After returning from Germany and spending two weeks in hotel quarantine, I truly couldn’t wait to get out in the open. Springtime is the perfect hiking season in Perth, so I joined a group called Trail Hiking Australia (WA) on Meetup and set off early on Saturday morning for a 12 km hike in Ellis Brook Reserve in the nearby Perth Hills area.
I came across Meetup when I lived in London and found especially the hiking groups a great way to meet people whilst at the same time enjoying a shared passion. Meetup is a social network where people can form groups which members of Meetup with mutual interests can join. Usually the group leaders (or organisers) create events which the group members can participate in. Some of these are payable, some are free. I’d joined a few groups around hiking, networking and yoga when I got to Perth, but I just never made the time to do go on a hike.
My first Meetup hike in Western Australia started early, at 6:45 am on Saturday morning. I’m not an early riser but here more than anywhere, it makes sense to turn into an early bird. Especially come summer, the morning and evening hours are best suited for any outdoors activity. Latest by noon, it simply gets too hot for any tedious activity outside.
We met at the Valley Head Car Park within the Ellis Brook Valley, a 35-minute drive from my house north of the CBD in Perth. The Ellis Brook Valley is one of the richest wildflower locations in the Peth Metropolitan area, featuring over 500 varieties including wild orchids. Information about all the wildflowers is displayed in the pagoda close to the Sixty Foot Falls walking trail. The valley is also a rich breeding site for over 116 species of birds, including cockatoos, parrots, fairy wrens and wedge-tailed eagles. Many other animals, including kangaroos, echidnas and possums, also call this area their home.
Wildflowers on barren ground in the Ellis Brook Valley 
Beautiful flowers in the Ellis Brook Valley 
Wildflowers everywhere 
Desert peas? 
Little desert flowers
The Ellis Brook Valley features many beautiful walk trails with distances ranging from a few hundred metres to 9 km. Springtime, from mid-September to early November is the best time for hiking, not only because of the milder weather but also because the wildflowers are in full bloom around this time. Additionally, the Ellis Brook Valley features a beautiful waterfall called Sixty Foot Falls, which carries most water during or just after the rainy winter months. I also like this place because in contrast to national parks in Australia, in the Ellis Brook Valley it is allowed to bring dogs (on a leash).
I arrived at the designated meeting point with a slight delay but thankfully Andrew, the hiking leader, had a heart and waited on me with the group. The different hikes usually have different levels of pace; this was a 12-km hike rated with a 3 out of 5 according to the description on Meetup. We started with a rather steep ascent over rocky terrain. Up on the top, we were rewarded with views for miles, and thanks to the clear skies, we could clearly spot Perth in the distance.
After another steep ascent, we came across a beautiful quarry filled with bright blue waters. The main season for the wildflowers (September / October) is ending, but we could still see plenty of wildflowers along the track. We stopped for morning tea in the forest, enjoying our food sitting on fallen tree branches in the shade before we headed on to our last stop – Sixty Foot Falls.
Instead of taking another steep 2-km loop trail straight to the falls, we walked up towards another quarry, called the Old Barrington Quarry. Sixty Foot Falls can be viewed in the distance from this trail, however despite the rainy winter, the falls only carried a little stream of water.
This was a great hike to start with and I can’t wait for more to come.
