Hopetoun to Albany via Stirling Ranges National Park

---

There has been so much discussion about the route we should take between Hopetoun and Albany. The notes on our original itinerary stated: ‘Drive to Albany via (Bremer Bay +120km), Cape Riche, Cheyne Beach and Gull Rock NP’. However, the staff at the Visitor Centre in Esperance advised against this route taking the South Coast Highway declaring it boring and recommending the Chester Pass Road through Stirling NP.

Then one of Cathy’s friends extolled the virtues of the Killer Whale experience out of Bremer Bay. We looked that up and baulked at the price … and the amount of time that we would be out on a boat in the Southern Ocean. OK, we don’t feel compelled to go that way just for the Orca spotting potential.

Yesterday, we mentioned to our friendly Community Paramedic, Gareth, that we had been told it would be boring to take the South Coast Highway to Albany. He told us we needn’t stick to the highway; we could access the other side of Fitzgerald River NP at Point Ann and then swing down to Bremer Bay if we took a more coastal route. He did then agree that the route through the Stirling Range NP would be outstanding and, time permitting, we could also have a look at Porongurup NP.

More coast or some mountains? We have seen some beautiful coast thus far, should we take a tree change today and travel via the Stirling Ranges? Finally, we decided that we would continue west at Jerramungup and then turn south on the Chester Pass Road. So many choices, simply not enough time to fit everything in. Hopefully we will see a good representative sample of what the south-west ‘corner’ of WA has to offer.

But first we had to get four people through one shower. The shower may be over a bath with horrible shower curtains on two sides, but the shower head was amazing – a huge rain shower rose and endless hot water with a Rinnai instantaneous gas hot water system. The hot water system was mounted outside in the sea air so looked a bit crusty, but it certainly delivered plenty of hot water.

We enjoyed our salad rolls so much yesterday that we returned to the bakery to buy more morning tea and lunch items to enjoy on the road today. There is some temptation to buy on the way to inject our tourist dollars into more townships BUT then there’s the worry that there might not be another good bakery or café in the next town.

As we drove between Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun on Sunday we noticed some art installations along the road. We were keen to photograph at least some of the art as we drove back to Ravensthorpe. A little bit of Googling discovered that the installations are part of the Farm Gate Art Trail. There is a trail guide available from the Ravensthorpe Visitor Information Centre, but we didn’t have it so just had to wing it.

From someone’s post on the internet we learnt that the idea for the art trail was conceived in 2012. Welding workshops were held for local farming families who wanted to participate, and the sculptures were completed during 2012/13. Their creations were even judged by ABC Gardening Australia presenter, Angus Stewart. Without the map, we managed to find the Corningware sculpture at the turn off to Blue Vista and the giant watering can at the corner of Jerdacuttup Road.

Closer to Ravensthorpe we also found the Grass Trees made from old tyres, poly water pipe and brushes and the Scarlet Banksias made from metal and street sweeper brushes. Tracey’s research had also alerted us to one more sculpture – the “T” Tree - west of Ravensthorpe so we still had our eyes peeled as we motored out of Ravensthorpe along the South Coast Highway.

Ooh, there’s a brown ‘t’ sign displayed with the next rest area sign. Even though none of the other art installations had been officially signposted we pulled into the rest area. Nope no “T” Tree here! By this stage we thought that we may have missed it?

Zooming along again at 110kmh a sheep jumped out onto the road heading from left to right. Then its stupid mate jumped out behind it. OMG there’s a road train coming the other way and we are going to see sheep splattered everywhere. Thank goodness the truckie was as quick on the brakes as Bernie and able to stop in time for two sheep to live another day.

Rounding a slightly uphill left-hand curve we saw our last piece of Farm Gate Art silhouetted against the sky. Yes, we had found the “T” Tree. The art was a good reason to be in and out of the car repeatedly for our first 50 kilometres for the day. Next stop Jerramungup in another 100 Ks.

We passed the turn off for Albany via the South Coast Highway just before we arrived in Jerramungup so … we were committed to the alternate route via the Stirling Ranges. We cruised into the town of Jerramungup looking for the BP Servo. It was not conspicuous with its branding so eventually we resorted to asking Apple Maps for assistance. As we started following the route to the Beepie we passed the Police Station on the right. Then, on the left, we passed the (presumably) entire Ravensthorpe police force of three on their way back from the morning tea run to the shop! And I know it’s mean and disrespectful, but they really were fat, fatter and fattest. Lots of morning teas and not much strenuous policing in a small place like Jerramungup??

We found the wonderfully incognito BP Service Station and pulled the vehicles up to the bowsers. Oh, wowsers we have to do some weird pre-pay thing at a credit card operated booth before we can pump fuel. Bernie was pulled up at Bowser 3 but managed to select Bowser 4 when he was prepaying. Luckily both of those bowsers were pumping diesel and after moving the car around to Bowser 4 Bernie was able to refill with Diesel. Fuel here was a very reasonable $203.9/litre. That’s twenty cents/litre cheaper than it would have been in Ravensthorpe so worth driving the extra Ks to save the $ since we had enough fuel in the tank to manage it.

Between Ongerup and Gnowangerup we could see the Stirling Ranges looming to the south. The land is flat,flat, flat and then rears up into the mountains of the Stirling Ranges. The Jerramungup Road and then the Chester Pass Road (heading south) run through hectares and hectares of wheat growing land. All the wheat has been harvested so fields of stubble as far as the eye can see,

The range runs for 65-kilometres from east to west so is an impressive sight as you approach it from the north. We keep looking for a spot to pull over to take photos of the mountains fanning out on both sides of the road. Eventually we found a place where we could safely stop for pics, mainly of the easternmost peaks. And, wouldn’t you know it just a little further down the road we spied an official ‘P’ for parking for another photo op!

