going on short walks between working and reading. 

The final day in Stirling again started off with patchy storm clouds. The intermittent blue sky would give us hope of hiking, quickly to be dashed by a storm. In the afternoon I agreed to climb Mt Toolbrunup another 1000m 5km climb, on the stipulation that I would be turning around if it began raining again. Sure enough 3/4 of the way up the mountain, a big storm came through. We hunkered down and as it waned I looked to the peak where a big dark cloud had settled. We waited 20 minutes before I called it and decided I was not interested in continuing on, Quentin however did climb on. I believe he got quite soaked in the process and wind blown, but he reckoned it was worth it. I reckon we both made the decision that would make us happiest.