Day 135 6th September 2014 Saturday. We headed into town to explore the city. Went to the Visitor Centre and was disappointed at the lack of things to do. Most activities involve walking or riding a bike and mum and dad are not up to it. We went to the shopping centre in town and mum found a shirt for Aarons wedding. We got dad some new trackie pants as well. After lunch I headed out of town to Porongurup Ranges. There was a heavy downpour as I headed across town so I stopped and went to Harvey Normans to get an electric blow heater and to wait the weather out. It soon cleared so I decided to keep going. It was a 40km drive out to the Castle Rock Granite Skywalk. I put my raincoat on and set off up the 1.5km steep incline. It took 45 min to get to the lookout area and to the famous balancing rock. From here it is a further 70m where you have to pull yourself by your arms and legs over and under large rocks to a 7m vertical ladder that takes you to the Granite Skywalk and the summit of Castle Rock. The skywalk clings to vertical rock face and riggers had to abseil into position to drill the anchor points into the granite before gluing and stress testing. The spans were delivered by helicopter to the summit and lowered by pulleys to the riggers to assemble. It is an absolute marvel and very scary. It was a very windy day and as I climbed the ladder I was exposed to the wind and it didn’t let up. Once I crawled onto the platform I got to my feet and grabbed hold to the rail and pulled myself along until I was sheltered by the rocks. The views were magical. I didn’t go to the very end of skywalk as it was in the full wind again and I didn’t want to look straight down either. I took my time getting back down the ladder and as I came to the rocks and hand and feet holds another person appeared. I felt relief because I was concerned that I might fall or hurt myself and no-one would know. It only took 30 min to get down and once back in town it started pouring with rain again. I had been so lucky not to get wet. Mum meanwhile had left for a walk at the same time I left and she got absolutely drenched as she walked along the beach. She had to turn back. For tea we did a pork piece in the turbo cooker. My TV reception was again fuzzy and so I had to watch a movie.
