Although the showers were utterly fantastic here and the swimming pool had been great, I didn’t like this site much and was glad to leave. It was too busy, the sites were too close together and the people there just seemed a bit arrogant to me. It was mainly young 30ish couples travelling together who I generally find to be not very friendly, arrogant and just plain annoying. I’m getting to realise that I prefer the quieter and more remote camp sites and also that Australians and people over 50 are generally more approachable and far better to talk to. I’m heading for the hills today and hope that my camp site tonight will be a lot better. I’m going inland for a couple of days, with the first stop being the Porongurop National Park about 50 k’s north of Albany. It took just under an hour to get there. I went first of all to Castle Rock. There is an uphill 3 km trail from the car park to where the view is. It was a fairly steep walk but I got to the top no problem. At the top you have a choice of going to the Karri Lookout, the Castle Rock Summit or both. I chose the scramble to the summit first. You have to haul yourself over rocks and through gaps with the help of the grab handles provided. This leads you to a set of enclosed ladders fixed to the rock., luckily not too high, about 15 or so rungs. This wasn’t a scary high ladder so I proceeded to the top and onto the metal walkway and WOW!, it was worth the effort up the hill and the ladders. The view was simply stunning. The walkway is fixed to the rock all the way round and provides magnificent views all around and particularly to the Stirling Range of mountains which is where I am headed tomorrow. Apparently the walkway was put into place with the help of a helicopter which had to lower the metal pieces to engineers who were dangling down the side of the rock. Still feeling full of energy after this 6 kilometre walk I went a bit further down the road to where another walk started. This was another 6 kilometre walk over Hayward and Nancy Peaks and to the Devil’s Slide. I had a spot of lunch and then tackled the walk. The uphill section at the beginning was a bit tough in the heat but once at the top it was well worth it for the views. Hayward and Nancy peaks were great slabs of rock with 360 degrees views. The devil’s slide was a bit eerie. It was a big chunk of rock at just the right angle for the devil to go sliding on his **** all the way to the bottom! Luckily I didn’t end up **** over tit on it! Felt shattered when I got back to the camper, that’s about 12 kilometres walked today. I think that I might sleep exceptionally well tonight. It was a very short drive then to the camp site the Porongurop Range Tourist Park. I liked the look of it as soon as I drove in, so different from last night’s big commercial camp. It seemed very chilled and more my sort of place. I went up to reception and pressed the bell as instructed. A very friendly chap appeared from the camp area who it turned out later was called Tom. The owners of the site were out and he had been put in charge of welcoming new arrivals. He directed me to a powered spot nearby and gave me a key for the ablution block. I would have to go and pay the owners when they got back later. I had told Tom where I was planning to go walking tomorrow and a short while later he very kindly brought round a photo book for me to borrow for a bit with pictures in it of the Porongurop area and also the Stirling Range where I’ll be going tomorrow. I returned the photo book later on and got talking to Tom further and to his wife Flora. They were originally from Scotland but had been in Australia for about 50 years. They had met when they were in their teens and just knew that they had to leave Britain. They went to Sydney first but eventually moved over to Western Australia where they live in Denmark and are enjoying their retirement. Even though it’s not far away they like to escape the house with their caravan from time to time. They invited me to stay for a coffee ( a completely delicious plunger coffee by the way) and we had a good chat about the walks here and in the Stirling Range, how wonderful Australia is, about life in the UK and loads of other stuff. Until two years ago they hadn’t been back to Scotland since the 70’s. I had a really lovely time talking to them and they said I could go round to see them in Denmark if I’m ever that way again, which was really nice of them. I gave them details of this blog so they can follow me. Whilst I was chatting to them the owners were back and came by. They are called Cheryl & Les. They introduced themselves and I said I’d be over in a while to check in and pay my camp fee. I saw Cheryl when I checked in later, she was really friendly and I commented to her on what a lovely camp site they had. It was very quiet and very clean. She said that they had been their for about 8 years but now had the place on the market. They desperately wanted a buyer so they could go travelling in a camper themselves around Australia and enjoy their retirement. I really hope that they find their buyer soon. I am so glad that I have the opportunity to travel round in a camper now and live life away from the rat race and the same old routine. I never forget how lucky I am. I just chilled for the rest of the day and after a lovely tea I crashed, but not before swiping a load of mosquetos who were buzzing around my head. It’s been a great day today and another big walk to look forward to tomorrow. Nite nite my wibbly wobbly wombats!


PS Song of the day is Someday Soon by Venke Knutson

PPS Let’s do some charts now:-


TOP 5 CAMP SITES UP TO NOW

1. WINDY HARBOUR CAMP GROUND - DAY22 $12.
2. CONTO CAMPGROUND - DAY19 $7
3. PORONGORUP RANGE - DAY28 $25
4. PANORAMA CAMP SITE, ALBANY - DAY26 $20
5. PEACEFUL BAY CAMP SITE - DAY24 $25

This reveals that I’m happier at the cheaper sites so will try and pick more of these in future.


TOP 3 SHOWERS UP TO NOW (Generally all showers have been impressive)

1. MIDDLETON BEACH, ALBANY - Blasts out and nearly takes your skin off, awesome!
2. PORONGURUP RANGE - Takes your breath and skin away, but Middleton Beach is marginally better.
3. PEACEFUL BAY - Very difficult to leave shower as pressure is fantastic, not quite as good as the top 2 though