The Final Section - Denmark to Albany

It turns out that Denmark is surprisingly large, both in terms of its enormous (and spaced out) suburbs and its general store. We stayed at the 'Blue Wren Traveller's Rest (aka the YHA) which had a washer/dryer and no requirement for police callouts, putting it 1-0 against the Walpole YHA in the acommodation stakes. Other excitements were the pub (functional) and the bakery (and cafe, it would seem) where we ate evening and morning respectively. Due to an order mix-up at the bakerycafe, I ended up with a colossal bacon mountain consisting of about 10 giant rashers after Katie received bacon with her egg on toast. I am not certain that I've ever previously been overcome by bacon, but it seems there is a first time for everything.

Irritatingly, the Bibbulmun track doesn't run contiguously around Denmark, necessitating either a ferry ($160 minimum for four people, person who runs it often away) a trek across a sandbar (backtrack 7km, hope the sandbar is intact, bushwhack for several km on the other side to get to the track) or get a lift around ($50 for a car-full). We opted for the latter, but it doesn't feel great to have to grab a lift to continue walking particularly when the rest of the track has been so good.

The gradients have calmed down throughout this last section, and the walking feels easy. There are huge tracts of sea views and the rest of the time is spent walking on the beaches (good at low tide when the sand is firm, terrible at high tide when you have to walk on the deep soft stuff at the top). The sea is glorious here - a true aquamarine where it meets the white sand fading to deep blue as you look further out. The beaches are occasionally populated but often there were kilometres of beach where we saw no-one at all.

This morning I had my adrenaline fix for the trip when I trod on a snake lying in the path. Fortunately for me it was relatively small and I trod on it in such a way that it could not get around to bite me. Fortunately for it I also didn't break it, and when I jumped away half a second later swearing to high hell it simply made a break for the bushes and vanished. The rest of the day was spent suspiciously eying up sticks and twigs and shadows and letting my imagination turn them all into snakes, which was just as much fun as it sounds.

We have made it safely, snakes included, to our last shelter - Muttonbird (Australian naming always puzzling). I am writing this sat at the picnic bench in the shade cast by the shelter roof, and looking out over the sunlit Australian bush. There are some of the ever-present flies, and a cricket in the vegetation somewhere to my right chirping away. There are wildflowers in pink and blue everywhere, and Katie is sat out in the sun reading, her phone charging off the solar panel. It's going to be a great loss as well as a triumph to get in to Albany tomorrow and finish off the track that has been our home for the last 39 days. There are certainly things I won't miss - the normal flies, the march flies, the mosquitoes, the sudden shock of standing on a potentially lethal reptile - but there is something wonderfully simple and straightforward about a life where you just walk, and get in at the end of the day to good company, then eat and sleep and walk again.

I don't know the date or the day of the week, but today is day 39 and I've got walking to do tomorrow.

Bibbulmun track - 8th section - Walpole to Denmark

We left Walpole after a disturbed nights sleep; there was a ridiculous domestic row at our hostel and the police had to attend. It took them about 20 minutes to attend despite the police station being only 100 metres away.

Walpole inlet

Our walk out of walpole was much nicer with views towards the inlet and the coast, before leading us back into the forest. People may have gotten sick of us talking about the majestic Karri trees over the past few posts, be reassured we will finally stop talking about them. Instead I introduce you to the Tingle tree. Where the Karri are impressively tall, the Tingle are massively wide (up to 25 metres around) and also frankly ridiculous. Some of them are over 400 years old and as they become half destroyed by bushfires and fungus they hollow out into amazing structures. 

The Giant Tingle

We spent the day gawping at these trees from above and below as we also went on a tree top walk along swaying platforms 40 metres in the air.

Unusually intact tingle

Our second day on this section was incredibly varied. We started in tingle forest, then gravitated towards some slightly eerie burnt woods where all the trees were dead, leaving a low level of regenerating grass. We then travelled through sand dunes with wildflowers to the rugged beach, where we could really appreciate the power of the southern ocean. As an added bonus to the day we finished at peaceful bay - a caravan park with showers and a fish and chip shop!

