Sunday November 27, 15.8km/9.8mi

Narcissus Hut (60.2/748m) to Cynthia Bay/ Southern Terminus (76.0/748m) (TAS)

After another night of bad sleep, I crawled out of my sleeping bag at 7:30 and wandered down to the lake to look for platypuses (platypii ?). I didn’t see any, just some undecided weather.

I went back to the hut and packed up, it was only a 16km walk to the finish so I wasn’t in a hurry. I finally left at 8:30 and enjoyed a nice quiet morning in the forest.

The clouds were getting lower and threatening to rain, but it stayed dry for now.

The trail followed along the west shore of the lake, but usually away from the shore, though a couple times it did emerge from the forest for a view.

After a couple of hours on a muddy, rooty trail I arrived to the final hut, Echo Point Hut.

It isn’t nearly in the same class as the previous huts, I would describe it as an emergency shelter only. It had 4 bunks, was dark and dirty, and I was greeted by a rat while sitting there.

It has a jetty on the lake, since the ferry occasionally does pick-ups here if requested.

Mt. Ida is looking very pointy across the lake.

I packed up and left the hut, and hiked the final 10km thru dense green forest to the finish.

One section of the trail was blanketed in ferns, which was a fun surprise to see.

Near the finish, I started seeing more trail junctions and signage. Platypus Bay!

This was an excellent specimen of clubmoss, a very ancient species of plant.

I crossed a river on a large bridge, right at the confluence of two streams. Neat!

The Overland Track finished at the visitor center, a large building with a cafe, bar, gift shop, and bathrooms.

I asked some passing dayhikers for a photo, and they told me to pose like the statue.

Part of the finish monument is a plaque with a bunch of random statistics about the track.

I signed the final trail register, marking my hike complete!

On my way to the cafe, I noticed this sign, and it was impossible not to oblige.

A Peppermint chocolate chip cone tastes better after 76km of hiking!

I made it a few more steps to the bathrooms when I noticed they had showers too. Free showers!

I knew my bunkhouse tonight had paid showers, so I decided to get a shower now instead. A hot shower never felt so good. After a week in cold wind, snow, and feeling flu-ish…it was amazing. After getting clean, I finally made it into the cafe.

I ordered a chicken burger and chips, and had one of the best pale ales I’ve ever tasted. Trapper & Miggins is a Tasmanian local beer.

While I was waiting for my food, I noticed a plaque on the wall, showing the annual speed records for the Overland Track. 7.5 hours for males, 8.5 hours for females… that’s crazy fast.

It takes most people a week to hike the 76km/47mi. I finished my food and walked 5 minutes over to the bunkhouse, which was a clean & simple setup.

I turned on the heat pump, as it’s forecasted to be 2C tonight, and spread out my stuff to dry. A little while later, a group I had met a couple days ago at Kia Ora Hut had arrived. They were fun to talk with, and I spent the evening in the bunkhouse dining room hanging out and attempting to learn their complicated Italian card game, haha.

Tomorrow I have a lazy morning, and will catch a bus at 2pm to Hobart, where I will regroup and plan the final 3 weeks of my Australia trip.

Saturday November 26, 27.8km/17.3mi

Bert Nichols Hut (50.4/891m) to Narcissus Hut (60.2/748m) (TAS) + 18.0 Acropolis

I woke up to find this view from the hut, which is encouraging.

The weather wasn’t great the last 2 days, with low clouds, fog, and occasional rain. Today’s weather seemed nice enough for a side hike to Pine Valley and Acropolis Mt! The first 5km was on the Overland Track, and it was enjoyable walking.

These bright red flowers have started to make an appearance everywhere.

The trail follows the Narcissus River here, and the whole valley is pretty wet and green.

Just over an hour after leaving the hut, I arrived to the trail junction for Pine Valley. The weather was still looking great, so I turned up that trail.

Right away, I crossed the Narcissus River on a long swingbridge.

The lower part of this valley was more open with meadows, and I could see a bunch of mountains ahead to the north.

After awhile, I was back in the forest, with all these nice boardwalks to keep me out of the swamps.

The Pine Valley trail followed Cephissus Creek upstream for 5km, crossing it a couple of times on swingbridges.

I immediately noticed when I was in Pine Valley, as all the trees were various species of dense short pines.

The Pine Valley hut was a simple, but nice hut. I think it fits 16 people, though there was only one person there when I arrived.

I’m not sure what a coal-powered toilet is, and I didn’t want to find out.

