21st & 22nd April - Stirling Ranges
A dawn walk around the Cheynes beach camp-site in a last attempt to see Noisy Scrubbird, produced a covey of Stubble Quail.
We then set off for three days of inland woodland birding and walking. First we made a planned stop at Two Peoples Bay NR which we eventually found after an unintended 40 minute detour to Betty’s Beach.
At Two Peoples Bay, we walked half the Heritage Trail, returning the way we came, unable to complete the loop as the tide was covering the beach section of the walk. |
After stopping for supplies in Albany we drove 90km north to the magnificent Stirling Ranges. Here we had the best birding of the West Australia leg of our tour – we had as many new birds within 2 hours of arriving as we had in 3 days at Cheynes Beach. We stayed at the Stirling Ranges retreat in a cabin set in woodland with walking trails.
On 22nd we set off early to climb Bluff Knoll before it got too hot. At 1095m this is the highest summit in the south of Western Australia. We were surprised to find that, despite our early start we saw many people descending as we started to ascend. It seems it is a place to go to watch the sunrise. We thoroughly enjoyed this walk.
After a bit of a break we did the 5km Kanga walk from the camp, finishing at the Bluff Knoll cafe with a very welcome smoothie.