Our third day was been more coastal and therefore more undulating. It felt like one of the harder days on the track, where one step up meant half a step back as we slid down the sand dunes. The flies also have a strong presence in the open heathland meaning our head nets were yet again essential. We were rewarded for our efforts with another 'proper' campsite, meaning that we could have showers two days running - luxury!

Sunrise on Parry beach

Knowing that the rain was coming in in force on for our final day into Denmark we elected to get up early (for sunrise, to be exact) to walk for as long possible in the dry. Difficult as it was to get up, the sunrise was glorious and we about 5 hours of walking in before the weather front hit us going down mount Hallowell. We arrived in Denmark sodden but pleased for the luxury of a bed.

View down into Denmark before the rain properly came in

It's odd what we've missed and haven't really noticed on this trip. Our number one luxury is a hot shower, they feel so amazing at the end of a section. Chairs with backs are also a longed for treat. We have also gotten sick of food that can be cooked on our stove, mainly boiled carbs - pasta, rice, noodles & cous cous. Consequently in towns we find ourselves craving meat, fried food & vegetables. We haven't been too bothered about the lack of flushing toilets, lack of proper mattresses, only having one outfit of clothes or our general state of grubbyness on the trail.

Bibbulmun track - 6th section - Pemberton to Northcliffe

Length 37 miles - 3 days walking

Our rest day in Pemberton allowed us to live the high life for the day. We arranged transport to a truffle and winery; drinking a trio of wines with a selection of truffle products over lunch certainly made a change to pasta/rice/noodle dinners. We also made use of the campsite bbqs, to have some burgers in the evening. 'BBQs', actually gas powered hot plates are ubiquitous on this trip, no town would be complete without a few public ones available.

Getting back to the trail I was incredibly excited for the Gloucester tree after reading all about it in the museum in Pemberton. 50-100 years ago some of the massive Karri trees were converted into fire lookouts by creating a ladder of iron bars nailed into the trunk. Miraculously the Australian authorities still let you climb one of these old trees - 53 metres tall without any harnesses or safety equipment. Despite the drizzle this was an amazing experience, not for the faint hearted though.

The trail also took us by some cascades that we're picturesque and serene. Less peaceful was the rabble of year 10 school children awaiting us at our nights shelter. Whilst they provided some entertainment with their ineptitude of putting up tents, it wasn't conducive to a chilled afternoon. There are also over 200 other school kids in the area over the next 10 days that we are likely to encounter!

The highlight of our second day was getting to some more cascades in the river and taking a dip. This was harder than it sounds as the water was fairly shallow so you needed to sit down to be submerged. Shocking to all that know him, Callan got in further than I did. Our final day was a shorter 3 hour walk to Northcliffe. On a walk as long as this, one of the joys is noticing the subtle changes in the landscape day by day: now fewer Karri, a more sandy soil and more open plains. A precursor of terrain to come.

Northcliffe itself was a small town. Our main priority was finding enough to do before we could check in to the hotel for a shower. We explored the town twice and went to the sculpture park - it wasn't the most inspiring at but tided us over until our room was ready. Other mildly interesting things that happened were that upon finding out that Mike couldn't get a bus from Northcliffe to the coast the next day, the lady in the tourist office helpfully suggested that he could walk back to Pemberton (37 miles and 3 days walk) to catch the bus from there tomorrow morning! It's been nice to have Mike's company for the past week and it's a shame he didn't quite have time to join us on the next leg.

There was also a placard in town dedicated to the region's doctor who was the GP, obstetrician, surgeon and anaesthetist until 1980. He rather showed us modern single speciality doctors up.

Bibbulmun track - 7th section - Northcliffe to Walpole

The section started with a massive blow. A sign on the Bibbulmun hikers board in Northcliffe had a diversion posted for a proscribed burn - they closed 35km of track and replaced it with a 65km diversion. Brutal both because of the increased distance and because it effectively added an extra day to the section. Extra days = extra food = extra weight.

Disappointing. We dutifully stocked up on extra weight from the somewhat-underwhelming general store and set off from the hotel-motel (actually what it was called) at 6am to undo all the good work the washing machine had put in the day before.

