We climbed Peak Charles

It’s been an ambition of mine (Tim) to climb Peak Charles ever since a friend and his father visited over 20 years ago. I say to Nic “it’s only an hour or so up the Norseman Rd and we’ll just go there and run up and back down – piece of cake!” Mmmm …. more like 200km, the last 50 corrugated dirt and as we approach the monolith looming from the mulga it becomes apparent that it’s no stroll in the (National) Park.

But what an impressive sight, an immense peak of eroding granite, striped with water marks and lichens and furrowed with deep cracks. We walk from the carpark in humid heat and scramble and climb the last couple of hundred metres to the top in a freshening, and refreshing, wind. The view from the top is one of a vast, ancient and salt-scalded plain, a few other landlocked islands rise on the far eastern horizon. The 650m descent tries out all the leg muscles the ascent missed!




We had been away from Elsie 3.5 hours and driving into Esperance on dusk with the full moon rising over the bay we make plans to depart for Cape Le Grande and Cape Arid the next day – more big rocky hills to climb!