A CHANGE OF PLANS

Kerrie Hammond & Geoff Tosio 28/5/2011 to 30/5/2011

Coming from an outdoor-oriented family, I knew the Stirling Ranges as a bushwalking oasis in the middle of large expanse of farming country. As such, I had it ear-marked for exploration during my journey around Oz.

I had brought with me my copy of Lonely Planet's 'Bushwalking in Australia', which details a 3-day circuit in the eastern part of the park, commonly known as the 'Ridge Walk', stretching from Bluff Knoll to Ellen Peak. It suited our time frame and sounded like a perfect challenge after a warm up 2-day jaunt on the Bibbulmun Track.

The main things that I took from the notes were that the walk is classified as hard and 'would appeal to the experienced off-track walker'. This wasn't so much of a concern as we both have plenty of off-track experience, including a few Rogaines up our sleeves. The other was that to undertake the walk in the drier periods of summer and autumn meant hauling all water needed up roughly 450m of elevation to the top of the range. Now, being on the cusp of winter, and with the knowledge that there had been rain recently, my partner Geoff and I weren't too concerned, although we were still aware of its potential scarcity on top.

For our own safety, we had left our intentions with a family member back home and were carrying a mobile phone (Telstra coverage is surprisingly good, due to the tower on Moir Hill) as well as a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon). We carried with us notes from the Lonely Planet guide and a copy of the resident ranger, John Abbott's notes and topographic map. We were also lucky to come across a group of hikers from Perth at our first campsite, who sacrificed an ad-hoc copy of the Wilderness Equipment guidebook notes.

Having arrived in the national park late the night before, we woke up at a leisurely hour before having a chat with the volunteer ranger, Eddie about various things, including the water situation. Apparently the famed water barrel, situated on the western side of the Third Arrow is notorious for attracting (drowned) bats and the like. And if that wasn't a deterrent, there was also the chance that it could be dry from careless hikers leaving the tap on. We kept this in mind as we packed in another litre of water for good measure, giving us 8L between us.

Eddie suggested talking to Tony and Ayleen at Stirling Range Retreat to arrange a lift to the start of the track and as a safe place to store our car and camper trailer. Before we knew it, their knowledgeable friend Brian had deposited us at the Bluff Knoll car park for a small fee. He even registered us in the 'Hikers/climbers' book at the road turn-off.

Having huffed and puffed our way up the Bluff Knoll track, Geoff and I stopped for lunch at the top, joined by an exhausted, but relieved group of school kids from Moora. We'd chatted with them on the way up, emphasizing the need to take off their jumpers so that they wouldn't overheat more than necessary (most of them had already drank all of their water 3/4 of the way to the top). Surprisingly the weather on top was sunny and fairly still - we'd picked a good day.

As we headed north-east towards our intended camp near Moongoongoonderup Hill, the terrain conjured up memories of the Budawangs (south of Sydney) for its unforgiving waist-high gnarly scrub and of the alpine areas in Tasmania for its granite-speckled footpad and hardy flora. In some parts, particularly the ridges and spurs, the track was well formed. Where the terrain became rocky, however it became a maze of interwoven tracks all leading in one direction or another, but mostly arriving at a dead end. The trick was to have a map and keep your head up, and make sure you knew in roughly which direction you wanted to go.

The most interesting area of navigation was the buttress that you come to roughly 800m due east of Bluff Knoll. The track follows a north-facing gully, and the trap is to continue down this until it comes back upon the ridge. The actual track however, veers east again partway down the gully (blink and you'd miss it).

Although there were some rock cairns marking the way, we couldn't help speculate that better signage would have helped immeasurably in some particularly confusing spots, as well as preventing the spread of phytophthora and thus limiting the impact on the vegetation. We have recently heard that the current park management group are considerate towards bushwalkers and track management so this is encouraging, and we hope that this overview would be helpful in making some of those decisions.

All up, with not too many unplanned detours, we reached our camp five hours after setting out. It was a flat area in the saddle just west of Moongoongoonderup Hill, with plenty of room for about three tents and a couple of bivvies. The wind picked up in the early hours, but we were cosy. Later on in the hike after coming across many other small campsites, we decided that we had chosen well.

We woke up to another day of sunny, clear skies, but with quite a strong wind gusting in from the north. We decided that it could have been worse, because, although we were threatened with being blown off the track from time to time, the direction of the wind and the position of the track meant that we were never in danger of being pushed in the direction of a cliff.

Our second day on top, we trundled up and over Moongoongoonderup Hill and up to the top of Isongerup Peak. On our way up, we managed to capture some water from a small trickle that was running down the ascent track. As it turns out, it came in handy later on in the day when we found ourselves already low on water.

It was from the top of Isongerup Peak that we witnessed Mirlpunda (the arrows) close up. Memories of hiking the 'Blue Breaks' (SW of Sydney) came back to me as we speculated possible routes through the rock castles, knowing that they could be traversed, but that often there's only one 'good' route through.

We checked our route notes, which confirmed our suspicions, and headed down towards the First Arrow. We took a break in the sheoak col just before the ascent - a nice sheltered place for a rest or camp - before heading north momentarily and then east along the exposed track. It wasn't long before we realised that we were descending along the Mirlpunda Path back down the mountain, an easy mistake to make.

