Eric goes bush!

A brief account of my experiences on the Bibbulmun Track...

Day 1: Walpole to Frankland River. D: 18km, T: 5.30h
Still not alone, damnit! There's a couple who came from somewhere on the next leg and they're going back tomorrow. Did about 3 km/h today. I'd call the walk of medium difficulty, but that's probably due to my pack, which is rather heavy. The walk itself was v. beautiful - all forest. But this hut, this hut is something special. It's right on the side of the Frankland River. I could stay here for weeks, but that's not to be. No, I have to press on!

Day 2: Frankland River to Giants. D: 14km, T: 5h
I am absolutely knackered! This walk was short, but it tired me out completely. I'm alone tonight though and I'm looking forward to it! The only thing I'm worried about now is fire. My match has gotten wet and I had to quickly walk back to the Tree Top Walk to beg for matches. They weren't too happy about that - thought I'd use it to burn down the forest! Silly buggers. Dinner tonight is what I call Bush-tucker, Backpacker-style a.k.a. Thick Noodle Soup. It's not that difficult, but I like it. It's a basic packet of instant noodles, leek, courgette, tin of tomato&onion tuna, all with a healthy splash of garlic&herb salt. Besides that, it's stuff that comes in a tin for me. Of course it's not in a tin any more, but it used to be. Just like it used to be food...

Day 3: Giants to Rame Head. D: 19km, T: 5.15h
Rainy day today. Of course nothing that a few choruses (chori?) of It's Raining Men can't solve. So singing loudly and off-key I went on my way. Oh, and my hat is definitely water-proof. Reached to coastline today and it's a great change of scenery (though I wasn't sick of the forest at all!). I have to admit that this hiking thing is a lot harder than it looked/sounded. I may just pull out in Denmark...

Day 4: Rame Head to Peaceful Bay. D: 12km, T: 4.30h
I have never seen so many kangaroos about! They're just everywhere in this tiny little bit of nothing that is called Peaceful Bay. Walking to the shop from the chalet I'm staying in right now there were six just standing in the middle of the road, just looking at me. And then they decided I wasn't one of them (ya think?) and they hopped away. And there were many more encounters like that. The best one, of course, was also the first one. I was walking up a narrow path and as I turned the corner, I saw a big red kangaroo nibbling on a bush. It hopped away before I could take a picture, sadly.

Day 5: Peaceful Bay to Boat Harbour. D: 24km, T: 8.30h
What a day! I was well and truly dead by the time I got to the shelter. This is definitely one of the physically most exhausting things I have ever done! And on that note... I am definitely stopping in Denmark. I'll just take a bus to Albany, 'cause I can't do 12 days of this. It's lovely country, I'm sure, but when my head is down all the time, just looking at the few metres in front of me, it's not worth it.

Day 6: Boat Harbour to William Bay. D: 22km, T: 8h
A seven kilometre beachwalk! Absolutely beautiful, yes, but with the sand being very loose also quite tiring. But that didn't stop me from enjoying the beautiful scenery. Another walker actually caught up with me today! He's an End-to-Ender (someone doing the while 963km) and he's been reading the entries I left in every shelter's diary (they're a fun bed-time read!), so he came up asking me if I was that Eric. Yes, I was. We talked for a bit, he sped on, I trudged forwards. We're sharing the shelter tonight. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to arriving in Denmark tomorrow.

Day 7: William Bay to Denmark. D: 20km, T: 7.30h
The last leg is always the toughest, isn't it? Today I had to climb Mt. Hallowell and I swear that rock was trying to kill me! A large part of the 300-metre high hill is bare granite and with the rain we've had, it's extremely slippery. I only went bum-first on the ground once, but I've had too many near misses for comfort, including one that ended about two metres from a very steep drop. Brrrrrr... The best part of the day was Light's Beach - a twenty-metre beachwalk with the wildest, most uncontrolled bit of ocean I've ever seen.

Epilogue
In Denmark now and after a shower, a shave, a bacon&egg pie and a wash I have still decided to pull out here. The Track is amazing and going bush for a week was an adventure I wouldn't want to have missed, but I don't want 5 more days of it. I'll stop here and keep the good memories I have now.

Statistics
Days: 7
Total kilometres: 129
Time: 44:15h
Average speed: 2.91km
Mozzie bites: too many to count!
Themesongs: Eye Of The Tiger / It's Raining Men