Nancy Peak Circuit and Devil’s Slide: Porongurup Range, Western Australia
We acknowledge the Minang People as the traditional custodians of the land and waters of the Porongurup Range
In fact, the vast majority of visitors to the park only see the Granite Sky Walk at Castle Rock. While the Granite Sky Walk is fun, it can be very crowded and the views don’t compare to those from either the Nancy Peak loop or Devil’s Slide. We visited the Sky Walk very early, around 8am, before it got too busy, and then drove to the start of the Nancy Peak Circuit.
Completing both walks is manageable even for slower hikers but leisurely hikers, especially those who wish to complete the Devil’s Slide spur trail as well as the loop, may prefer to omit the Sky Walk or complete it on another day. If you plan to do both in one day, hike Castle Rock first, early, then the circuit.
On day hikes when pack weight isn’t an issue, fresh vegetables (tomato, cucumber, sprouts), cheese and/or salami and crackers make for a practical lunch. There’s even a cutting board from our car camping kit!
Geoff is carrying my new ArcHaul Ultra pack, which has proven to be excellent and a significant improvement on the already outstanding but worn-out nylon ArcHaul it replaced. The precurved stays in this model don’t invert with a full pack as sometimes happened with my previous one. We are also carrying ultralight umbrellas as well as our lightweight raingear.
The Porongurup National Park is also significant at a national scale for endemism in spiders, especially primitive trapdoor spiders (mygalomorphs). These have a Gondwanan distribution: some descendants are restricted in Australia, but are also found in southern Africa, and are relict of Jurassic times when Africa and Australia were joined 140 million years ago. It’s an amazing thought, isn’t it: the same spiders that occur in this one mountain range in Oz are also in a country halfway round the world!