Southwest - Frenchman's Peak, playground and Stirling Ranges

Good night everyone,

Honestly, I couldn’t believe it when Damian woke us all up at 5am on Wednesday morning. We literally just put on our boots and jumped on the bus to drive to the Frenchman Peak. In the middle of the night we walked around it to the other side and started the 1km but VERY steep climb up to the top. We had to use our hands as well therefore I only took pictures as we were more than halfway up. A backpacker from Switzerland who we got to know at the campground the evening before came with us and he was the first to reach the top (typical...).

We actually wanted to climb up to see the sunrise from up there but it was too cloudy and foggy to see the sun at all. I still was very happy and proud to have made it to the top as not everybody made it.

After about 30 minutes at the top we descended again very slowly and carefully.

At 7am we made it back to the bus, drove to the campground to have pancakes for breakfast! That’s more like it!!!

Then we packed the swags, the tents and all our stuff back into the bus and the trailer and headed back to Ravensthorpe. EXACTLY! Back to where we were stuck just two days before. As the water tank had been fitted in a rush it needed some last adjustments, so Damian left us with the trailer at a playground to have lunch (of course sandwiches, what else?).

After an hour he was back and we were on the road again! We drove and drove and drove towards the Stirling Ranges. In between we played bus bingo and had a quiz game about Australia. We arrived at about 5pm at the walking trail up to the summit of Mount Bluff Knoll (what a name, huh?). But as it was so late we couldn’t make it all the 3km up to the top. The trail is so steep that you would need about 3 hours for a return walk.

Mount Bluff Knoll by the way is the only mountain in the whole of Western Australia where there will be occasionally snow!

So we split into two groups and walked up to get some nice views. After about half an hour we walked down again. I was in the first/faster group and we made more than 1km.

 We sat off to our camp for the night and had Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner. It was absolutely freezing there, so Twiggy and Asha decided to sleep in the bus. I was freezing despite the thick layers, the sleeping bag, the swag and the tent. Anyway, guess what? Right, we had to get up really early again… This is not my week…

Yours mountain-climbing Stefanie