I noticed that some of these signs up here had not been updated in over 50 years, this one still had the elevation in feet!

I had a nice snack break in the hut, and since the weather was still great, I decided to hike Acropolis Mt. I mostly emptied my backpack, keeping only food, water, and some warm clothing. I hiked a little further up Pine Valley before climbing out of it up a steep hillside. At the top of the hill was a nice ridge with a very long boardwalk, and excellent reviews of my objective ahead.

Once I climbed up to 1300m, little patches of snow started to appear on the trail.

Looking behind me to the south, I could see Lake St Clair, where I will be finishing tomorrow.

Most of the trail was easy scrambling over small boulders through here, and I kept wondering how I was going to get through the upper cliff band. The trail had an answer. It was one spot with a gap in the cliff band, but it still had one very steep move.

After pulling myself up on top of that block, the rest of the way to the top was easy. View to the south:

View to the North:

South again, from the summit:

The requisite summit selfie:

The view to the west, looking down at “The Labyrinth”, a maze of lakes and ponds. It was the other hiking option from the Pine Valley Hut.

View to the Southwest, I think that is Mt Gould, the Minotaur, and the Parthenon.

I stayed on the summit for half an hour, catching up on my phone messages and making plans for the next hike. I climbed and hiked back down to the hut, which was quite a bit faster.

After accidentally finishing my jar of Nutella, I decided I had eaten enough and it was time to continue hiking. It was uneventful, and I was back on the Overland track in just over an hour.

I could tell I was getting closer to Narcissus hut, as the boardwalks became more numerous.

I crossed the Narcissus River one final time, using the only swingbridge on the entire Overland track. (The others today were on the Pine Valley trail).

It was fun to follow the Narcissus River for a few minutes before arriving at the hut.

Narcissus Hut is at the top end of Lake St Clair, which is known for platypus sightings.

The hut itself was small, it fit only 12 people, and there were definitely at least 12 people there. I don’t like feeling claustrophobic so I took a walk down to the jetty to see the lake, and hopefully a platypus.

Many hikers (most?) pay $50 to take the ferry from here to the finish, skipping 16km/10mi of trail. Not me, I wanna walk the whole trail. I kept looking for platypus, or any signs of disturbance in the water, but it was difficult with the raindrops.

I walked the 300m back to the hut, and lounged on the front porch, which had a nice view of the Narcissus river.

I chatted with some of the other people, only one of which was an Overland track hiker. Most of them were a big family group enjoying a weekend out, and 2 them were ultrarunners… who were planning on leaving tomorrow at 5am to run to Jerusalem National Park. I think that’s like a 70km round trip!
I finished my dinner, and then stood on the riverbank looking for a platypus. After awhile it started to rain, so I went inside and went to bed. Tomorrow is the finish!

Friday November 25, 22.9km/14.2mi

New Pelion Hut (32.7/863m) to Bert Nichols Hut (50.4/891m) (TAS) + 3.6 Mt Ossa + 1.6 Hartnett Falls

The day started off with a surprise as I wandered into the dining room for breakfast…a real polaroid camera!

The owner is a guy from Wellington (NZ) who is using it for his hike, he said he wanted instant photos, ha! I packed up and left the hut just before 8am, and started up the long gradual 4km climb up to Pelion Gap. It was mostly thru forest and moss.

The trail was really well built thru this section, with really wide bridges over every small creek.

It must be a really wet place year-round, everything was so covered in moss.

At Pelion Gap, there is a trail junction to Mt Ossa, the highest point in Tasmania. This was a swampy area, so they built a massive boardwalk at the trail junction so groups could take a break.

Mt. Ossa is 1617m tall, and a 2.6km side trip, so it would add 5.2km to my day.

Even the side trail up Mt. Ossa was very well built.

It climbed pretty steeply up to the first bump on the ridge, Mt Doris, on hundreds of newly-built stairs.

At the top of the stairs I looked behind me and saw Mt. Pelion East (el. 1408m), another summit across Pelion Gap.

Looking ahead, I saw my intended summit hiding in a cloud (and Mt Doris to the right).

As I circumnavigated Mt Doris, I hiked through an area called the Japanese garden.

With less than one kilometer to go, I could now see the top of my intended summit, buried in a cloud and looking very windy.

Mt. Doris behind me:

I climbed about halfway up the remainder of the climb, and the leftover snow was getting deeper. It took me 15 minutes to travel 100m, while post-holing up to my knees…no thanks.

