Piesse Brook bushwalk

Our weather has been very changeable of late, but Sunday was an absolutely glorious Spring day. I drove up to Kalamunda, where one of our previous walks was cancelled because of heavy rain and stormy conditions. The Visitors Centre advised that the easiest walk was along Piesse Brook, because it was more or less flat and had interpretation boards all along so impossible to get lost. They must have thought I was a clueless and decrepit walker!

It was worth going at a slow pace to see what was in flower on either side of the path. On my own, I could stop and take photos without holding up the faster walkers in our bushwalking group. It was a popular trail on such a nice day - almost as busy as the Camino.

Tiny blue Dampieras

The entire hillside looking up towards Kalamunda National Park was covered in yellow wattle. Close-up below:

Verticordia pennigera

Hardenbergia (Native Wisteria)

Blue Lady Orchid

More Verticordias

The Piesse Brook trail crosses the Bibbulmun Track. The yellow arrow pinned to the tree above shows the way. Kalamunda is the Northern Terminus for the Bibbulmun. I have cherry-picked bits of this, but couldn’t possibly contemplate doing it all: too much ascent and descent and no services except communal three-sided huts.

I walked as far as Rocky Pool, where I sat on a rock to have my lunch (there is a video of this on my Instagram). On the way back I saw a familiar face approaching: it was Haydee, one our bushwalkers who is very keen on this area and had done an entire circuit of the most difficult walk. She told me where to go to see even better wildflowers. It is possible to drive up there, she said. I’ll do that on the next nice day.

Red Gum with sap bleeding out