Wed 18 December: Nutkin Lodge
The plan is to walk from Walpole to Peaceful Bay (about halfway to Denmark), which should take four days (3 nights). The tricky bit is that Peaceful Bay isn’t on the South Coast Highway, so getting transport back to Walpole is tricky. After looking at several options I arrange to stay at Nutkin Lodge (about halfway betwen the highway and Peaceful Bay) and then leave the subaru there while I walk the track. They will give me a lift to the highway so that I can catch the coach. The only disadvantage is that it will add a bit to the last days walk as I return to Nutkin Lodge from Peaceful Bay Road.
By the time I am ready to leave it is 1:30pm and I am going to be pinching it to get to Peaceful Bay before dark. The run south is uneventful and I arrive at dad’s place just before 5pm. It is hot – I thought it was supposed to be cooler down here? There isn’t time for more than a cold drink and a chat before I have to move on. I was hoping to get fish and chips in Peaceful Bay for dinner but it turns out the chipper shuts at 6pm. The Bow Bridge Roadhouse closes at 5:30pm so that is out too. I stop in Manjimup for fuel and pick up dinner from Chicken Treat. I was really looking forward to fish and chips but it is too early to eat and it is going to be over an hour before I get to Peaceful Bay. Cold fish is pretty gross whereas cold chicken is acceptable.
The run from Manjimup to Walpole winds around a bit and we are getting into kangaroo time so I scan the sides of the road constantly. I spot 3 kangaroos, two of them are alive but they don’t seem inclined to jump in front of me. The other one isn’t inclined to do anything.
I pass through Walpole and the sun starts setting as I pass Coalmine Beach. Once again I am gobsmacked by the beauty of this area. Just after passing through Nornalup I turn off down Conspicuous Cliffs Road, which is unsealed and so badly corrugated that it is a wonder I have any fillings left. A few rabbits try to throw themselves under my wheels. The fields are full of kangaroos but fortunately they don’t seem suicidal. After about 10km I arrive at Nutkin Lodge. To call it a lodge seems a bit ambitious for a farm with a shed converted to a house but it does the job. I will “camp” in the back of the Subaru tonight and in the morning Chris will give me a lift to Bow Bridge, where I can catch the coach to Walpole. The fee for accommodation and the 13km ride to Bow Bridge is $50, which seems pretty good to me. I have the facilities to myself, apart from the resident kangaroo. The facilities mostly consist of a transportable bathroom. It looks pretty plain but inside it is much nicer than you will find in the ablution blocks at most caravan parks. I eat my dinner, accompanied by a rather nice shiraz, and have a shower before bed. Amazing stars – there is no moon and when I turn my light out there are no other lights to be seen apart from the stars. I can hear the breakers at Conspicuous Cliffs. It is pleasantly cool.
Thu 19 December (Day 40): Walpole to Frankland River
I didn’t get a great deal of sleep last night. I put the seats down and laid my camp mats out in the back of the Subaru, then added a yoga mat, a wool blanket folded in half and a doona, also folded. I had a proper pillow and the sleeping bag. It was pretty comfy when I was on my back but the floor rises up a bit over the seats and it feels a bit weird when I am on my side. Plus noises etc. I had the back door open and the temperature was fairly pleasant. Then it turned out that I had perfectly aligned the rear of the Subaru to face the rising sun, which was early because the horizon is actually the ocean.
Anyway I am up by 5am so I have a bit of a wander and then I have another shower because I can. The flies are starting to drive me crazy so I dig out my fly veil. They are still crawling all over my arms and hands but at least they aren’t in my eyes or up my nose. I eat breakfast, sort all my gear and get my pack ready and it is still only 6:30. I go for another walk.
The bushfire that came through a couple of years ago really hit them hard. Quite a lot of trees are dead and most of the rest have dead crowns with new leaves growing back from lower down. Even trees that were standing in pasture 30 or 40m away from the others were badly burnt. I keep finding things that have melted – witches’ hats, plastic tubes marking the buried phone line, a brass bell.
