The Stirling Range and Albany

My first big trip out of Perth was to the Stirling Range, which is a short ridge of mountains that runs roughly east-west in the extreme southwest portion of Australia. Its highest peak is Bluff Knoll, whose summit is 1073 m high, or roughly the same height as some of the higher peaks in Western Maryland. Bluff Knoll is much more striking than our Appalachians to me however; because it rises almost straight up from perfectly flat surroundings that are very close to sea level. Its a beautiful place, very often covered in clouds, and one of the few places in WA that gets snow on a regular basis. It's also a global biodiversity hotspot, with over 1500 species of flowering plants, including 82 that are found nowhere else on the planet. The range is about 4 or 5 hours from Perth, depending on how many road trains (tractor trailer convoys) you get stuck behind.


I went on a three-day weekend and camped the first night just outside the Stirling Range National Park at a place called Poinjup Springs. We had a wind storm and a massive eucalyptus tree came down fairly close to my camp, but other than that the first night was uneventful. The next morning I got up and began a long trek down a deserted country road toward the range. Once I hit the trailhead the trail went straight up and didn't stop for 3 1/2 miles. It was a tough climb, sometimes on fairly exposed faces, but reaching the summit made it worthwhile. I was lucky that I summited on a clear day which made the views spectacular. The Aborigines had many names for the mountain, but they all referred to the many cracks and holes in the face, which they perceived to be the eyes of the mountain's spirit watching them. In the traditional Aboriginal dreamtime belief system the clouds that cover the mountain are the physical manifestation of this spirit.


The trail basically ends at the summit of Bluff Knoll, and the views from the summit were breathaking. I could see the ocean, which was about 40 miles away. The locals tell me this experience is uncommon due to the cloud cover that usually covers the mountain. Except for the ocean to the southwest, it was farmland, bush, and salt pans as far as I could see in any direction. The airspace immediately off the summit is very popular with gliders because of the updrafts it creates, and there were plenty of gliders buzzing the summit the day I was there.



The idea was to pack ultra light and get up the mountain fast, then get as far into the true backcountry as I could for a one night trip. When I got up to the top I realized that the passes between mountains were a bit steeper than what I wanted to try while hiking solo, so I was trying to figure out what to do when another solo backpacker showed up on the summit. We struck up a conversation and decided to hike together the rest of the way. He turned out to be a very nice fellow and happened to be from Perth too. He had soloed the entire range walk, which although relatively short is still very impressive.


We went across the next pass and camped on East Peak, the next peak into the park. Enjoyed a nice evening, and turned in early. I woke up about 3 hours later in the middle of a wicked wind storm that felt like it might actually blow me off the ridge. Even camping on exposed ridges above treeline in the Rockies I rarely guyed my tent out, but I was glad I had bothered to put the guy lines out that night.


Next morning the clouds I had heard so much about had arrived. I couldn't see 20 feet in front of me. There was only one way off the mountain across a narrow spine, and the vegetation was chest high in some places, so I had to be very careful not to walk off the edge. Anyway I found my way off East Peak, back down the pass, and back up Bluff Knoll. At the top I met a teenager who had slept up there the night before as he was breaking camp. We hiked back down together while he told me his rather amazing life's story. He was born in Zimbabwe, and some of his earliest childhood memories were of being on safari and being stalked by hyenas and lions. His father fought for the SAS on the losing side in Zimbabwe's civil war. As a penalty Robert Mugave expelled his family, and they settled in WA, where he and his father now fly gliders around the Stirlings. We worked out that I had seen his dad flying the day before.



To finish off my trip I continued down the Albany Higway to Albany. The countryside is dry, barren, and wildlfires were burning on the sides of the road as I drove. Considering that this was at the height of the rainy season I can only imagine what kind of fires we'll have in a couple of months. It was a cool morning so lots of the resident reptiles were basking on road, including one of the southwest's more well known residents, the blue-tongued lizard. This one was not happy to have its picture taken.




Albany is one southernmost towns in Australia, and in the world for that matter. It was a whaling town as late as the 1970s, but now its just a quaint fishing village on the Southern Ocean with a massive wind farm on its coast. It's not hard to see why they've installed the turbines there; the wind was howling the day I was there. The turbines are massive at 90 m (330 feet) tall. If you're ever in Albany, make sure to try the prawns. They're fantastic!





Photos (from top):
1. Wildflowers in sheep paddocks on the way to the Stirlings.
2. Bluff Knoll.
3. Looking northwest from the summit of Bluff Knoll.
4. Pass between Bluff Knoll and East Peak.
5. Campsite on East Peak.
6. Blue-tongued lizard on Albany Highway.
7. Albany wind farm on the shore of the Southern Ocean.