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31st August 2008

Day 1 - 21km (13miles)

Kalamunda to Ball Creek Shelter

Total: 21km (13miles)

Started hiking today at 1pm. Phil and Rachel were good enough to see me off at the trailhead, but I still blame them for the hangover that was still lingering for the first few miles.

Good hiking all afternoon. The weather behaved and there were enough views to keep it interesting. Stopped tonight at the Ball Creek shelter. There are two other thru-hikers staying. It feels a lot like being back on the Appalachian Trail. Noodles, tuna and green curry sauce for dinner - not great; struggled to finish.

7pm - bedtime.

1st September 2008

Day 2 - 46km (28.5miles)

Ball Creek Shelter to Brookton Campsite

Total: 67km (41.5miles)

The usual fun of trying to go to sleep too early - woke up repeatedly to look at my watch and be disappointed (time to get up? NO - it's only 9pm. Bugger). Crazy dreams when I did sleep, which I should not go into here.

Out and hiking at 6am. It still wasn't light and I hiked for twenty minutes with my headlamp - using it occasionally to seek out the reflective glow of trail markers.

Today was spent passing through lovely forest in indifferent weather. It had rained in the night and damp undergrowth was encroaching, unpleasantly, on to the trail. My legs spent much of the morning soaked - and so did my shoes. I didn't catch a developing blister on my left heel in time and now it's looking a bit raw.

Solid progress and an early (5pm) finish. Might have pushed for the next shelter, but I think i did enough on my first full day out. Tomorrow I have a 52km stop to aim for. Early starts seem essential as it's dark by 6.30pm. Looks like there are hills ahead for tomorrow. Climbed a bit today, but never for long.

2nd September 2008

Day 3 - 52km (32miles)

Brookton Campsite to Nerang Campsite

Total: 119km (74miles)

Started in darkness, finished in darkness.

Another night of WACKY dreams and out just after 6am. Blisters hurt for a bit and then settled down. I taped up the left one pretty well last night and it seems to have held ok.

Morning was a good hike in much improved weather to the Monadocks Campsite for lunch. Here I made use of the long-drop, only to find that: (A) It's not such a long drop anymore (even less so by the time i was through with it), and (B) The occasional irritation i could feel from the elastic in the left-hand-side lining of my shorts was the result-of/cause-of a horrible, raw, weeping patch of crotch that had stained the lining with god only knows what. I tried hiking with my thumb, nonchalantly, placed up my shorts leg, pulling the lining out of harms was. I quickly tired of this arrangement and didn't relish the thought of explaining the arrangement to oncoming traffic. I took my scissors and performed some surgery on the elastic in hope of alleviating the (rather distressing) symptoms.

Two quick, stiff climbs after lunch up Mts Cuthbert and Vincent and then into Mt Cook shelter for water at 4pm. Too early to stop, but 13km to the next shelter and Mt Cook in the way. The climb was fine and good views from the top. Once down the other side, the las 8km was along flat dirt road that dragged interminably. Very hard on the feet and pretty tired now. one other hiker at the shelter - British guy in his 40s. I think 50% of the people I've seen out here have been poms.

3rd September 2008

Day 4 - 48.5km (30miles)

Nerang Campsite to Mt Wells

Total: 168km (104.5miles)

A good day. Cold in the night again - I thought I'd fixed it by wearing my down vest to bed, redistributing the down in my quilt and cinching the straps. Not the case. I guess I'll actually have to wash the thing sometime.

Niggles from my blisters prompted my to put on an extra pair of socks - this helped to the point that I barely notice them anymore. Crotch feels better, though I daren't pay it close inspection for fear of what I might discover.

Climbs today and I enjoyed them. Good views too. Aimed to reach this firetower/shelter in time to watch the sunset. I made it and was surprised to find about a dozen others here too. They are part of a group of past thru-hikers re-hiking the Bibbulmun to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Bizarrely, Tanya (Vautier) is with them. Nice to see a friendly face.

4th September 2008

Day 5 - 34.3km (21miles)

Mt Wells to Dwellingup

Total: 202.3km (125.5miles)

Awoken, if you can really be awoken from what passes for sleep on these hard wooden platforms, by the morning reveille cries of the anniversary-group's leader. Tanya had forewarned me of this occurrence - camp is roused at 6am for an 8am start on the track. I dozed on to 6.10 then got up, packed and left by 6.20.

Started with a downhill, then flat all day. Relentless flat is one of the hardest things to walk on - always using the same muscles, always striking with the same parts of your feet. Followed a railroad for much of the way - would have been more interesting with trains on it. Finally into Dwellingup around 1.30pm - just in time for lunch at the hotel. I chose the roast - it was average, but welcome. Resupplied at the grocery store; discovered my phone was no longer speaking to my SIM card; wandered, aimlessly, failing to decide on a strategy. I settled on getting a room at the hotel - $40 and basic (shared showers, no tv - fine by me). Took a shower and washed my clothes (in the shower). Cranked up the electric heater in my room and settled in. Decided to patch up my windproof trousers with elastoplast tape, if only to make them (very) temporarily more presentable around town (not that this is Milan). Ate much of my snack supply while waiting for my clothes to dry. Once I had gathered my energy, I set out to replace the eaten snacks and phone the only Australian number that I actually know and that might be useful. Thankfully, Tom was happy to relay a message to Jake explaining the comms blackout. He also had various pieces of news from the Department [of Education], none of which were very heartening.

Fish and chip dinner back at the hotel. Plenty of welcome salad, standard-quality Australian chips. Left some chips. Tried to plan the next few days over dinner. The spacing of shelters locks me into either very long or somewhat shorter days. Shorter days may be sensible - crotch has healed ok, but the blister on my left heel looks as bad as it ever did. Not sure how much dropping a few miles a day will impact on it, but it doesn't seem like I have to rush back on account of work anytime soon.