There’s no shortage of granite outcrops to walk up in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia. This time we chose to go to Boyagin Rock. The journey there was a bit eventful as the navigator in charge had me drive up a very steep, narrow and heavily rutted gravel track in the belief that it was the turn off to take us to Boyagin Rock. After a couple of kilometres the track deteriorated even further and it was obviously not the way. With no way of turning round I had to reverse back down the hill avoiding the larger holes all while the navigator in charge was warning me of our impending doom. After a few tense moments we got back onto Boyagin Road, whilst it is also a gravel road it was as smooth as a billiard table compared to what we’d just come down. After a couple more kilometres the sign for the turn off for the rock was visible and we got to the car park and picnic area with no further dramas.

 

It’s not the first time we’ve visited, but this time it wasn’t wet which made walking across the granite a lot easier because when it is wet it’s like walking across an ice rink . The bush around the base looked terrific with lots of flowers out and birds calling from the trees. We were hoping to see dragon lizards basking on the rock itself, but there was a slight nip to air that was enough to keep the lizards in the shelter of the crevices. We flushed some Australian Pipits as we walked up, unfortunately I didn’t have a long enough lens to photograph them.  As we walked up onto the granite Helen had a close encounter of the spiny kind with an echidna – it was a bit on the shy side and curled up in a ball at the bottom of a tree.

 

 

 

 

It’s not a difficult walk and the Nyoongar people, who call it “Boogin”,  believe that if you walk to the top of the rock without stopping you will live a long life. We’ve now done it twice so we should live to a very ripe old age. When we got to the top I was surprised to see a pool of water, it must be fed totally by rainfall. Even more surprising was the number of tadpoles swimming in it. Australian frogs never cease to surprise me – you find them in all sorts of strange places and you can’t help but wonder how they survive.

 

 

 

A quick jaunt down the rock retracing our tracks and we were back at the car. A leisurely picnic followed and we discussed where we will go for our next trip.