We enjoyed our breakfast in the camp kitchen at the Porongurup Caravan Park before heading off again .
The weather was looking OK for the moment, so we took our chances and headed off to walk the track to Castle Rock.
The track was delightful. Just enough climb to know that we were alive without killing us. Hopefully the walk track and signs above give a bit of an idea of the overall walk.
We enjoyed a friendly grey fantail who danced on the track for us as we went up and then again as we came down. I never got a decent shot of him as he never stayed still enough.
The view , even from part way up, was excellent and worth the effort.
There are quite a lot of works happening on the track, and there were numerous tools, pink marker tapes, and bags of cement sitting around. Since it was Saturday we were not distracted from our walk by any actual workers.
Towards the top the large granite boulders became more apparent, until we were walking between them on narrow paths only, or over branches twined between them.
Finally we came to the physical test to get to the top. A number of metal handles have been fixed into the granite to assist climbers to get up onto the next section. These required you to lift your weight and haul up on to the rocks using them. I’m afraid I failed the test, but Trev had no trouble getting up there and continuing on to the massive skywalk up the top.
I contented myself with a stroll out to the secondary lookout and took my time enjoying the exceptional views from there.
While here I also received a call from Zita saying that Al had spotted an unusual orchid and telling me some directions to try to find a marker that they placed by the side of the road to enable us to go and have a look. They were only a few km away.
The trip down the track was just as lovely as the way up. We had time to look at the sides of the track and note the birdsong and the tiny helmet orchids.
Since the weather was still so pleasant and we were enjoying the day so much we decided to put off stopping for a cuppa or lunch and to continue on to the Walitj Meil (Eagle) walk loop. This walk had lots of informative interpretive signs and was very enjoyable indeed.
We were rewarded almost immediately with views of splendid wrens
and what we think was a Western Yellow Robin
We enjoyed the interpretive signs, with very timely information about the wildlife and vegetation. There were a few times when we had signs and then the vegetation almost right beside them. A very worthwhile walk.
To find the amazing orchid that Al and Zita had marked we needed to travel back to Angwin Park Road.
It took us a while to find the small red indicator by the side of the road, even though we had some instructions. The orchids turned out to be Jug orchids, which we had never seen before either.
We continued on to have a look at the tree growing out of a rock(!) and had our lunch at a seat in the picnic area there before continuing on our way.
Our next stop was a little reserve called Twin Creeks Conservation Reserve which is on the outskirts of Porongurup. It was a bit tricky to find – you need to go through a gate off of Knights road and then drive in along a track a while before you find the car park.
We cleaned our shoes at the special station and had a read of the informative board, deciding to head south and then east along the fence line and then to cut back to the shelter and car park when we ran out of time. (yellow, then blue)
The walk was really interesting and we had a wonderful time discovering new and interesting plants (including some orchids) and trying to photograph them..
Here are a few we saw.
It was 3pm before we were on our way again!!
We finally arrived at Tozers just as it was heading towards dark at about 5:40pm. Toze himself was there to greet us, as was Robert Armstrong (the botanist who will lead our tour tomorrow). Rob has been hard at work putting together a book of information about the plants to be found at Tozers, in particular the orchids. He knows of over 70 types of orchids which have been found there. The property used to be part of a farm and was left uncleared and moved to an eco-tourism licence after a number of applications by Toze. He thought others might enjoy the area as much as he did – and I think he is right. He has done a great job of clearing unpowered bush sites into nice flat areas, but leaving a good amount of scrubby bush between them so that you have a private area to use. The central meeting area has an excellent kitchen and eating facility, with power, and even a TV. It was an excellent place for all three of us to meet again. Hot showers are available, with a request to go easy on the water use. Rob is a fount of knowledge about the plants and very happy to share his info. He has a map of the locations of the various orchids on the property which shows how they are distributed (but not which ones are where, or their exact locations). He was happy for me to photograph this and put it here for your information. The camping area is that central busy area in the bottom of the map.
If you want to see the orchids here I highly recommend booking in to a tour, which happens most days of the year. For $30 you get bussed around and shown just where to find the interesting plants and all your silly questions are answered happily.
Evelyn and Craig had seen a good number of spider orchids on the way in. We had seen none, but I did identify some in the bush surrounding our camper park. We were hoping that tonight Jan and Ross would be meeting us, but sadly the COVID restrictions made that a no-go as they would have had to quarantine for 14 days up until a couple of days ago … too late for them to make the trip this time.
Zita and I were very excited about the upcoming orchid tour in the morning. Al and Trevor wre keeping a lid on their excitement well. Craig and Evelyn decided to walk on their own and see what they found, rather than doing the tour.
Luvapuzzle 