The kids come out and head off to catch the school bus. Dylan, the eldest, drives them to the bus stop in the massive, rusty, unregistered water truck. He goes to high school in Denmark, the other two go to primary school in Walpole.
I head up to the house and say hello to Chris and Linda. I also meet their dog – where was she last night? Linda says that a 50% dilution of Listerine sprayed on the arms keeps the flies at bay – something to remember. I wander over and say hello to their duck and chooks and pigs. I keep a healthy distance from the pigs, who get very excited, presumably thinking I am bringing breakfast. Possibly they think I am breakfast.
Linda has to head into Denmark for work so I suggest she drop me at the roadhouse on the way – I may as well wait there as here and it doesn’t make sense for Chris to make a special trip. We head off and I ask Linda about the fire. It turns out that it was deliberately lit by neighbours two properties over because they wanted to burn the adjoining national park before FESA did a prescribed burn. Apparently they were concerned that FESA would lose control and burn their property. It was blowing a gale but rain had been forecast so they figured it would be okay. It promptly got out of control and those arseholes didn’t even call it in so by the time the firefighters arrived it was a furnace. Chris and Linda ended up in their cars with their kids in the middle of a paddock watching everything go up while the firefighters desperately tried to keep the fire away from them. The neighbours don’t understand why there would be a problem – they have insurance, right? They have to fight the insurance company for everything and the payments come through in dribs and drabs. Plus there are so many things that aren’t covered, like lost income. Something new I learned is that after a fierce fire the air is full of super fine carbon particles which get into everything and cause electrical faults in appliances and also in cars – one car survived the fire but then the computer died. This can continue for years and isn’t covered by the insurance.
I suspect that they might have lost their house and that is why they live in a shed even though they have three very nice chalets on the property. I didn’t like to ask.
Linda drops me at the Bow Bridge Roadhouse at about 8:15 but it doesn’t open until 8:30 so I sit out the front catching up on email and getting to know their dog Rosie, who looks just like the dog at Nutkin Lodge. When they open I order bacon and eggs and a coffee. I am not really hungry but I have an hour to kill so I may as well call it an early lunch. The breakfast isn’t elegant but the portions are generous. The bacon is salty but I figure I will sweat it out soon enough. The coffee cost $5.50 but it is good and it comes in a huge mug.
I check out the shop. They are nice people, they have nice giftware and a well-stocked bottle shop but I don’t think I have ever seen a building with less grace. It was built in the mid-fifties and as far as I can tell none of the improvements since have been much of an improvement.
Bow Bridge itself is interesting. The old timber bridge is still carrying half the traffic on the South Coast Highway. The other half is steel.
The coach arrives and delivers me to Walpole at about 10.20am. There is a fine rain coming down which is a good thing as it reduces the fire risk. I buy an apple pie from the bakery for later and then wander around the IGA picking up a few minor items. On a whim I also buy a hand line, some hooks and sinkers and a float. Though if I catch a fish I have no idea how I will cook it since all the campsites from now on don’t allow campfires. Also I think I got gouged on the price so it had better be a good fish.
The track leads me through town to the jetty on Walpole Inlet. The inlet is as beautiful as ever although the weather is a little grim and the wind is kicking up a bit of chop.
The track skirts the inlet with masses of kangaroo paws on either side. I figure they must have been planted right? Later on I realise that kangaroo paws really do grow like this down here. The track passes through a swampy area before emerging at Coalmine Beach. Also beautiful. A cyclist, who is the only other person in sight, points out that we have it all to ourselves. I wish he would go away.
Near the beach is a nice bbq area where I stop and eat my pie. Nearby is a kangaroo with an independent child alongside and a large joey in the pouch. Where is the father that is what I want to know. She has odd white marks on her face and I wonder whether she was injured at some point. Further along I pass by the Coalmine Beach Caravan Park, which is really nice, with bays tucked away among the peppermint trees. I pass another kangaroo family and some have white spots so maybe it is a local variation.
