sunday 29th may

today we decided to head to mt. barker for lunch at the country bakery, i was happy with my lunch but robbie thought his left a bit to be desired. after we had finished with lunch we started driving toward the next town but turned off to porongurup national park thinking we would head back towards albany that way. we turned off again on the road to castle rock arriving at the carpark to realise we had been there before but still had not actually seen castle rock. after reading the sign in the picnic area we thought we would give it a go:

the path began right next to this sign so off we set. after walking uphill for a good 10 minutes we came to what looked like a carpark with this sign next to a path:

well how rude, they fibbed down below and now we had to start again. onward and upward thinking with each step that 3 km is not really that far but it's the up hill thats the killer. here is the view from about half way:

more onward and upward, it's hot work i can tell you, knees and hips are doing some swearing but we keep on going, with many small stops to recover ourselves until finally we come to this:

it seriously looks like it's going to topple on you, a bit further on:

and just around the corner:

now anyone who knows me would totally expect me to turn left, apart from anything else i don't do ladders but what the hey, i decided to give it a go, so i turned right and saw this:

so after scrambling over and under, around and through we came to the dreaded 7 metre ladder, i reckon nobody has ever climbed that ladder so slowly but climb it i did and came out on the walkway sooo high up it made me feel a bit sick, the views were rather speccy but i couldn't really get over how high up i was:

then of course we had to get down, once again a very slow journey on the ladder and much scrambling in reverse and we were back at the sign so we thought we would check out the easy option before we headed down, robbie checked out this cave but i declined, deciding my knees had been traumatised enough:

 then down we went, knees swearing all the way, this is a view from about half way:

by the time we reached the bottom i had practically run out of water and i was keen to visit the facilities, thumbs down for no toilet paper. back in the car and back to albany to get washing in and ironed ready for work tomorrow. knees and hips are still swearing at me, i could be hobbling more than the residents tomorrow, perhaps i can comandeer a wheelchair to get me around.