Peak Charles surprises you; it suddenly rises up unannounced out of the surrounding flat sandy plain.
It was named in 1849 by explorer John Roe, after the then Governor. Roe described this country as “fearful and impractical” and I don’t think much has changed since.
This land is flat and unappealing sand plains covered by dense scrub. The remains of ancient river beds are now reduced to salt lakes.
Then unexpectedly this whopping great mountain sticks up out of nowhere, rising 650 metres above the surrounding plains.
You can climb to the summit if you really want, but the trail to the top is extremely steep and uninviting. (It is so steep it actually exceeds the walking track classification scale used to denote track gradient).
About 300 metres from the base is a large granite formation known as Mushroom Rock. The view from here out over the surrounding country was very spectacular and this altitude suited me just fine.
After here, the trail starts getting a bit too vertical for my taste.
I stayed at Peak Charles for a couple of days and there were some exquisite birds in the thick undergrowth of the mallee scrub. This striking Golden Whistler has an amazingly beautiful song, which is really loud for such a tiny bird.
Heading westward, I travelled along the old Lake King to Norseman Road. You certainly feel that you are totally alone out in this desolate country, and I began to feel I really was on a road to nowhere.
Fitzgerald River NP
The road into this national park is another rough dirt track that eventually leads to yet another beautiful white sand beach with amazing turquois water.
Although I am a bit late for the main wildflower season, there are still enough out to give me a taste of colour. Some, such as the beautiful Royal Hakea I had not seen before, being residents in this part of WA.
There were bottlebrush and banksia still in flower, as well as other home-grown natives.
The gums are attracting lots of beautiful but noisy rosellas for a sweet feast.
An Encounter
Millers Point is a rather peaceful but basic bush camp on the banks of a river. There were a few people around fishing but apart from that, the place was pretty deserted.
It was a pleasant place to chill for a while. There was a bit of wildlife around, too including lizards sunning themselves.
These little Splendid Fairy-wrens are completely unafraid and hop right up to you, checking for any titbits to eat.
There was other, not so pleasant wildlife around too. Sitting in my chair on the sandy river bank, enjoying my book, was extremely pleasant. That is, until a rather large brown snake decided to join me.
I normally prefer for snakes to just slither away into the bush. But unfortunately, brown snakes are very inquisitive, so it came over to me, presumably to see what I was reading.
Of course, I was sitting there with bare feet. Seeing as I was not in the mood to have my naked toes within chewing range of a deadly snake, I decided it best to get out of the way.
Because the snake was so close to me, I jumped up in a hurry, while desperately trying to keep an eye on the snake. I promptly thumped head first into a hefty overhanging tree branch. OUCH! Being somewhat startled by that, I staggered away and deftly tripped on a rock, crashing over backwards into the sand…
GEEZ! But, no time to lay there in disarray and contemplate concussion because, holy $#*!, where the hell was the freaking snake???
Leaping up like some demented thing, I was jumping around, frantically looking for the snake. I couldn’t see it anywhere, which was actually a bit disconcerting.
Anyway, I eventually decided that maybe the snake had gone off into the undergrowth, while presumably having a good laugh at my expense. My only injury was to my dignity and fortunately no one was around to witness my crazy ‘snake dance’ on the beach.
I told the guy looking after the campsite about the snake; at least he can keep an eye out. I don’t like to see them killed but there were kids at the camp and at about 4ft long, this snake was big enough to be a real threat.
So disaster averted, I just had to enjoy a glass of wine watching the sunset over the river.
Of course, I was now wearing my steel-capped boots, just in case the brown snake came back…
