Dinner tonight is freeze dried lamb with mash. The mash is pretty good but the lamb is disappointing. Actually it turns out this was coq au vin, no wonder it was a bit average. I can’t be bothered trying the chocolate mousse.

Mon 7 October (Day 37): Woolbales to Long Point

I wake in time to watch the sunrise and I am first up at 6am. Pretty soon everyone is up and getting ready. R&J head off first. D&J say I look pretty speedy so I should go next. I prove them wrong when they pass me about 2km down the track.

The track is initially pretty wet although not as bad as yesterday.  I don’t flood my boots but it wouldn’t make much difference anyway since they were sodden when I put them on. After a while I start to see some interesting rocky knolls and cross a few granite ridges. The pattern this morning is swamp, granite shelf, small patch of karri, repeat.

At 6.6km I reach sand dune country for the first time. Conveyor belt mats have been used to manage erosion. The landscape definitely has a more coastal feel: low heath with occasional stands of peppermint in the gullies. Plus I can hear a distant roaring which must be the ocean.  Soon I see the ocean for the first time.

For the next few km I wander through the dunes, with more impressive views from each ridge.

At 11km I stop briefly at a lookout overlooking Mandalay Beach before descending to the beach. The beach is named after the wreck of the Mandalay, the remains of which are apparently still visible occasionally.

The track follows the beach for 1km and I remove my boots and walk in the surf. I believe that it is disrespectful to the local spirits to wear boots on the beach. Plus it feels so good!

The track leaves the beach and follows a small stream for a while. I reluctantly put my boots on.

More sandy hills, peppermint gullies, fabulous views, repeat.

At 15.6km I pass through the Lost Beach car park. Lost Beach looks like it might be nice but I am tired and decide to press on.

At 18km the track starts following a 4WD track and soon after I reach the spur to Long Point campsite. 1km later at about 2pm I am greeted at the hut by Ray and Jay. Dave and Jayn have decided to press on to Mt Chance.  This is a very nice campsite, although the limestone is a bit hard on my tender feet. The tent camping is tucked under the peppermints and there is a faint trail beyond that leads down to Little Cove.

R&J retire to their tents for a nap and I head down the trail with my towel in the hopes of finding somewhere to swim. It turns out that Little Cove is not really a swimming beach. There is one gully with a little sand where I could have a boisterous swim if I could work out how to get down the cliff. I do find a small pool where I can soak my feet.

Dinner tonight is freeze dried lamb with olives and couscous. Much better than coq au vin. We have just finished dinner and it is dark when another hiker arrives. At first I think it is Bonnie finally arriving from Woolbales, but it is Simone. Simone is apparently some sort of bibbulmun celebrity who spends large chunks of her time on this and other tracks. She is returning North,  having just made the run to Albany from somewhere like Donnelly River. She is going to skip through both Woolbales and Mt Chance tomorrow,  probably camping before Dog Pool. She must be way fit. Now Bonnie shows up. It turns out that she is also a bibbulmun celebrity and she and Simone exchange stories about various people on the track. They like to talk. Simone doesn’t cook and doesn’t carry a stove. Her meals are all cold-soaked.

Simone sets up her tent in the hut and Bonnie sets up hers in the camping area. I asked Ray earlier whether I snored last night. He said yes but it didn’t bother him. I notice he still set his tent in the camping area.

Tue 8 October (Day 38): Long Point to Mt Clare

It was very cold last night and I didn’t sleep well. I am awake at first light and Simone starts moving soon after. She gets herself ready and is off before 6am, before anyone else has emerged from their tents.

Ray and Jay are double-hutting to Walpole today, where they will stay at the pub. Tomorrow Ray will catch the same coach I have booked and Jay will continue towards Albany. Bonnie has accommodation booked in Walpole so she will be double-hutting also, although she is last to leave as usual.  It is about 13km to Mt Clare so it should be a relatively easy day for me.

The track starts off with more coastal heath. It goes through gullies with a few stunted peppies then back up the other side. The hills are low but slogging through loose sand is hard work. Often it follows a ridge, which helps reduce erosion. I see one (very small) snake and 3 emu.

Gradually the track moves away from the coast and back into swampy flats with occasional scrubby trees, although it seems drier than around Woolbales. The bibbulmun joins up with the nuyts track and after a while we are back in forest – small karri and tingle. The forest gets heavier and the track starts to go up and down through small gullies. I cross Crystal Brook on a footbridge. It is shallow but clean and sandy and very tempting but I still have a good way to go. Maybe I can have a dip in Deep River.

When I get to Deep River it turns out to be less inviting and pretty inaccessible. Oh well. I cross on a really cool suspension bridge and I am in the car park at the foot of Mt Clare.

It is only 1.5km to the campsite but it is really steep and it just seems to go on forever. Very attractive karri/tingle forest but I am pretty wrecked and not in any state to appreciate it.

I arrive at the campsite before midday and find I am at a bit of a loss. There isn’t much to do around the camp – the forest is too dense to leave the track. It is pretty warm and the whine of the blowflies is annoying although they mostly leave me alone. I wander over to the lookout at the top of Mt Clare but the view isn’t great, being largely obstructed by the surrounding trees.

An older couple, Geoff and Lisa, arrive mid-afternoon, having double-hutted from Woolbales. They are originally from Tasmania but currently live in NZ. They flew in from NZ, caught a taxi to Kalamunda, stocked up at Coles and have been walking since then. I think they said 34 days.

A little later Bonnie shows up. She is a little worse for wear, despite have had a dip in Crystal Brook. After about half an hour she starts to pick up and soon she is ready to push on to Walpole, which is just over 10km and mostly downhill. G&L and Bonnie all agree that the flies along the way were awful. I didn’t have a problem so they must only come out in the afternoon but I must remember to pack my fly veil next time. I make dinner at 5pm and then head back to the peak to watch the sunset. The view might have been a bit average at midday but it is pretty amazing at sunset.

I return to camp as it is getting dark and get ready for bed. “Hiker’s Midnight” Lisa calls it.

Wed 9 October (Day 39): Mt Clare to Walpole

It is only 10.3km to Walpole and mostly downhill but I have to be in Walpole at 9:45 to catch the coach so I am on the track by 6am. G&L haven’t emerged from their tent.

The descent from Mt Clare is fairly gentle and makes a nice change from yesterday’s ascent. Around 7am I reach a lookout point where the track meets the South Western Hwy and I get my first glimpse of Nornalup Inlet.

Shortly after leaving the lookup I spot a large fox in the distance. He is standing in the track staring at me. As I continue he disappears into the bushes but I soon work out why he was there. The remains of a kangaroo lie on the side of the track. It probably got hit by a car on the highway. Clearly I interrupted the fox’s breakfast. He was a long way off but you might be able to make him out in the photo. He looks just like the fox in The Little Prince.

The track passes through some scrubby heath before traversing a golf course. It passes over some wetlands on a boardwalk adjacent to the golf course before crossing the Sleeman River.

I am now on the outskirts of Walpole and I start to see houses, some of them architecturally interesting.

The last stretch of the track before Walpole town passes through an attractive, if slightly dolorous, paperbark swamp.

I arrive in Walpole and catch Jay just as he is heading off. I have time for a leisurely breakfast with Ray before catching the coach back to Palgarup. Dad is attending an appointment in Bunbury today so I head straight back to Perth in the Subaru.