I had a wonderful peaceful night at Porongurup. This camp site is lovely and a credit to the owners. Whilst I was doing my dishes in the campers kitchen before I left I got talking to a really nice retired couple from Bendigo in Victoria. They were on the road for 7 months and had this lovely old blue camper with their names on it. I talked to them about Castle Rock which they were doing today and also my trip. They gave me some tips about crossing the Nullarbor Plain and told me some points of interest on the long drive across to look at, such as the old telegraph station and the cliffs at Eucla. We both wished each other well and shortly after I headed up to the mountains in the Stirling Range. The intention today was to climb to the top of Bluff Knoll which is the highest peak in South Western Australia, reaching to 1095 metres. It took just under an hour to get to the car park for the walk. I could tell it was going to be fairly quiet as there were only about 4 other vehicles parked there. The information signs at the bottom warned of inclement and colder weather at the top, so I packed my back pack with my survival gear! (fleece, sun cream, hat, first aid kit and pen knife) and headed onward and upward. The distance to the top was a little over 3km and the return walk was estimated to take between 3 and 4 hours. It was a sealed tarmac path at first which kind of leads you into a false sense of security but this soon disappears into gravel and rocks. It is a very good trail though and you'd have to be extremely daft to lose it. The walk up was fairly tough but with a few stops for water it wasn't a problem. I saw a few people coming down and they all said that it was worth the effort for the views at the top. The views on the way up were pretty spectacular anyhow and you could see the car park getting more and more distant below. There was one point where the path got fairly close to the edge but other than that it was fine. With about a kilometre to go there was a sign warning you to check the weather and basically if it looked dodgy to turn back. There was a tiny bit of black cloud about but the top seemed clear so onward I went. It took about an hour and a half to get right to the summit but the views were 360 degrees and were indeed spectacular. It was a bit colder at the top but I didn't need to put my fleece on. I was really pleased with myself for getting up there with only myself for moral support. There was just one person at the summit when I got there. He was sat down having a snack and we got talking. He was called Bob, he was seventy five and was on his 3rd and final day having traversed and climbed his 3rd peak. All he had to do now was walk down Bluff Knoll to complete the walk. He took some photos of me at the top and then said that he was walking down and that I'd probably catch up with him. I sat at the top for a while and enjoyed the view and contemplated how good life is. I then started the trek down. After a short while I caught up with Bob and walked the rest of the way with him chatting. He was very interesting and it was a pleasure to talk to him. He was originally from Scotland and first went to New Zealand before moving on to Australia. He was really into the outdoors, walking and cycling. He was in excellent shape for his age. He told me that he had walked the Bibbilum Track twice. This is the 1000 kilometre track from Albany to Kalamunda near Perth. He has also walked the Cape to Cape track from Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin. When at home he cycles every day and told me that since January he had cycled the equivalent of 12,500 kilometres. I said to him that this is nearly the same as cycling all the way from Perth to Scotland. He said to me that by the end of the year he'd be at the Shetland Islands and beyond! He lives in Perth and was a self employed mechanic until he retired. He had his own garage near Fremantle. We talked about my camper van. He's had a Toyota camper in the past and he said he'd give it the once over for me. He also expreseed an interest in maybe buying it in a years time. That's two potential buyers now! We also talked about his world travels because he's been walking in loads of different countries. Amongst others he's been to India,Pakistan,US,Canada (Rocky Mountains) and much of Europe. He said the best mountains to walk in were in Pakistan. The walking was apparently great but when they were coming back to the populated areas near the end of the trip their vehicle got pelted with stones as the locals thought they were Americans! It took about 45 minutes to get back to the car park but it didn't seem that long as I enjoyed talking to Bob so much.Once back at the car park he took a look at my camper and I then gave him a lift to his camp site. He was going to be picked up but this saved him the bother of hanging around till later. I dropped Bob and his big back pack off at his camp site about 8 kilometres away. I then headed to where I had planned to stay the night, the Mt Trio Bush Camp. It was about a 15 minute drive away and is a camp ground on a farm in the middle of the bush. On the drive in a saw a huge lizard in the road.It was a self registration camp. The sign said to pick a site anywhere and then pay the fee into a collection box in the games room. This I duly did. The site was very very quiet. There were only a couple of tents and another camper there. I picked a lovely quiet spot on the edge of the camp. Apparently the camp is visited by kangaroos and emus but all that was about right now was flies, and absolutely loads of the pesky things! They were swarming round me all the time pretty much turning the air in front of me black. In most places you just kind of get used to them but here they were plain annoying, so much so that I had to have my lunch inside the camper with the doors shut. But lunch couldn't take place until I'd spent at least 10 minutes trying to de fly the camper first. I spent the rest of the day reading and avoiding flies. At about 7 the owner came round to check that everything was ok. I told him that he had a really lovely place, apart from the flies of course! He asked me if I'd been on their nature trail which I hadn't but said I would do in the morning. For $14 a night this place was terrific with the ablutions being very good., It was great to be completely in the middle of nowhere. It was a very dark night with a beautiful clear sky and lots of orbs about. Didn't come across a single kangaroo or emu though, but it really didn't matter. Nite nite.