Leaving the caravan park I pass a carpark and a public toilet. The track continues to follow the inlet although it is now high above the beach. Lots of warning signs about dangerous cliffs. By the time I cross the South Coast Highway I have passed 3 sodden lumps of toilet paper, all within about 1km of the public toilet.
On the other side of the highway the track ascends through a forest of young karri trees. As I get further from the coast the flies become less of a problem and I can raise my veil. This is a relief since the sun has come out again and it is really humid. The track levels out for a bit as it follows the munda biddi but then we part ways again and I head further up the ridge. The forest now has larger karris and a lot of red tingles plus occasional stands of casuarina. At the top of the ridge is a lookout where cars on Valley of the Giants Road can also pull over. The views are fabulous but I have a suspicion that it was created by cutting down a bunch of trees, which seems a bit perverse.
The track runs parallel to VotG Rd for a few km then passes through the tingle boardwalk. Lots of huge tingle stumps, most of them burnt out although in many cases the tree is still fairly healthy. It seems like pretty much all the really big tingles are broken up above and burnt out at the base.
The mystery of the two forms of native wisteria is solved: the climbing form is native wisteria, the standard form is hovea.
Eventually the track starts following an old road and then a well-maintained service road overlooking a valley. I can’t see the river at the bottom but I can see the tops of some large karri below me so I am pretty high up. I start to descend and then leave the road. Suddenly the forest is full of jarrah and marri, although there are still a few karri, tingle and casuarina around. I continue to descend and eventually arrive at the Frankland River campsite. I am the only person here, which is surprising given that this is widely considered to be one of the best campsites on the track. Although I suppose, with Christmas less than a week away, most WA hikers will be busy preparing for the Day of Maximum Distress.
I decide to go for a swim. Actually I decided that months ago and I have been looking forward to it. It is awkward to get in because the rocks are a little slippery and the water is stained with teatree, making it hard to see the bottom. Once I am in it is wonderful! If I had to choose the perfect water temperature for swimming after hiking for five hours I couldn’t have chosen better. In the middle it is deep enough that I can’t touch the bottom. Since I am the only person here and the chances of anyone arriving now are slim I decide that clothing is optional.
I rinse out my jocks, socks and shirt and return to the hut. I make dinner and carefully place all food in the sealed crates to deter the local water rats. I see no sign of fish out in the river so I don’t break out my new fishing gear, I guess that will have to wait for Rame Head. I spend the rest of the evening writing up this blog.
Fri 20 December (Day 41): Frankland River to Giants
I slept pretty well and then dozed for a while until my pillow inexplicably slid out of its case and shot across the floor (this is a blow-up pillow and the pillow case is a t-shirt, I don’t take a real pillow on the bibbulmun). I get up and check the time: 5:30am. Clearly my biological clock has adjusted to bibbulmun time.
I take my time getting ready while a brief rain shower passes over and depart the camp about 8am, only to stop 100m up the track for another swim. At 8:30 I leave for real.
At 3km I get to sapper’s bridge. I was expecting an old bridge with no car access but clearly it has been replaced with a brand new steel and concrete structure. You can see the old footings below the new concrete pads but that is all that is left of the old bridge.
The forest is now jarrah/marri. There are some big trees though. I have never seen marris this big.
At 7.4km I am half way and I stop for lunch at a footbridge over what the guide describes as “small rocky rapid” but I would describe as “a small trickle of water running down the side of some rocks”. Nice spot though.
At 12.5km I cross Valley of the Giants Road road and soon I am passing through the Treetops Walk carpark. I am not sure why but I am really stuffed, although today’s walk is shorter than yesterday’s. I reach the entrance to the Treetops Walk but I am way too wrecked to think of doing the walk plus all the people are annoying me. I continue and soon leave the carpark behind. It is another 2km to Giants Campsite and I feel every step. Giants is nice enough but after Frankland it seems a bit dull. I read the register and notice quite a few people expressing similar feelings about the difficulty of the walk from Frankland. I tip a crate of water over my head and have a nap, which helps.
