The days were not as warm now, even though I had plenty of sunshine. The air was cooler and I rarely hiked in short sleeves.
This was my well established morning routine: look at my phone and see that it was after 6am; deflate my air mat while lying on it (that way I definitely would not want to go back to sleep); put on my beanie; put on my fleece top which had been my pillow; put on socks and long pants; put everything that was in my tent outside; exit the tent to put on shoes; take everything over to the shelter for packing up. By now it would be light so I could check I had left nothing behind. Including breakfast and getting water, packing etc, it still took me over an hour from waking up to hitting the trail.
This was my well established morning routine: look at my phone and see that it was after 6am; deflate my air mat while lying on it (that way I definitely would not want to go back to sleep); put on my beanie; put on my fleece top which had been my pillow; put on socks and long pants; put everything that was in my tent outside; exit the tent to put on shoes; take everything over to the shelter for packing up. By now it would be light so I could check I had left nothing behind. Including breakfast and getting water, packing etc, it still took me over an hour from waking up to hitting the trail.
First thing out of Pemberton I came to the Gloucester tree which can be climbed on metal staples banged into the trunk. So naturally I had to climb it. It was just on daybreak and nobody around. This is about as scary as I like to do, but the view from the top with the early sunlight on a clear day was wonderful.
I had a long day's hiking ahead of me but I was lucky that the map and website exaggerated the distance considerably. At last I was well and truly into the karri forest. No more jarrah for me. I preferred the karri, very tall and straight and losing their bark. Although this meant there was bark ready to trip on everywhere. The main sight that day was a long trestle bridge which had just been restored. It crossed a dry river so it was redundant right now but very attractive.
I camped at a shelter by a lake, a novelty for me. The following day I came to Northcliffe, another restock and snack at a cafe. I had my carrot cake and latte for morning tea then bought a large chips to eat as I hiked. At the general store there was a packet of iced buns on the counter which I really liked the look of but I decided they were too heavy to carry.
At that night's shelter, Gardner, I had 2 guys for company who were on a gastronomic hike. One of them had prepared a 3-course meal with accompanying beer, wine and liqueur, and it was probably irritating for them to have me sitting there with my noodles. Some sort of animal gave me a big scare in the night sniffing around my tent.
Then I hiked a very long way via another shelter by a lake to Dog Pool shelter which is one that hikers rave about. The terrain was becoming more sandy and there were pockets of warm and cold air. Unusual. It was forecast to rain, 95% chance said my friend at Gardner, but I just had humidity. I passed 2 end to end hikers; it was becoming much more unusual to see other hikers these days and those that weren’t day trippers.
At 4.20pm I heard my first thunder clap. I put on my rain jacket and stowed my things in dry bags. More thunder. At 4.50pm I reached Dog Pool, a new rammed earth shelter. At 4.57pm the rain started and by 5pm it was heavy. By the time it got dark at 5.45pm the rain was torrential with thunder and lightning. It was only the next day that I could see why people like this shelter: it’s by a couple of pretty swimming holes.
Now I was embarking on the Pingerup Plains. Seasonally inundated trail says the map, and the shelter log books had many accounts of hikers wading through thigh high water. But all was dry for me. Just a tiny bit of mud in one or two places. It was all very flat and fast walking. Reminded me of Tasmania with a moorland look, but the grass trees and frequent forested hills were out of character. A pair of kangaroos sat by the trail long enough to be photographed, but I could never be organised enough to photograph an emu. This was the first of several perfect blue sky days. I thought I finally saw a snake but I think it was a legless lizard (yes, that’s a thing) and then I saw another that was clearly a legless lizard. According to the log books everyone else was seeing lots of snakes.
I called it a day at Mt Chance, which gave me time to climb this granite peak for a view over the plains. I could just about see the Walpole inlet - ocean! Almost. A Swiss couple turned up very late and this was a stroke of luck for me because they had walked from a shelter that I did not know about and caused me to change my plans for the better.
The next day was a long one but special. I made it to the coast. As I got closer I kept saying to myself I'll be at the coast by 3pm but I had a big valley to cross first. The vegetation was coastal, low heath and sandy underfoot. When I finally reached Mandalay Beach I was not disappointed. A long sweep of white sand and islands off shore. There was even someone there to take a photo of me and whom I could tell where I had come from.
Between the beach and the next hut the going was tough. The path was sandy and very undulating, quite steep in places and the deep sand made it hard to move uphill at a decent pace. I could see the ocean all the way. The hut was half a kilometre off the trail and that distance makes a difference when you've walked 40 already. The shelter was busy with a hiking group and several solo hikers, but a good atmosphere. I camped comfortably on sand.
The dune vegetation here was nice, especially the grass trees with tall spikes in abundance. I had a nice climb up Mt Clare before reaching Walpole. Of course I went back into forest. This was only a taste of coastline. Walpole was not exciting. I had a lot to eat at the bakery, bought cookies to eat while hiking out of town, and bought food. I needed the map of this section of the Bibb but the visitor centre didn't have it; they told me the map was very popular, which suggests to me they should keep it in stock.
I camped a bit outside Walpole at a caravan park by a beach on the inlet. I had for some reason not bought food for that night so I got a can of beans and a can of spaghetti at the caravan park shop. I ate them cold. Even worse, I couldn’t find my torch so I ate in darkness.
Daily distances hiked: 38km, 29.3km, 41.3km, 19.5km, 40.1km, 26km
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