At that rate it would have taken me almost 2 more hours to get to the top, and I didn’t have 2 hours of good weather remaining, so I turned around. On the hike out, I got one final look at the summit that I will be back for.

Once I got back down to the trail junction, it started to rain. Sideways. I was glad to be hiking on these nice boardwalks, and not up on an exposed summit.

The next hut was only 4km away, and I made good time with good boardwalks underfoot and the wind at my back.

Kia Ora hut came into view, it’s another very modern hut that seemed like it was built only weeks ago.

Another cute welcome sign, this time with an Eastern Quoll.

As I said in the hut eating my lunch and reading the trail journal, this page caught my eye as it was especially applicable today. So many types of rain!

The view of Mt Massif from Kia Ora hut.

The rain had stopped for now, so I continued my hike. Most of the trail was in the forest this afternoon with a bunch of wet slippery tree roots.

Half an hour later, I came to a really old hut that clearly had not been used as reasonable shelter in decades.

The inside of Ducane Hut looked ancient, like a scene from a 1920s mining camp.

I had a nice snack break inside there, as the rain decided to come back for 15 minutes. These clouds are so indecisive up here in Tasmanian highcountry. I left the hut and in an hour I was tempted by a trail junction to Hartnett Falls.

I left my backpack on the bench at the junction, and jogged the 800m to the waterfalls. I was hoping the falls were raging after all the recent rain and snowfall, and I wasn’t disappointed.

It was so loud it hurt my ear, and I walked downstream a little bit to another viewpoint.

I couldn’t see as well thru the bushes, but I could tell the river was much higher than normal, the tree branches were in the water on the banks. Yikes. This spot is also a jumpoff point to Walls of Jerusalem National Park, but that route requires fording this river, which would currently be fatal. (I’ll visit in a car from another entrance). I jogged back up to my backpack and continued back on the Overland Track. The climb up to DuCane Gap was nice, into the afternoon sun and on boardwalks.

An hour after the Gap I arrived at Bert Nichols hut, named for an old hunter/trapper/guide in this area.

His welcome sign wasn’t as enlightening as the others.

The inside was huge, though not as fancy and polished as the previous huts. I think this one was built in 2000.

There were probably 20 other people there, and it looked like they had been there for many hours. It’s funny here on the Overland, when people arrive to a hut at noon, they just call it a day, instead of hiking to the next one like on most other trails. I shared a table with a nice couple from Melbourne, and they gave me some more Tassie hiking ideas, in case my plans for Western Arthurs doesn’t work out. I was in bed by 9pm, still feeling mildly flu-ish and coughing tons, which was annoying.

Thursday November 24, 22.2km/13.8mi

Waterfall Hut (10.5/1025m) to New Pelion Hut (32.7/863m) (TAS)

I didn’t sleep well last night, and had a mild fever and all the usual flu things, so I slept in until 8am. It was also still drizzling outside and it wasn’t forecasted to stop until 9am, so I was in no hurry.

I took some more photos of the hut’s interior, to show how insanely nice these things are.

As good as the best self-service huts in New Zealand! After some ibuprofen, decongestant, and caffeine I was feeling better. And the precipitation stopped at 9:30, so off I went!

The signs here give the distances in hours/minutes, which is a rather imprecise way to do it. I find I can usually hike in 2/3rds of the stated time. Much of the morning hiking was on boardwalks…but occasionally those just randomly ended. Thank goodness for waterproof socks!

The trail stayed high all morning, going across the alpine plateau. I think the park calls it moorland.

I would guess that 70% of the trail was on boardwalk this morning, it was rather nice. And the blue sky was also trying to make an appearance.

I came upon Lake Holmes, which to me looked more like a large pond.

Looking back on Lake Holmes:

Also in the distance in that photo is a large group, stopped at the trail junction to Lake Will, an easy 1km side trail. I didn’t make the journey because I figured there wouldn’t be any views with the fog. In another 30 minutes I was at a much bigger lake, Lake Windermere.

Along the lakeshore were growing all these gum trees. The stripey patterns on the bark are crazy.

Even with my late departure from the hut this morning, I still arrived at the next hut for lunchtime. These new huts are massive!

Each hut has its own animal to welcome you. Windermere hut!

The dining area looked like it belonged in an upscale cafe! I enjoyed my lunch burrito while staring at the surrounding mountains.

Even the bathrooms look extravagant. They are still wilderness composting toilets, but with much polish and shine.