Once again I have the hut to myself.
Sat 21 December (Day 42): Giants to Rame Head
Didn’t sleep too well last night. I had a splitting headache over my left eye. In retrospect I think I was a bit dehydrated yesterday. Not completely sure but I think I put 1.5L in the water bladder and I still had 1L when I arrived. Bit of a trap walking in the shade – the humidity was high enough that I was sweating like a pig. Then I couldn’t get comfortable, my back hurt, I had weird dreams. [Typing up my notes it occurs to me that I hadn’t had a coffee since Thursday so the headache may have been withdrawal]Â
I am up a bit later this morning – 6:30 or so. There isn’t much to distract here so I am on the track by 7:40. The track rises through jarrah/marri plus the odd tingle. Some of them are very odd indeed. You do get the occasional elegant tingle tree but as a general rule if the bole is more than 2m in diameter then the tree will be truncated, misshapen and lumpy with a burnt-out, hollow bole. And yet they usually have a healthy crown, even if it springs from side branches. The karris are majestic but the tingles are all gnarly resilience. If high elves lived in the karri forest I reckon the tingles would be full of goblins and boggarts.
A lot of the track is through sword grass. I have read lots of comments in the log books from hikers complaining about sword grass and thought they were a bunch of whingers but today I catch one on a bad angle and it slices straight through my skin like a paper cut. Harmless, but you wouldn’t want too many. Or to get one on your face.
At about 1.5km I begin the descent towards the South Coast Highway. At 2.9km I cross the highway and start following the old Denmark-Nornalup rail formation. For a while there is still some forest but these are small jarrah and soon I am walking through more scrubby country, often without shade. I take care to drink regularly. I applied sunscreen this morning in anticipation of the coastal environment.
At 4.4km I leave the rail formation and head uphill through scrubby trees. A fire has been through, but not recently. At first I think it was a prescribed burn but gradually I come to the conclusion that it was the 2017 fire that took out Nutkin Lodge. At 5.5km I pass Nut Road Lookout which is actually a mobile phone tower but does have great views. Just after the lookout is a seat with a view to the East. The back of the seat is low so that you don’t have to remove your pack. It works really well – you can lean back into your pack like an armchair.
At 6.7km I cross Nut Road, just a few hundred metres from Nutkin Lodge. It seems crazy that I am going to have to walk back here tomorrow but it means I get two more stages along the track.
At 9.1km I pass a couple of big granite slabs and then I am in forest again. Like the country around Mt Chance the trees cluster on the rocky outcrops with scrub and swamp elsewhere. Soon enough I descend from the trees and follow Ficifolia Road for a bit. This is pretty tough country at this time of year and I am flagging. I decide to take a break at the first patch of shade but this doesn’t happen until I leave the road. Even then the shade isn’t great and everything is prickly. The ficifolia, by the way, is more commonly known as the red flowering gum and is native to this area.
Further along the track gets more coastal, with heath on the ridges and peppies in the gullies. Quite pleasant but a bit up/down.
At 13.5km I reach the carpark for Conspicuous Cliffs Beach. I pass the whale lookout and follow the boardwalk down to the beach, passing one couple just leaving the lookout and a family returning from the beach. The boardwalk emerges alongside a stream that runs across the beach. I taste it – fresh water.
The track follows the beach for a few hundred metres before heading up into the dunes. I really want a swim but the ocean looks a bit boisterous so I climb the dunes to see if there are freshwater pools on the other side, as with Mandalay Beach. There are but they are a bit manky so I strip down to my undies and crocs and grab a towel before heading back to the beach, leaving everything else in the dunes. I get down to the water and have a look around. Nobody on the beach, no one in the lookout, I guess clothing is optional. I remove my undies, which are sodden with sweat, and head into the breakers. As soon as I hit the water someone appears at the lookout. I hope they don’t have binoculars.
