Bibbulmun Track 1 - Kalamunda to Dwellingup

Around Christmas 2002 we had a family holiday in Western Australia and I was just getting into trail running so I did a few runs on the Bibbulmun Track. I knew it was a very long trail and I liked what I ran but in the years since then I hadn’t given it a moment’s thought. I was having a long break from hiking so this kind of venture was off my radar. I certainly would never have imagined in a million years that I would one day be returning there to hike the entire length of the trail. But - spoiler alert - I hiked the approximately 1000 kilometres of the trail, north to south, over 34 days this past May and June. I took the bus from central Perth to the Perth Hills suburb of Kalamunda, walked and walked and walked, ate more mashed potato and muesli bars than sounds advisable, saw a lot of trees, and ended up in Albany on the south coast of WA. I loved it all.

On Day 1, May 8, after eating a roll with Nutella in my Perth hotel room and drinking a cup of instant coffee, I said goodbye to normal life  and caught the bus to Kalamunda. The driver dropped me off at the Bibbulmun trailhead and asked how far I was hiking. I said Albany hardly believing it myself. I said it again to a couple I met exercising their dog on the trail, and then after only 4 kilometres I met a woman hiking towards me who had actually come from Albany. I pointed out, unnecessarily, that she was almost finished and she said she could hardly believe it. I told myself that would me in - I thought at the time - 6 weeks.  Better not focus on that too much now. 

I was to notice in the shelter log books that I signed along the route that the majority of Bibb walkers do the hike in the opposite direction to the direction I had chosen, and this meant that I met hikers coming towards me or at the shelters at night whom I could ask questions about the upcoming track - very handy. More importantly it meant that I would meet human beings in the daytime from time to time to chat with.

My total gear comprised Nemo tent, Feathered Friends sleeping bag, NeoAir mat, trail shoes, 4 tops (running short sleeves, lightweight long sleeves, fleece, rain jacket) plus crop top and 3 bottoms (running shorts, 3/4 leggings, rain pants), 2 pairs socks, gloves, beanie, buff, cooking gear (Evernew pot, metho burner, metho, matches, spork, knife), small washing kit with minuscule towel (including toothbrush cut down to minimum length), small first aid kit, sunblock and lip balm, 2 phones, charger and leads to charge phone and watch, power core, headphones, GPS watch, PLB, small purse, glasses, cap (of course since my trail name was Pink Cap) and sunnies, bottle (just an old one from a purchased drink), torch, pen, toilet paper, Lifestraw, water purifying tablets, bits and pieces like safety pins, elastic bands, 3 dry bags. Probably forgotten to mention something. Well, maybe not as I was travelling as light as possible

I had food for 8 days in my pack (to get me to Dwellingup) which included many packets of instant mashed potato and I felt reasonably confident, having done the GSWW recently. Confident that I could last out in terms of energy and also that I could sustain a liking for mashed potato for that long! I had adjusted my pack frame after that hike and I wasn’t going to have the back discomfort I had endured in the early days. I had eliminated unnecessary weight like my plastic cup and spare clothes. In Perth I had bought the 4 trail maps for the first half of the route.

The early hiking was on a roughish track, short ups and downs, and I met a weirdo near Mundaring Weir who stopped me to give me some unsolicited advice about how to hike. There was a strong smell of barbecuing sausages around the weir, which turned out to be caused by a small festival for a mountain bike race that finished on the hill above the weir. 

The better things about the weir were seeing a snake warming up on a concrete section of the trail and seeing many green 28 parrots (yes, that’s what they are called). I was expecting a lot of snakes on the trail. I was not to see another for about a month.

I stopped at the first campsite/sleeping shelter I came to in order to sign the log book; I was intending to sign every log book on the trail. Then I continued to Ball Creek campsite and stopped for the night, alongside a teenage school group. The stars were magnificent, as they were going to be for my entire hike, and the moon was close to full. This was a great introduction to my 5 weeks of camping. 

The next day I lost the trail briefly only minutes after starting out. As I was looking around for the trail I amazingly noticed a hiker pop out of the bush just where I had to go and turn down in the direction I had just come. It was most odd that he should have been there at that time of day hiking in the opposite direction to me, but lucky for me. I stuck to the trail after that and after passing a couple of huts ended up at Beraking campsite, nicely perched on the side of the escarpment.

There was a couple from Perth there who were hiking part of the trail and doing only a few kilometres each day. The man seemed blown away by the 26 kilometres I had hiked that day and he kept saying how amazing my distance was; he said it so often that I began to wonder if he felt bothered by a woman who could walk that far. Then I bothered him again by sleeping in my tent when he repeatedly said I should share the sleeping shelter with them; in the morning they complained how cold they had been all night while I was able to report truthfully that I hadn’t been cold at all.

