Tuesday 23 September WARREN NP
-Drafty's Campground
Left Yallingup at 9am and drove down Caves Road, avoiding wineries. Paid $12 each to don hardhats and use torches
to visit Calgardup Cave on a self-guided tour. Pretty floral display there, including fairy
orchid, donkey orchids, tree hovea, Hypocalymma robustum, Scaevola calliptera, Baeckea
camphor..., Hakea sulcata, Nematolepsis ...
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| November lilies (NOT native) were scattered among the trees. |
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| Kennedia coccinea | | | |
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| Our little rig |
Ate lunch at Augusta in very windy, fine conditions which detracted from
views of lighthouse, ocean, river.
Walked around Cape Leeuwin before driving on towards Warren National Park.
Checked a campsite near Snottygobble Loop - long! walk to campsite and
river. On to Heartbreak Trail (one-way,
no vans) and at 4pm made camp at Drafty's beside the Warren River. Only campers in our sector but one tent
around the corner.
Wednesday 24 September WARREN NP
-Drafty's Campground
Drive around Karri Forest Explorer trail. Karri = Eucalyptus diversicolor
because of paler colour under vs top of leaves.
Inspected Warren Campsite, very pretty, small campsites. River flowing much faster than at
Drafty's. Talked to an ex-local who had
seen jarrah tables selling for $22000; karri he thinks was mainly used for
sleepers and building rafters. On to
Blackbutt Lookout where sign featured info re salt in water coming from
wind. Next we drove to Dave's Bicentennial Tree -
David climbed about 12m up. Two women
were up the top.
To Pemberton and bought bakery treats, then to a dam with 3.5km
wheelchair friendly walk around it. But
very windy and cold there. I was getting
fed up with driving around so we shortened the loop and only stopped once more
to check out Beedelup Falls. Very
impressive water but few flowers. Much
money spent there on SS rails, walkways.
Nearby resort area used to belong to the "orange people".
Back home for lunch and then a 3km return walk to Warren Camp to search
for the eyepiece now missing from my binoculars. Found it lying on the road near the
river. Lucky!
Two big tents with young families were set up in the sites near the
other toilet. Long chat with a nice
young man who had a family history of holidaying in the area. They used snares
for marron in season and enjoyed peaceful times here.
Thursday 25 September WALPOLE
Rained all night from 7pm. We had
just finished washing up, put metal cover over kitchen and retired inside for
bridge. Found our pillows quite wet in
places when we awoke, but hadn't noticed any problem overnight. Glad we didn't have the awning or shadecloth
to deal with at pack-up time - they were both dry and folded inside the
trailer. I was worried about the
condition of Heartbreak Trail but there were no problems driving out.
Saw many tingle trees and the Circular Pool on Frankland River (circular current).
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| Climbing Drosera |
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| Leucopogon verticillatus, the largest leucopogon, 1-4m |
Sidetrip to Pemberton in vain attempt to find
Botanica Gallery. Booked into Coalseam Beach CP, then drove around Knoll Road.
Friday 26 September WALPOLE
Went to Swarbrick, an artistic celebration of the successful
anti-logging campaign. 35m mirror
entrance was a beautiful concept, with leaf shapes containing facts, poetry,
history, political utterances, etched upon the bush itself.
Saturday 27 September VALLEY OF THE GIANTS
Set off for Valley of the Giants and the Treetop Walk around 9am with
trailer hitched. No problem parking and
relatively few people around. Cost $6
each for seniors to walk 600m in the treetops.
I hoped it would be a good experience for me but warnings about only 10
people at a time on a span or platform made me nervous. There were 7 people ahead of us, several
over-large, going very slowly. Behind
came 5 young people, the guys swearing profusely as they were scared. I had to concentrate on getting through the
vertigo problem and did not enjoy it, thanks to the other people. David repeated the walk as he too was
irritated by the 'neighbours'.
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| Dryandra formosa |
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| White-breasted robin |
Next came the Ancient Empire walk, just 400m through Tingle trees.
Good info on signs made it very interesting. I took notes here and earlier at an
interactive computer station related to the plants around, viz:
Red tingle only grows
in 6000 hectares, within 10km from the coast, between Deep and Bow Rivers. Flowers after 30 years with bumper crop every
4 years. Red = timber colour; tingle= Aboriginal word.
Yellow tingle 35m -
no buttress or thickened trunk. Flowers
after 7 years. Restricted area around
BowRiver, Walpole; wider distribution than Red.
Rates Tingle 60m -
smaller buds and fruits, shorter than Red.
Found between Frankland River estuary east of Walpole and an area east of Mt
Frankland.
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| Hibbertia furfuracea |
Other plants here
include tassle. Chorilaema quercifolia, Clematis pubescens, Trymalium
floribundum (Karri Hazel, leaves give soap lather, creamy sprays of
flowers), Chorizema ilicifolium (Holly Flame), Acacia pentadenia (Karri
Wattle), Crowea angustifolia, Hovea elliptica to 3m, Dampiera hederacea,
Hibbertia serrata, Hibbertia furfuracea (narrower, non-serrated leaves), Diuris
longifolia, pink enamel orchid.
Hoped to stay at Stirling Range Retreat CP but could not get a powered
site. Shopped at Denmark, a surprisingly
upmarket town, very European, then drove to Mt Barker and on to
Porongorup. Checked in at the neat CP
with talkative hosts, who pressed 5 folders of info onto me. A bit daunting as we had to set up camp and I
had to get washing done and dried.
Sunday 28 September PORONGURUP
Spent 2 hours walking around Twin Creeks Conservation Area,
heathland. A 1.5m brown snake was curled beside a runnning drain but quickly
disappeared at sign of a camera. Only
15m further down, I saw a fat shingleback, Tiliqua rugosa rugosa, which didn't move anything but its
eyes at our approach.
Many flowers in bloom, including:
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| Bossiaea ornata |
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| Gompholobium scabrum |
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| Anigozanthos humilis |
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| Gompholobium polymorphum |
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| Grevillea pulchella |
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| Hakea sp. |
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| Isopogon formosus |
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| Kunzea recurva |
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| Lechenaultia formosa |
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| Petrophile divaricata |
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| Synaphae petiolaris |
In the afternoon, we set out on the loop walk to Nancy Peak in
Porungorup NP. We were soon dismayed by
the amount of weed understorey, just Hardenbergia and Scaveola flowering among
bracken, deadly nightshade, cobblers pegs, and nettle-like plants. Kept going up the steep path in the hope that
the October 07 bushfire causing all this (we assume) did not reach the
top. One hour later at the top we found
granite with moss, pigface, dianella, other small plants and a sign saying
Hayward Peak - still had to conquer Nancy and lost interest in walking to an
even steeper place.
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| Hayward Peak |
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| View from Hayward Peak |