The water is wonderful and not nearly as cold as I expected, just refreshing. Returning to the beach I don my disgusting undies and wrap my towel around my waist before climbing back up the dunes. I need the crocs because the sand is really hot at the top of the dune.
Getting back into my gear is unpleasant but I take some time to ensure that there is no sand between my toes before getting my (wet, sweaty) socks and boots on. I have a drink and discover that my water bladder is empty. Oh well, I have only 3km to go and I do have a couple of hundred ml of orange juice although I was saving that for breakfast.
The 3km turns out to be pretty hard going. Basically I have to climb over the back of the Conspicuous Cliffs, which are really high, on sandy tracks without a scrap of shade. I get about halfway up before I crack and drink my OJ. When I reach the top the going gets easier but it is still about 1.5km to the campsite. At one point I hear a rustle in the bushes and I think snake. It is actually a kangaroo who was having a nap under the bush next to the track. We stare at each other for a bit and I take a photo before moving on. I am very glad when I see the roof of Rame Head Campsite emerge from the bushes. Shortly before arriving I pass the remains of what appears to have once been a cat. A bit of a worry to find a cat this far away from civilisation, even a dead one.
The camp is very nice, with views to the East, although you have to stand on the table to get the full effect. I notice there are a lot of footprints on the table. I startle another kangaroo from under a bush a the back of the hut but it takes one look at me and decides to lie down again.
While I am typing up my notes a 4WD arrives. I wander over to say hello to a couple about my age. He has brought her up here to check out the hut and the view. I get the feeling he is a little annoyed to find me here. Maybe he had carnal intentions, or possibly he is a bit defensive because he must know he isn’t supposed to bring a vehicle up to the hut.
Sun 22 December (Day 43): Rame Head to Peaceful Bay
Another poor night’s sleep, mostly due to mozzies. I slathered aerogard all over myself and then reapplied during the night. The aerogard worked to the extent that I didn’t get bitten but it didn’t stop them from practising touch-and-go on my ears. Soon after first light the flies start to join in so I am up at about 5:15am. I eat my granola with water (no OJ, sigh) and pack up. It is a bit overcast which is fine by me because I don’t expect to see much shade today.
Very low on battery for the phone and I have already used up the power pack so I will need to leave it off for most of the day to conserve power. This means I am relying on my tablet for photos. Since the tablet is too bulky to carry in my pocket this means we won’t have many photos today. Sorry guys.
The track starts off heading downhill on the service road. At the bottom of the hill it meets another 4WD track and there is a bar across the service road with a “no vehicles” sign. My visitors yesterday must have opened the bar (there is no lock). I have said it before: if you really hate the bush and you want everyone to know, buy a 4WD. At least they replaced the bar when they left.
The first missed photo opportunity comes soon after as I come around a bend in the (narrow, densely vegetated) track and encounter a very large kangaroo. I am not sure if he is as tall as I am but I am pretty sure he weighs more and could disembowel me with a single kick. We stand there for a while, staring at each other, and then I say “look, you are just going to have to move because I sure as hell am not going around”. I take a step towards him and he takes one jump off the path and stands there, watching me, as I walk past.
Except when I am walking on beaches the track today mostly leads through coastal heath. No shade, but most of the time it is overcast and not too hot. The flies are back with a vengeance.
Arriving at The Gap beach I consider having a swim but it is pretty rough. I continue past the beach and across the rocks, checking out the rock pools. All the small pools (those that are filled by rain or spray and don’t get flushed out by waves) are packed with mosquito larvae. Tip: don’t sleep on the beach at The Gap.