The terrain has changed substantially from the previous section - where before it was karri and jarrah trees it is now sandy plains covered in scrub. The first day the sand was deep enough in places to really slow us down. The loss of trees shading us also meant that we really felt the two hot days (27 and 25 degrees respectively) that started the section.

Day one and we saw the result of the proscribed burn in the distance. The sky darkened with smoke and there arose an ash cloud which looked like a volcanic eruption in the distance. A substantial wind picked up - it wasn't clear whether that was correlation or causation but it certainly added to the atmosphere. It was uncanny, and as we got into the shelter at Lake Manjinup ash started to fall from the hazy skies. The sun was orange through the smoke all afternoon and the next morning had a stunning sunrise.

We left Lake Manjinup and started out for Dogpool in cool, breezy conditions that lasted about fifteen minutes before being replaced by baking sunshine and a plague of flies. Whoever said the fly load decreased south of Dwellingup was obviously on crack. We decided that there were too many flies to stop for lunch so instead we mission-walked as fast as possible to Dogpool. It would have been a rather sub-optimal day if not for the shelter, because Dogpool was awesome. Hot day, cool river with various cascades and our last campfire before entering the total fire ban area. Swimming in the river, got to wash our clothes, mysteriously didn't get eaten alive by mosquitoes. Enough said.

We pushed some hard days through the diverted section, which deviated North on to the Mundabiddi mountain biking trail. It rained and was thankfully a bit cooler which both kept the flies down and our spirits up.

The rain persisted long enough to bring our spirits down again after getting a thorough soaking during a nine-hour walk down to the coast. It was amazing to finally see the sea at Mandalay beach  but we experienced all four seasons of weather that day and by the time we got in (after some hard slogging up steep, deep sand in the dunes) we were wet, tired and desperately in need of showers. Thankfully our was only 6 miles to Walpole the next morning and I'm writing this from a comfy room in the local YHA.

Today is day 33 of the walk. In theory, there are only seven more to go...

Bibbulmun track - 5th section - Donnelly river village to Pemberton

As explained in the previous post we were staying in the land of tame animals at Donnelly river village. Mike had arrived in the evening after two flights, two buses and a very delayed taxi resulting in over 48 hours of sleep deprivation. Turns out this kind of ordeal helps combat jetlag and he slept surprisingly well.

Suspension bridge

We spent more time admiring the emus, roos and parrots before getting on our way again. The excitement of course being the Karri forest for the next 4 days. Another diversion for forest burning meant a boring first day of this section - mainly walking on wide 4x4 tracks. The advantages of this were that the route was shorter on easy walking roads and that we got an unusual view over some agricultural valleys that a look a lot more like home than the Australian bush.

Massive Karri trunk

Our second day on this section was probably the toughest day of the trail so far. It was a longer day as we were doing 3 stages in two days, but the really severe thing about it was the gradients of the paths. On the map going up and down by 30-100 metres at a time doesn't seem too arduous, however when faced with a slope that appears near vertical in front of you the challenge is very apparent. Not only this but after every short sharp accent was a steep descent so we didn't make any upward progress all day. Nonetheless it was nice waking through the Karri trees in a river valley. Our campsite for the night was idyllic; adjacent to a small pond it contained some lovely frogs and but sadly also millions of mosquitos. We also had the pleasure of 'Ratty' for the evening, a resident rodent or marsupial of the shelter that thankfully didn't eat our food but did spend ours making high pitched screeching noises.

Our last two days on the trail were more civilised, easier gradients and shorter distances with some magnificent trees on show - they are neck achingly tall and their trunks are beautifully smooth so we can see why Western Australians are so proud of them. Our trip into Pembroke was uneventful following another river and several dams. We checked into a cabin at the caravan park and decided to have our first rest day of the trip.

The food at the best Western hotel was good - though somehow despite the menu saying that the burgers came with chips - they didn't. There seems to be a large contingent of French workers in Pembroke (three in the pub and more in cafes and the campsite) that we can't quite figure out the reason for.  We're now off for some proper rest day activities - wine tastings at local vineyards followed by a BBQ.

