Spring Walk – Perth Hills Escarpment

Perth Hills Escarpment, part of the Darling Range, rises some 400 metres from the coastal plain to the east. A lovely place for walk & hike with a vista vision of panoramic grandeur far & wide, & a good place for retreat from Perth City. It’s full of wild flowers with a myriad range of colours. Truly a place of beauty so near & yet so far. Best time to visit is in Spring.

As though it was not enough exercise after my usual Sunday round of golf this morning at 6.00 am, I found myself wandering off from home to the Lesmurdie National Park below. It was just before lunch and the car park was full with visitors from a group known as “Nearer to Nature”. They couldn’t have picked a better day – a real exhilarating Spring day.

Armed with my digital camera, my fingers were trigger happy. Each step of the way all the way to the Lesmurdie National Park flowers were everywhere of various hues, shapes & sizes in blue, yellow, brown, purple and red. Such a magnificent sight to behold!

Beauty greeted the eyes. With Spring in the air, there was spring in my steps as I leisurely wandered from the car park to the stream, up the steep gradient onto the top of the escarpment. One can see as far away to the City of Perth and nearby across the valley to our own home.

Sometimes the human eyes just don’t notice the beauty around the environment in the proximity. To think that we ventured to drive over a thousand kilometers to Mullewa the wildflower country in the north, when right on your own door steps beauty abounds. They say beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. If you look near it’s right in front of you and you can dispense with having to travel afar in search of beauty.

If  you look far, it’s a thousand miles away,

but if you look near, it’s right in front of you.

Paul Chong

Sunday, 28 September 2008