Porongurups National Park: Great Hiking in Another "Up" Place

Mike presenting the great view
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Looking at a map of Western Australia you can't help but notice how many place names end in "up".  One day in the car Heather and I tried to rhyme off as many as we could think of:  Joondalup, Karrinyup, Coolbellup, Boorup, Manjimup, Nannup... there's probably over a hundred.  The "up" ending comes from one of the Western Australia aboriginal languages meaning "place of".  Fitting really.  One of our favourite ones had to be The Porongurups (although I have no idea what "place of" it is).

Another great view without Mike cluttering it up
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The Porongurups are a small cluster of tall hills (not really mountains) that jut out of the flat Australian countryside.  They provide for some excellent hiking trips.  The views from on top of the various peaks is amazing.  It's always nice to be able to see for literally miles and miles.  Also, on the day that we were there, we came across practically no other hikers, meaning that we had the views all to ourselves.  For lunch we brought along some cheese, ham and crackers and had a picnic with an incredible view.  Just us and the sounds of the birds and the light breeze.  Very nice.

It seemed that the only thing that was missing was to have to give a secret password.

Heather in front of a precariously perched boulder. A wonder of balance!
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One of the hikes was known as "The Castle" and when you get to the top you can see why.  At the top of the hill is a cluster of huge boulders that you have to scramble over, under and around.  THEN you have to climb up a ladder and cross a drawbridge to get to the very top.  It seemed that the only thing that was missing was to have to give a secret password.  As far as hikes go, this was one of the more "fun" ones.

Besides all the opportunities for hiking, this area is also known for having some wineries.  We thought it might be fun to go check some out, but it seemed that each place we went was someones home.  It felt a little awkward to just drive up to someones front door (in some cases the houses were a bit "dodgy" to begin with), so we quickly decided to not bother.  No big deal.  We knew we'd be getting into some much better wine regions anyway.  Besides, we're not even big wine drinkers anyway!

This place was called "So and So's (I can't remember his name) Castle". To get to the top you literally had to shimmy along boulders, climb up a ladder and go across a bridge. It was definitely worth the effort!
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See you in the next entry!

Michael & Heather

Michael & Heather