Bibbulmun track - 3rd section - Collie to Balingup

Day 1 - Collie to Yabberup - 12.2 miles
Day 2 - Yabberup to Noggerup - 12.5 miles
Day 3 - Noggerup to Grimwade - 14 miles
Day 4 - Grimwade to Balingup - 14 miles

Leaving Collie I was regretting a few things. Firstly we had gotten very excited by a normal size supermarket and bought excesses of food, consequently our bags weighed as much for this 4 day stretch as for our initial 8 day leg. Secondly due to a planning error we had a very relaxed 4 days planned, with us only needing to walk 12-14 miles a day, leaving a lot of time in camp and I feared I'd get bored. It turned out that having a leisurely few days was actually rather nice though.

Setting out from Collie we saw a few more blue tongued skinks and settled back into the rhythm of Jarrah forest. The second day from Yabberup was particularly nice, with a reservoir to paddle in during the morning and a pub stop at lunch. I say lunch, we may have had our first cider before 11am, but in our defence we did get up around 5am. This relaxed morning made it even harder to climb the hill out of the little valley to our next shelter, conveniently located in Preston National Park.

Given our enforced slowness, the group we were walking with decided to go on ahead from Noggerup. It has been really nice to have the companionship of this medley of walkers for the past two weeks. Before they left they needed to do something very important though. In order to officially recognise Callan by his new trail name of Bubble Boy they gave him some blowing bubbles. He has been given this name due to his propensity to hide in his bubble (the tent) at the mere mention of flies or mosquitos and for extended periods of time.

Our final day into Balingup was also on the shorter side, allowing us to get in around midday. Given the cold and potential rain we treated ourselves to the hostel which we had to ourselves. Balingup was a very small town, with a primary school whose main lessons seemed to be about fire & snakes - definitely two of the things we've heard about most on this trip. Unfortunately the pub closed on Mondays, so we had the next best thing - steak & fried potatoes with a red wine jus. It took a lot of concentration after weeks of one pot meals to manage 4 pans at once! We were also introduced to the pot luck of 'cleanskins' wine - sold super cheap without branding, except for telling you the variety of grape.

It might be good stuff sold on the cheap or stuff so bad it can't be sold any other way. Ours was drinkable and probably better than the equally priced 'goon' or box wine where you get several litres for about £4. Thankfully we awoke hangover free (we're real lightweights now) ready for a long day of walking.

Bibbulmun track - 4th section - Balingup to Donnelly River Village

I want you to imagine a long, sandy beach. A thousand miles of beach, and then count every single grain of sand on that beach, and on the sea floor, and everywehre else on the planet. That is how many jarrah trees is feels like we have seen over the past 400km. You can imagine our excitement, therefore, when we were at last presented with something a little different - the mighty karri tree.

These are massive. There is no other word for it. Ramrod straight and up to 90 metres tall - more than double the tallest trees we've seen so far. And yes, you can tell you've been on the trail a while when you get this worked up about new trees. Still. They're awesome.

Callan and a Karri tree

Donnelly River VIllage is a pretty surreal place. There is a level of tame wildlife which is almost eerie following the occasional brief glimpses of stuff out in the bush. There are emu chicks here, which are adorable, and adult emus wandering about, which are basically modern-day dinosaurs. I am sat writing this on a picnic bench with a gigantic emu watching me from the other side of the table. It's quite distracting, if I'm honest. It is big and actually kind of intimidating. Seems content to just watch though. And growl, occasionally, in the same manner a T-rex might. I mean, look at those feet.

Donnelly River Village otherwise has a general store selling surprisingly little (but which does do milkshakes and hot food) and not much of anything else. We've run into our old walking crew who we got left behind by before Balingup and have had a quick catchup with them, and will be meeting my (Callan's) dad who is going to walk with us for the next few days. We've rented a holiday cottage for the night instead of staying in the tent (seems nicer what with the jetlagged father and all) and will head out tomorrow on an even-shorter-than-planned day due to a diversion in place. Will be planning some serious tree-oogling tomorrow.

PS - for anyone planning to do the walk, there is a very nice camping area between the last shelter and Donnelly River Village. No water, but fire pits and gorgeous surrounds. Of note.

