SO I start my adventure with the most energetic part of the whole five months...walking the Bibbulmun Track from Walpole (or near)to Northcliff. Considering last time we (Chris and I) attempted such a journey (21months ago) and we had suffered agonising blisters, gale force winds, mountainous stairs in gale force winds, storms and more gale force winds, tides trying to sweep us and my backpack to the far seas...we were in good spirits,
So we started on the 11th of June, after a night at the pub. It was a delayed morning. But luckily it was only a day trip, and 17km of dunes and beach and dunes. But lovely. Janean joined us. However as we started late, we did end up walking in the dark, being temporarily mislocated amongst the dunes. But found our way to the most fantastic chips and Hawaiian with chicken and anchoivie pizza ever. Day 2 found us walking again only during the day, for 22km. This time we were smarter and finished in the light, but it did rain a bit. Walked through forest, cool rocky outcrops, past Woolbales hut, rivers and streams. Day three, the killer day, even though we started walking a midday and only walked 10km, our bodies were aching and it was the start of our three day overnight hikes so had all our gear. IT was a boring walk too. But Dog Pool hut was lovel overlooking a river and dam and we meet John a typical end to ender, who burnt his socks! Day four was feeling a bit better at the beginning but 25km later we were feeling awful. Counting to 1000 repeatedly helped. WE camped just ourselves at Mariningup Lake which was stunning and the bird life awesome. Surrounded by Karri trees stunning. Day five found us walking 16km to Gardner, uneventful. Day 6 was last day, 14km to Northcliff. I swear the last km was the longest, and most boring, just trying to get into the town. But a great trip, not too hilly, few blisters, lost a toe nail and split my pants, nearly froze to death at night, but other than that, great to be in the fresh air with no worries.
