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.