Australia isn’t well known for it’s mountain landscapes, it’s the white sandy beaches and wildlife that dominate the tourism brochures. But in the south western corner of Australia sits The Stirling Range which stretches 65km. The tallest point is Bluff Knoll at 1059m which is where we’re heading today. What struck us the most was how similar the mountain was to Table Mountain in South Africa, with steep forested slopes giving way to sheer rocks that plateau at the top.

A well marked trail led us through the forest and up the side of the mountain until eventually we were above the trees and walking along the plateau section with sheer drops to our left. It was fairly quiet due to it being winter but most of the people we saw stopped at the cliff-edge to take photos and enjoy their picnics. We continued walking and headed down some rocks to an area that offered fabulous views of the rest of the range looking east.

It was a really beautiful sight which made my legs turn to jelly whenever I looked down. There was a vast area of forest, protected by the national park and then we could see the change as they were all cut down for agricultural land.

Once we got back to our car we headed for the coast to a beach accessed via a dirt road made of orange mud and gravel. It was a free camping area but when we read the sign it said there were only 4 designated sites which didn’t really match the reviews we read online as it seemed to be a bit of a crazy free for all where tons of vans pull up. We decided to risk it and park in the day use area but we waited until sunset to pop our tent up and made sure to pack it up before sunrise. The campsite was set in a stunning location, literally backing onto a dreamy white sand beach that curved in a huge bay and went on for a few miles. It was a beautiful spot and luckily it didn’t get very busy with just 8 vehicles all night. The pit loo was a pretty gross one though and all it takes is one person to not use it properly or piss over the seat and it’s too grim to use.

We headed back on ourselves a bit today as we wanted to visit Cheynes Beach, said to be a great spot to see whales. We thought we were too early in the season to see them but as soon as we pulled up I spotted a whale swim past the rocks in-front of us! We dashed out the car and saw two more swim by!! My goodness we couldn’t believe it, they were just a few meters beyond the rocks we were standing on. We were wearing shorts and the cold coastal wind was unbearable but every time we tried to pop back to the car to put some layers on another whale swam by. In the end 9 whales swam past us in less than 10 minutes, it was crazy.

These whales were all humpbacks, although it will soon be southern right whales too but we didn’t spot any of them today. The humpbacks were all on the long journey from their feeding grounds in Antarctica to their breeding grounds in northern Australia. It’s considered to be one of the biggest whale migrations on the planet with up to 40,000 humpbacks swimming the route. They take their time in these big bays that we were standing on the edge of, playing, jumping and relaxing.

As we looked out we could see blowholes constantly shooting water up and huge splashes in the distance where they were breaching. We decided it was so good we’d spend the whole day watching them. There must’ve been at least 100 whales in the bay, some of them close up while others were way off in the distance. It was crazy how some would appear out of nowhere, the big puff of water spray making us jump as it came to the surface close by. Some whales were waving their pectoral fin in the air while others were tail slapping or poking their head out the water and slamming it down to create a big splash. Overall they just seemed to be having a lot of fun out there.

We had to leave before sunset to try to avoid hitting any kangaroos on the road and we decided it was best to just head to the same free campground as last night. This time we got one of the main designated spots so it was a better location with a fabulous view of the beach from our doorstep. It rained overnight and into the morning so we had to pick a window to get up and pack the tent away and we absolutely nailed it as heavy drops of rain began hitting us when we were pretty much all packed up.