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...
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