Some of the larger pools are connected to the ocean and I spot some fish. No idea what they are but they look plate size to me. I pull out my hand line, but what to use for bait? Going through my rubbish bag I find a small scrap of salami. With my hook baited and the float attached about 600mm above the hook I cast out into the pool. After a few false starts I am able to drop the bait right where the fish are but no takers. After about half an hour I give up. Maybe these fish don’t like Italian. I pack away and head off but as I pass a particularly ripe pile of seaweed it occurs to me that there might be worms in the seaweed. I turn some over with my pole and, sure enough, hundreds of little maggots about 10mm long. I manage to thread 2 maggots onto the hook (an unpleasant task) and return to the pool. Another half hour and I still haven’t had a bite, although I drift the bait past the rocks under which my fish are hiding. Maybe I am not cut out for fishing.
The track continues over the head and down into the next bay, then over the next head etc. The heads aren’t excessively high and walking along the beach or over rocks is pleasant so it makes for a nice walk.
Just before midday I pass over a dune and I am standing on the beach at Peaceful Bay. I always thought it was a dumb name, but having just passed a bunch of bays hammered by the Southern Ocean I can see where the name comes from. Waves about 2cm high roll across the bay and land on the sand with a small “plink”.
There are people everywhere. I feel a bit odd walking past all these families in my hiking gear.
A wooden staircase leads up from the beach and I am in Peaceful Bay, a town of about 250 holiday houses plus the caravan park. The caravan park’s fish&chip shop is famous as the fish are all local, caught on lines by the family that run the park. I can’t bring myself to pay $21 for the snapper so I settle for kingfish and chips at $14. I am sure the snapper would have been better but it is pretty good and perfectly cooked. Sorry, it was almost gone before I thought to take the obligatory blog photo.
I still have a long way to go – I need to continue along the track until it leaves Peaceful Bay Rd and heads off towards the Irwin Inlet (about 3km). Then up PB Rd a way and along Ficifolia Rd to Nutkin Lodge where I left the subaru (about 6km). I start following the track and soon I realise that I have fucked up a bit. The track winds all over the place and I don’t have the guide notes for anything after Pleasant Bay so I have trouble working out how far I have come and how far I have to go. I cross a major road but I don’t have a map, not even the printout I used to get to Nutkin Lodge, because I threw it out thinking I wouldn’t need it again. I don’t have enough battery life left in my phone to use mapme. All I can do is forge ahead, watching carefully for track markers. After a while I am convinced that the road I crossed was Peaceful Bay Road and I should have turned left when I got to it (it was PB Rd, but further south where it loops around the town). The further I go the more stressed I get, convinced that I have missed my turnoff and I am heading for the inlet. I don’t cross any roads but I do pass a few major fire breaks and the occasional private property. I resolve to continue until I get to the inlet and then backtrack. The only thing worse would be to turn back too soon and discover that I hadn’t gone far enough. Fortunately the track is pretty easy going.
I hear noises from just over a mound of earth alongside the track and decide to have a look and see if there is someone there who can give me directions. I find myself at the local rubbish dump and I ask the guy who is running it for directions to Ficifolia Rd. He says to head down the driveway, turn left at the bitumen road and then take the first gravel road on the left. The bitumen road is Peaceful Bay Road and this is exactly where I was supposed to be.
The walk along Ficifolia Road is exposed, flat, straight and dusty. Okay, but I am pretty tired. If someone were to offer me a lift they wouldn’t have to ask twice but most of the traffic is going the opposite way. By the time a vehicle passes me going in the same direction I can see the Nutkin Lodge chalets in the distance. At one point I pass a firebreak running under power lines and I am sure I crossed it about 2hrs ago. If I had been able to use mapme I could have saved myself about 5km.
I arrive at Nutkin Lodge at about 3pm. Nobody is around so I change out of my vile hiking clothes and into the clothes I wore down, which are dirty but don’t stink, and hit the road. I stop at Coalmine Beach to have a bit of a dip and then rinse off under the shower near the bbq area. Coalmine Beach is not a great swimming beach by the way: I walk out about 150m and the water still hasn’t got to my waist. It feels great to rinse off though and it would have been horrible driving all the way home all sweaty. I call in at dad’s on the way but I don’t hang around too long as I am pretty tired. I get back to Perth about 8pm.
Bruce of the Bibbulmun 