Bibbulmun track - 2nd section - Dwellingup to Collie

Section length - 81.2 miles

Day 1 - Dwellingup to Murray campsite - 23.8 miles (diversion added over 2 miles)
Day 2 - Murray to Dookanelly replacement campsite - 9.6 miles
Day 3 - Dookanelly replacement to Possum-Springs - 15 miles
Day 4 - Possum springs to Harris Dam - 21.2 miles
Day 5 - Harris Dam to Collie - 14.5 miles

We left Dwellingup a little bit more refreshed and feeling clean for once. The donger (australian slang for a very basic cabin), we stayed in was nice enough but we were kept up a tad by the septogenarians in the donger next door that didn't think that 8pm meant bed time. We've started getting up with the light at 5am to avoid some of the heat of the day, this means by nightfall at 8pm we're zonked.

Due to some diversions and closed shelters for planned bush burning we knew the first day would be long. What we didn't expect was to walk through some sections that were still very much on fire! Having a wilderness fire fighter around on this trip has been surprisingly useful and very insightful.

We finally got to the Murray campsite about 4pm and enjoyed a dip in the river. The presence of the river the past few days has meant a gradual change in scenery from burnt out bush to more lush plants that grow more quickly - consequently we've done more bush bashing. A couple of shorter days has given us time to relax in the afternoons - Callan has spent this reading in his tent bubble as he's afraid of flies. It also allowed a competition between us and our travelling companions seeing who can kill the most March flies - the Aussie won hands down as his odour seemed to lure them in.

A final day of easy walking with lots of wildflowers and some cool lizards ( blue tongued skinks to be exact) let us to the mining town of Collie. Practically a metropolis by track standards it has more than one supermarket and several places to eat. Given the luxury of choice, we still just wanted a burger at the pub. Unfortunately we were informed by our hiking friends that it had turned a bit sleazy at 6pm with the barmaid now only wearing lingerie. Deciding against this we opted for familiarity with a dominos takeaway.  Knowing we had a short day the day after we had a leisurely morning and explored the fake coal mine in the visitor centre. One of the most impressive things is the size of modern machinery, they had a massive digger with 4 ton bucket on it. Newer ones can haul 60 tons per shovel.

Bibbulmun Track - Arrival

So we decided to walk the Bibbulmun track - a walk we’d never heard of just a few weeks before. 600 miles from Perth to Albany across the bush of Western Australia. A mixture of things drew us to it - being on the right side of the equator to mean that is was in condition, long enough to be a challenge and really well set up with free shelters to stay in on the way.

Flights booked a few weeks beforehand, we only ended up having 48 hours to prepare for the trail after returning from a trip to Holland. As well as packing for Australia we also needed to cram in lots of loads of washing, a job interview, arranging a wedding caterer and dropping the Puff (our cat) off with L+J for a few months.

The flights were as you might expect - reasonable food and movies given it was Emirates but no real opportunity to sleep. Arriving in Perth at 1am we promptly lapsed into unconsciousness, only to wake into the daze of seven hours of jetlag. Having eventually dragged ourselves out we then spent a day in Perth - a mixture of sightseeing and picking up necessary bits and bobs. King's Park botanical gardens were great and the ridge on which they were bad provides a lovely view over the city. We caught our first glimpses of Australian wildlife in the raucous, rainbow-feathered parrots. Back down in the city centre, the old courthouse museum revealed a little of the (occasionally dubious) history of Australia, including amongst the difficulties of settling the land some gems about enslaving British children and Aboriginies. A colorful past, to be sure.*

We managed to find everthing we needed in Perth: a snake bite bandage for the inevitable venomous predators we are sure to encounter, camping gas and we then popped into Woolworth's (Australian supermarket, not failed British newsagents) for enough food for the next 8 days. Unfortunately the first section of the trail is the longest without resupply so backpacks started out the heaviest they were ever going to be whilst we were least used to getting them (just imagine planning and them carrying your next 24 meals with you!). It also took us a lot of time to decide what to buy with new Australian food on offer (Timtams: yes, vegemite: no). Just a short journey by bus to Kalamunda the next day to start the trail.

*not that British history of the period is a cauldron of loveliness either, mind.