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.