We quickly headed back up and found another cairn leading to the summit. This position could benefit from a 3-way track marker to save other walkers the time and energy. We scrambled up the exposed rock face, thankful that the wind had died down at last. With the sun's warmth smiling down on us, we stopped for lunch on top.

Along the way, we saw a couple of other groups of hikers, on a weekend trip from Perth. They were all headed in the other direction, exiting at Bluff Knoll (a most inviting thought after our slog up it with full packs). One group had come up Mirlpinda Path and another up the Ellen Peak route (taking three days also).

After lunch on the First Arrow, we followed the path along the ridgeline and up the easier Second Arrow to find another huge cairn on top. We stopped for a quick break and to speculate once more about the passage across the Third Arrow. We could see an obvious ascent gully in a prominent fissure on the west side. According to our route notes, the water barrel is just to the right in another smaller gully, and the popular Third Arrow camping cave is about 100m around to the left on the northern side of the peak (with a little rock climb up to get to it I might add). We found both of these easily, dumping our gear at the cave first, and then heading back with our empty water canisters to the water barrel (at this stage we'd drunk all 8L that we brought with us, and all that was left was the 2L that we'd collected back on Isongerup Peak).

Scouting out the water barrel, we found that it isn't visible from below, but in clear sight is a black hose with dual taps at the bottom. The pressure is strong, and we found plenty of water to drink here, although we also know that this isn't to be relied on - we were lucky. We were also fortunate that some other hikers had left spare water at the camping cave (which we thankfully didn't need to touch, though in drier times, this could have been a kind gift).

After a pleasant morning's walking, we enjoyed a lovely afternoon in the camping cave, attempting popcorn in our stove (success!) and sending a picture message of our vista to family back at home (we could see the Telstra tower in the distance). There were hardly any clouds to be seen and the wind wasn't too bad. This said, we still set up our tent (fly and all) just in case, knowing that the weather forecast was not positive. As it turns out, we had to use our ear plugs most of the night due to the howling wind, and as morning broke, we found our tent, packs and anything that was exposed (despite being in a cave) quite damp due to the mist/cloud and swirling wind. Not to mention that we couldn't even see the small cliff below the cave from where we climbed - certainly not the same expansive view as 15 hours before.

Weighing up our options we decided to nab a precious extra bit of shut-eye after quite a disturbed night. We emerged an hour later to the same scene, and set about packing up. It was at this point that we decided on our contingency plan - instead of pushing on along towards Ellen Peak, we battled the winds back to the First Arrow and descended down the short rock climb back to the Mirlpunda Path. Our reasoning was two-fold; we didn't leave the cave until 11am, leaving ourselves little time for an unknown route and to return by our own steam to the Retreat as we'd planned.

Secondly, the wind was ferocious and unpredictable and there was a white out, so not knowing how exposed the route was via Ellen Peak, we chose the safer option and headed off the ridge. As soon as we were down to about 800m of elevation, the view was clear again and we were able to navigate easily. We followed the descent track off the First Arrow, which was marked occasionally by rock cairns. We became too confident and kept heading down an obvious shale scree slope track, which evidently many hikers had taken before us. It wasn't long before we realised that we were getting too far down into a parallel gully, and that the descent spur was further west. We decided to traverse across, meeting up with the established ridge track, which eventually led us easily to the northern boundary fire trail. A marker or tape at the higher and more obvious sidle track would save time and more walkers bush bashing across like we did.

We stopped here for lunch at around 1:30, as we anxiously waited for an imminent front to pass through. We finished lunch in the nick of time, donning our raincoats for the slog back to our car.

The road-bash back was far longer than we'd anticipated. It didn't help that all we could see panning out to the north of us were fields - quite boring after the beautiful terrain we'd become accustomed to. In saying this, the view south along the ridges we'd just walked spurred us on somewhat. It should also be noted that the 'Eastern Peaks Route' topographic map falls short of the park entrance by about 5km, not to mention a diversion around a protruding farmer's field a couple of kms before the hiker registration booth.

Having signed out of the registration book, we arrived back at the Retreat 2½ hours after lunch, with aching legs and a mouthful of water to spare, satisfied that we'd made some good choices, and yet had seen some amazing country as well.

Notes for next time:

- More water (we were lucky, but realise that water cannot be guaranteed on the ridge). At this time of year (late May), I would consider 8L per person sufficient for the 3-day trip (enough to drink during the day and to cook with at night).

- Long pants are the go (gaiters and shorts, while covering most of our lower limb, were insufficient and Geoff and I sustained numerous cuts and abrasions from the harsh scrub).

- A lift from Gnowellen Rd on the eastern edge of the park is recommended if attempting the through trip to Ellen Peak (the road-bash along the northern boundary is unrelenting and dull) - can be arranged even at late notice (phone call) through the Stirling Range Retreat for a fee.

- The track is exposed in some sections, and anyone who has a healthy respect for heights may find themselves uncomfortable at times - warn relevant party members in advance.

- Take a copy of Wilderness Equipment's Stirling Ranges Track Notes - these have the most detail, although can sometimes be misleading, as they describe approaches from both directions.

- Spend a night at the Stirling Range Retreat, as they are very friendly and knowledgeable and have good facilities; the hot shower at the end of a hard day's walk was wonderful.

Back to Stirling Ridge Experiences