Most of my afternoon hiking was on a trail that gradually descended into the Forth River valley, with views of Mt. Oakleigh ahead.

And of course it was nice to have boardwalks for all the swampy bits.

I came across a new feature of the boardwalks that I hadn’t seen before, the name of the area carved into the board.

More views of mountains in clouds.

The junction to the neat little lookout over Forth Valley.

The lookout was a short 50m down a side trail and totally worth it.

It even had a stone bench seat!

Soon the trail left the grassy moorlands and entered a nice mossy forest.

Soon after, I saw this uniquely Australian animal. What are you?

As I got lower in elevation, there were constant little stream crossings and waterfalls.

I loved walking thru this green carpeted forest.

I don’t know the names of these two peaks, but they had very unique profiles.

The final stream crossing was over the Forth River itself.

Then it was time to climb up out of the valley, which surprisingly was on a boardwalk (it had been a muddy rooty mess for the past 2 hours).

Just before 6pm, New Pelion Hut came into view.

It was a huge hut with 6 bunkrooms holding 34 hikers total. I opened the door…

And needless to say, the funk of 30+ hikers’ wet gear was the first thing I noticed. And most of their socks and shoes were outside on the porch!

I chose one of the remaining bunks and setup, and then enjoyed my salmon and pesto ravioli dinner on the porch. The view can’t be beat!

I eventually finished my dinner (still don’t feel well, and not that hungry), and ended up talking to two women from Adelaide for a long time about American backpacking gear. Apparently we take for granted how lightweight and cheap our gear is, and so widely available too. Who knew!

Wednesday November 23, 12.7km/7.9mi

Ronny Creek Carpark (0.0/868m) to Waterfall Hut (10.5/1025m) (TAS) +2.2 to Cradle Mt.

I was awake at 6am, so I could pack up, shower, and eat before leaving the hostel at 7am. I walked the 1km to the CBD, to meet the bus for a 7:30am departure. The driver was really friendly and apologetic, and explained that due to a windstorm, the usual road was closed due to downed power lines. We took a detour that turned the 2-hour drive into a 3.5 hour drive. Ugh. At least the trip was also an interpretive tour, and the driver explained various landmarks along the way, including these murals in the small town of Sheffield.

We finally got to the park visitor center at noon, which was a huge modern facility.

Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park seems to attract tons of tourists, there were shuttle buses and parking everywhere. Part of the process to pickup the camping permit was to watch a safety video, complete and sign a checklist for all the required gear items, and talk with a ranger about the track history and expectations. They provided a nice little pack-up room for all this, which had a backpack scale (13kg with food and microspikes!) and charging outlets.

And of course a fun map showing the elevation profile of all 75km of the trail.

The shuttle bus took me from the visitor center to the trailhead, which took twice as long due to road construction. Eesh. By the time I got to the sign-in kiosk, it was 3pm.

The start of the Overland Track is very well advertised.

I found a group of dayhikers to get my starting photo. It was sunny, but also 10C and windy, hence the pants.

Much of the first kilometer was on boardwalk thru the marshy buttongrass meadow.

I love the alpine environment and all its little streams and carpet-like greenery.

I saw probably a couple dozen dayhikers, this section seemed exceptionally popular and well-built.

Eventually the trail left the boardwalk and started to climb, following a creek with lots of little waterfalls. And some bigger ones, like Crater Falls.

They even built a wooden platform to take a break on, and a stair to get down into the creek!

At the top of that climb, I came to Crater Lake, which has nothing to do with craters.. Strangely, this little shed sat partially in the water.

Crater Lake, with Crater Peak behind it.

And then… another climb. This one was much steeper.

I reached the top of that climb at Marion’s Lookout, and it was gratifying to see all the uphill progress I made. Crater Lake:

And Dove Lake, to the east:

Now that I was up at an elevation of 1200m/3900ft, I was in the remaining patchy snow from Monday’s snowstorm. The uniquely shaped Barn Bluff is straight ahead:

I came to the Kitchen Hut, which is an emergency shelter.

I dropped off my pack in there (minus my headlamp, some snacks, and warm clothes) to do a quick side-hike up Cradle Mt.

The junction to the summit trail was only 100m from the hut.

It started off as a gently climbing trail thru some snow.

As I got higher, the snow lessened and the angle steepened.

There was a cool little window in some of the boulders.

The final pitch to the top was a steep rocky scramble.

The views from the top!