But then I blotted my copybook by walking back out onto the trail and heading back the way I had come! After half a kilometre I noticed a marking by the side of the trail that I remembered from the previous afternoon. Later on I missed a turning and ended up half way up Mt Dale before realising I had gone wrong. After that I resolved to pay more attention.

That morning a funny thing happened when I crossed paths with a pair of hikers walking the track in the reverse direction; the guy was just having a pee. What were the chances? Neither of us would probably see anyone else the whole day. 

That night there was someone else at the sleeping shelter when I arrived. He was a bit odd, very ingratiating and with an impossibly heavy pack, too many pots and pans and 18 freeze dried meals (which he showed me). I slept in my tent well away from the shelter. In the night the guy walked around a bit (he might have gone to the toilet) and this was the only night of my trip that I felt uneasy/scared.

The next day brought real hills, something I had not expected. First I stopped at Monadnocks campsite and it was so crowded I couldn’t even sit down. Daytrippers. It was Saturday. Then I had some climbs over granite outcrops and went up a succession of granite peaks, including Mt Cooke (582m) which is the highest point on the Bibb. From the tops there were trees as far as the eye could see, an amazing sight.

I was already noticing a distinct shortage of wildlife in the forest and also not hearing many birds. Occasionally I would see/hear a black cockatoo or see tiny finches. Plenty of trees, though. And a phenomenal number of grass trees. I was never out of sight of grass trees for many weeks, whatever else the vegetation.

I shared a campsite with a guy walking to raise funds for Alzheimer's. He did not approve of my mashed potato diet. Even when I added chunks of salami. I told him I usually eat very healthily but I was out hiking and that made a difference. I had already been lectured by another hiker on the need to eat fresh vegetables. I was eating what my body needed, thanks all the same.

On my fifth night I was finally alone for the night. This was the day I hiked up to Mt Wells where there is an old fire lookout tower and the watchman's quarters had been repurposed into a hiker shelter. In the late afternoon I sat half way up the tower drinking my coffee while gazing out over the forest and then I slept as usual in my sleeping bag but in a room with a door.

The following day I had my first real adventure on the trail. There was a prescribed burn in progress and consequently 2 detours that lengthened the day's hiking, the first by only a kilometre but the second by 7 kilometres. Since that night's shelter was well inside the burn zone the Bibb people had set up a temporary campsite near the end of the long detour. Notably for what transpired, this campsite was at one edge of the burn zone.

As I walked the longer detour alongside the outer boundary of the burn zone I could see numerous small fires still burning. There were glowing embers all over the place. Mr Alzheimer, who was walking the opposite direction to me, had told me that the firies had been doing the burning the day he walked there, so the main action should have been over by the time I got there. I got to the temporary campsite quite early in the day and put up my tent, then sat in the sunshine reading for hours. Nobody else turned up. I could see burning embers nearby but I assumed I was safe. At the same time I was a bit worried, and I wished there was someone around to tell me it was safe there. Later on I could see huge plumes of smoke. Around 5pm I saw a ute drive fast along the road close to my campsite and I assumed it would come back the same way so I could run over and ask if I was safe camping there, but it didn’t return. 

I cooked dinner, ate it and was about to get into my tent when I looked towards the forested hillside and saw so many little fires that I decided I could not possibly stay the night there; I would be too scared to sleep. So at 5.50pm I pulled down the tent, packed my bag and started walking towards the point where the detour joined the main trail. Close to here there was a considerably larger fire burning. I was in pitch darkness by 6pm but it was fun walking with my torch and the reflective track markers (once I got onto the main trail) were easy to see. I heard a few kangaroos thumping around. I walked about 6 kilometres, well away from the burn zone, and then set up my tent close to a dirt road where I would not be burnt alive in my sleep. I was in bed by 8pm and I ate a Kit Kat in bed to celebrate my good sense in moving camp.

This left me with only a short walk into Dwellingup, my first track town, on Day 8 and I was there by 10am, even after a stop at the abandoned Emitlyn railway siding for my breakfast coffee, where I saw something to warm a hiker's heart: a rubbish bin. 

I had lunch at a cafe in Dwellingup, my first opportunity to disgrace myself by having a double meal consisting of a large latte with a panini and then a large latte with a slice of carrot cake. I had dinner at the pub, schnitzel with mushroom sauce, chips and salad. Between these meals I had a nap.

I had a very basic room at the caravan park and in the night my neighbour snored loudly. I wondered what to do for a while and then lifted the thin mattress off my bed and took it, along with the pillow and my sleeping bag, to the camp laundry, where I was able to lock the door from the inside and I had a good sleep. It was just starting to rain during this 2am move, my first rain of the trip.

Daily distances hiked:  21.5km, 26.8km, 32.9km, 28km, 29.1km, 32.2km, 29.5km, 11.5km