Lightening over the ranges and the miracle of Talyurup Peak

In order to continue the mothers day celebrations, we decided to stop at the Bremmer Bay pub for lunch. Upon entering and sitting at a white clothed table, we suddenly became very aware of our  filthiness. With smudged clothes, greasy hair and the traces of the morning's vegemite toast upon our cheeks we sat alone in our camping fug. But we decided to not care and enjoyed a lovely lunch - but felt a bit of sympathy for the well-groomed older couple on the next table!

As we left Bremmer Bay we watched black clouds gather on the horizon. Soon we were driving through hail and oohhhing and ahhhing as great forks of lightening struck ahead of us. We were heading for the Sterling Ranges but as we neared the campground the sky was so dark and threatening that we decided to go easy on ourselves and found our way to the Sterling Ranges Retreat where we booked into a 'chalet' for two nights. The 'chalet' sounded pretty fancy but actually consisted of a 2 bedroom, lino floored, 70s style timber cabin - complete with fungi-themed artwork. But to us it felt like the lap of luxury! We slid around the floors in our socks, had long hot showers and climbed around the bunk beds in celebration. 

After a lovely long dry sleep, we woke and found that the rain had sort of stopped. The Sterling Ranges is known for fabulous hiking up incredible mountains, so we consulted our hiking guide and chose to climb Talyurup Peak because the guide claimed it was a 'rock hoppers paradise' and that's our kinda thing. It was a steep slippery climb up to sensational views. Talyurup Peak is a truly special place. As usual the kids outdid us with their agility but on the descent we all slipped over dozens of timeS. It was truly the miracle of Talyurup Peak that we did not have to pull out the bandaids out once! Kate was keen to climb all the other peaks in the ranges, but we could not justify a longer stay at the fungi cabin, so next morning we packed up again and drove south through the beautiful damp ranges to Albany.

 The 'chalet'