Boyagin Rock
Boyagin Nature Reserve
Directions - Boyagin Nature Reserve is about two hours east of Perth off Brookton Hwy. Follow Brookton Hwy until you reach the York-Williams Rd turnoff. Turn right here and follow down until you reach the left turn for Boyagin Rd. Follow Boyagin Rd until the left turn for Pech Rd. The car park is a little way down on the left and is well signed.
The Hike - Despite starting a mildly successful but thoroughly enjoyable podcast together, Donovan and I have not hiked together very often. Besides a couple of group hikes early on when we didn't really know each other, we have only hiked together three times. Odd considering every fortnight or so we spend a couple of hours drinking wine and talking hiking for the podcast (not to mention the various group chats we now talk on daily). A theme that started to develop in 2018 was Donovan's pursuit of off-track hiking and his "chasing the dragon" as I like to call it of unspoiled hiking experiences outside of the marked offerings currently available. With our weekend availability matching up for once he invited me to check out Boyagin Rock with Alissa.
The route we were going to walk was mapped out by Dave from WalkGPS and can be viewed here (membership is required for this one but he does have hikes he lists without requiring a membership). Donovan was very interested in a few photos he saw with giant granite boulders and a healthy smattering of one of his favourite trees, the Wandoo. With a confirmed date in place we headed out very early along Brookton Hwy (after a breakfast stop) for an hour and a half before reaching the turnoff. With a lovely morning fog in place over the surrounding farmland we hoped it would last until we were on Boyagin Rock. What amazed us turning off Brookton Hwy were the huge granite boulders found on the farmland and the fact they only survived because the people who were responsible for the extensive land clearing in this area must have put them in the "too hard basket". Arriving at the Boyagin Rock car park, we set about gathering our gear for the hike whilst also trying to stay warm (it was around 0C). There is a short (official) walk that you can do to the top of Boyagin Rock, which is the reason for the car park, information packed gazebo and basic toilet facilities. While Donovan got his gear together and loaded up the GPS I had a poke around the car park and photographed the lovely forest and the small glimpses of Boyagin Rock you can see.
When everyone was ready Donovan pointed his phone at the terrain and said we had to go directly into thick bush instead of the path leading towards the granite dome. Our method of navigation today was the ViewRanger app on Donovan's phone that had a cool augmented reality feature where the waypoints appear on the screen as you point it at the scenery (kind of like Pokemon Go). Luckily the bush bashing was very short and we soon arrived at a lovely granite slope that would mark the first climb of the day. Very much like Sullivan Rock with lots of moss, lichen and sundews covering the areas where soil had been deposited into the cracks, we were very careful to pick our lines up here so as not to step on any moss (it's a very fragile environment). As we ascended it became clear as to why this route was chosen to start with some pretty cool views of Boyagin Rock and the surrounding forest. Being able to see most of the nature reserve was pretty cool and it served as a good warm-up in the chilly conditions. At the summit of this particular section of granite was an out of place camouflage lock box that we guessed the purpose of, after some light Googling it turns out this is a wildlife monitoring station so they now have some photos of a few hikers in their natural habitat.
With plenty of photos taken it was time to descend down into a small valley area for our first taste of the lovely Wandoo forest that would be home for the majority of the hike. Picking our way down a couple of tricky spots, we eventually made it to the valley and Donovan got excited for the first of the waypoints he was looking forward to. Having seen the photos of the giant granite boulders this became the start of a game I like to call "Is this it? No I don't think it is". The ViewRanger app kept telling us to go in a different direction to the boulders but after a while Donovan realised it looped back on itself as a way of circling around the granite outcrop we had spotted. Keen to check out the area we did the loop around and explored the top of the rock first with Donovan and myself scrambling up to appreciate the views back to Boyagin Rock. I may have posed for a few photos for Donovan's write-up in an exaggerated manner (being in front of the camera is fun stuff) but we eventually joined Alissa at ground level to explore the cave underneath.
Just outside the cave I spotted some cool fungi including a large egg shaped variety that was cracking with the pressure of the extreme growth. The cave itself was pretty cool with a hollowed out area large enough to stand under and a comfy looking bed of leaves that I could have taken a nap on. With one really cool granite outcrop under our belts Donovan pointed us in the direction of the next waypoint and we began the first extended stretch of Wandoo walking. Wandoo is a favourite of Donovan's (and mine) so we were in heaven as we crunched our way through the open forest (this type of dry forest lends itself to lots of crunchy bark being deposited on the ground). The combination of golden tree trunks, clear morning skies and an ample green canopy produced the most amazing scenes and I was happy that some of that translated to the photos. After crossing one of the management tracks Donovan had a physical display of his Wandoo love by hugging one of the wider examples with Alissa looking on with a worried look on her face.