I said to Cathy there are so many place names ending in ‘up’. Cathy was curious about this earlier than me and had already researched it this morning. ‘Up’ means ‘place of’ in the local Minang Noongar language.

We turned off onto the Bluff Knoll Road to enter the Stirling Ranges National Park. This was another park with a machine at which to pay your entry fee. We’ve not seen a ranger yet so the Parks and Wildlife service here in WA really relies on people being honest enough to pay their fees. With our month-long pass this was another $10.00/vehicle entry fee recouped. We have now visited three parks, so we have recouped $30.00 of our $70.00 investment.

We drove to the car park/trail head for Bluff Knoll the highest peak (1,095 metres) in the park and indeed in south-western Australia. Despite the large number of cars in the car park there were few people lunching at the picnic tables around the car park. We would have been happy to eat lunch beside the car park, but Bernie went on a recce along the start of the trail and found us a bench seat with shade with an outstanding view out onto Bluff Knoll.

After lunch we walked about one hundred metres along the start of the trail to take a few photos. The trail to the summit of Bluff Knoll is the most popular trail in the park but it’s a 3.1-kilometre, Class 4 hike that needs between three and four hours to complete. Not for the faint hearted!

We decided to continue towards Albany and call in at Porongarup National Park too. We had heard about the Granite Skywalk and wanted to find out more about it and whether or not it was do-able. As we continued south on the Chester Pass Road we saw a couple of emus sprint across the road. Once again … animals dicing with death crossing the road in front of a truck. Once again, we avoided seeing carnage with the truck missing the emus.

We pulled in at Porongarup Road and then onto Castle Rock Road for the Granite Skywalk where we found a HUGE car park. This trail must be very popular and extremely busy at times? This afternoon there were only a few cars in the car park. Bernie put his serious shoes on, and Tracey changed from runners to hiking shoes and we walked over to the info board. Well, the Granite Skywalk is a Class 5, 130-metre return trail (that includes a ladder!!) … from the base of Castle Rock. The catch here is that the trail to the base of Castle Rock is Class 4, 4-kilometres return with the guide suggesting that you allow two hours to complete it, then allow 30 minutes for the skywalk itself.

Well, that sounds … challenging! Then we noted that in another section of the park there are four walks, of varying degrees of difficulty, that can be completed from Tree-in-the-Rock. Rated from a gentle walk to a devilishly steep climb we thought we should be able to find a walk there that was achievable. $#@&*%$#@ we drove the nine kilometres to Tree-in-the-Rock only to find the gate shut and a notice advising that the area is closed for refurbishment. Damn it we don’t want to see the national parks only from the car park, we want to get into nature on some trails! And wouldn’t it be handy if there was a notice over at Castle Rock stating that Tree-in-the-Rock is closed??!!!!

After some deliberation we decided that we would drive back to Castle Rock and give it a go! We set out along the Castle Rock Walk Trail with enthusiasm. A-ha, we thought, the guide says two hours return, if we can reach the base of Castle Rock in anything under an hour, we will be happy with ourselves. The walk is consistently upwards and there are sections with rough-hewn stairs, so it was challenging, but manageable. We were pleased to make it to the base of Castle Rock in 45-minutes.

Then it was onto the climbing part of the trail with hand/foot holds hammered into the rocks to assist you to the bottom of the seven-metre ladder that takes you up onto the skywalk itself. The whole structure is seriously engineered to take you up onto the top of Castle Rock for AMAZING views looking all the way back towards the Stirling Range and forward over farmland towards Albany. Wow!!

After coming down from the Skywalk we wandered out to the Karri Lookout that marks the end of the Castle Rock Walk Trail. Sitting a little lower than the Granite Skywalk this lookout still offers outstanding views so if the skywalk is beyond you the Karri Lookout is not a bad consolation prize.

We thought that we would manage the downhill return to the car park in considerably less time than it had taken us to hike up. Not really, it took us about 35-minutes to walk back down the trail so hiking uphill only added about ten minutes to the walk. Still, given that the guide said allow two and a half hours, we were happy to be back at the car in just under two hours, with our Move and Exercise rings completed for the day.

As we were driving along Castle Rock Road, we spotted two roos just before we turned out onto Porongurup Road. Oh, no, it’s only just gone 5.00pm and we have a half hour drive into Albany. Fingers crossed for no more kangaroos on the road. We made it to Albany without incident, thank goodness. There were no roos on or near the road, but so many birds beside the road. There were ravens aplenty, of course, but we also spotted lots of parrots, doves, magpies and even a mud lark or two. We narrowly avoided hitting a couple of birds. One that almost left it too late to take off and one that flew straight in front of us.

Before making our way to the house that we have booked for the next four nights we picked up some supplies at the Woolies at Dog Rock. What a weird name we thought when Googling to find the Woolies nearest the house. Believe it or not there is a massive rock outside the shopping centre that does look like a dog’s head.

We drove around to the house which is fantastic! Three bedrooms (only two made up for us), two bathrooms, a dining room, kitchen and lounge room all set in a beautiful garden. The spare room makes a good repository for all the spare pillows and cushions that were on or beds!

The Earl of Spencer Historic Inn is just around the corner from the house so that seemed as good a place as any for dinner tonight. Since we have a kitchen and dining table we are going to endeavour to cook meals for the next two nights. We were happy with the pub tonight though, so we have booked to go back there for dinner on Friday night.



Steps: 13,723 (8.70kms) Does it count double if we gained 276 metres in elevation???

---