Hey guys just got back from my road trip. Oh boy it sure was a long one at that. We must of covered around 1000km in the worst possible weather too. The first day we had to contend with a long drive, 7 hours spent in a stifling 46C. Not the best way to kick off the trip, and the fact that the air con was speeding up the fuel consumption meant we had to use it rather sparingly. We eventually reached the Stirling Ranges National Park, after clocking almost 400 km on the metre. 3 hours overdue I should add, but we weren’t going to ignore the impact of driver fatigue so we stopped whenever we reached a town or every hour. Depending on which was more appropriate. Prior to reaching our campsite, we took what we thought to be a “scenic” drive along an unsealed road, in which we passed signs stating “crest”, or “loose gravel”, every 5 kilometres. The road unfortunately was too narrow for us to turn around, so we had to drive for 43km along a track that I assume even a rally driver would avoid if he or she could.
The campsite was wonderful, a lot better then I expected considering that we were so isolated from even the nearest town that the site had to store its own water supply and you could pretty much throw your mobile phone away as there was no coverage at all. The next day, we set off to climb the tallest peak in the ranges, a mountain that at 1073m was an imposing site situated in what is effectively a flat region. Climbing it wasn’t the most enjoyable thing I’ve ever done. The pace the other guy’s set was frightening to say the least, we were jogging and jumping up that damn rock, to the horror of the other climbers that we passed. It was 44C that day, according to one of the car’s thermometers, but due to the mists and rain that we encountered near the top you could be forgiven for assuming that it was winter. The view at the top was breath taking, I guess you could call it the highlight of the climb. Although meeting a hawk at the top was very cool. It left before I could get a picture of it though
I’ll write the rest, and pop on the photos when I’m not as tired now. Lack of sleep has just caught up with me…