It looked like some low clouds were moving in from the west, and my weather app confirmed rain starting at 7pm. It was currently 5pm, with a 45 minute descent, and a 5km hike to do. Game on, weather! Back on the Overland Track, it continued its direct south aim towards Barn Bluff.

And this weird little emergency shelter.

Just before I descended off the windy alpine plateau, a trail junction gave the option to go hike Barn Bluff.

Sorry, not today, all the bus delays took up too much time. I dropped into Waterfall Valley on a very nice set of stairs.

And just before 7pm, I was there! This is one of the newly built huts, they are huge.

I think it sleeps 34 people among the 3 bunkrooms, plus it had a separate toilet building and a huge dining area.

There were plenty of other people there (20?) and I was almost the last to arrive, one family did arrive after me though. I setup my sleeping mattress and quilt on a top bunk (it’s warmer) and quickly made my dinner. I was starving but also didn’t feel like eating, but I knew I had to maintain my calories. As I was going to bed, it started to feel like a flu…that’s terrible timing. 5 more days to go!

Sunday November 20 – Tuesday November 22, 0km/0mi

Launceston (TAS)

I had a direct flight from Perth to Launceston, which took 4 hours. Combined with the 3-hour time difference from Perth, I arrived at 8pm to the tiny airport. A rainstorm was raging underneath the plane, which was fun to watch from the comfort of indoors.

I found my favorite chocolate, Whittaker’s, which is from new Zealand. It disappeared too quickly on a long flight.

I checked-in to the Arthouse Hostel, a cool old Victorian building on the north side of Launceston.

The North Esk River ran right in front of the hostel.

I walked the 1km to the CBD (downtown) to get some groceries, supplies, and a meal. This cafe had a clever “Back to the Future” reference in its name!

The CBD reminded me old some older industrial cities in the Northeast US, like Hartford or Erie.

I love the registration plates here, “Explore the Possibilities”. Perfect for promoting tourism. Also, this 1988 Toyota Camry was in amazingly good shape for being 33 years old.

The weather forecast for Cradle Mountain -Lake St. Clair National Park was for 30-50cm of snow on Monday. My permit start date is Wednesday, so I’m hoping most of it will melt in 2 days, but I still bought microspikes to be safe. Ugh. I now own microspikes on 3 continents…

I went to a nice restaurant for dinner on Tuesday night, and ate some of the best salmon I’ve ever had. Well done, Tasmania.

After dinner, I did some map studying and planning, which I love. I could look at maps for hours…so many possibilities for adventure!

The plan was to connect to the Walls of Jerusalem National Park on a side trail and some light bushwhacking. But if the Mersey river is flowing too high (and it probably will be, from snowmelt), then I’ll skip that 2-day side trip and just do the Overland Track (with minor side hikes) in 5 days. I walked back to the hostel, re-crossing the North Esk River. I loved seeing the crew teams out rowing their shells! Reminded me of home, and watching Cornell university students rowing.

I did my final packing, and went to bed in an empty dorm room (apparently the 2 other people had left). Excited for the Overland Track tomorrow!

Thursday November 17, 28.2km/17.5mi

1km N of Quininup Beach exit (97.0/23m) to Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse (124.2/98m) (WA) + 1km Shelley Cove

I was awake at 5:30 and noticed that it had just finished raining. When I emerged from the bushes and hiked out a half-hour later, I had this amazing rainbow waiting for me over the ocean.

Apparently it hadn’t finished raining, as it rained a couple more times for 5 minutes at a time. The clouds were moody looking all morning.

The trail was on a very nice wide track, perfect for a wet morning. Narrow trails are miserable when all the plants are wet.

These were my views pretty much all morning. It’s a very easy trail for navigation – to keep heading north, just keep the sea on your left.

Then it was time to descend to Injidup Beach!

Most of the time, the trail stays high on the ridges, because the coast is rocky and sometimes dangerous at high tide. But when there are beaches, the trail usually makes a point to cross them. This beach was nice hard sand walking.

I loved seeing the contrast of the red rocks, green bushes, and blue sea.

Looking across Wyadup Bay. I climbed that hill behind the water.

There were some Parks department workers doing some trail maintenance, and I told them about the brown water at the campsite yesterday. They said they would go check it out tomorrow, and it was probably soil being blown into the tank by the wind. As I continued, I noticed the weather had taken a pause on the rain. I had a nice view back to Canal Rocks.

This was just a really cool tree. Not tall at all, but very sprawling.

If I wasn’t constantly hearing the roar of the ocean (and seeing it), I would think I was hiking in the desert. This scenery looks just like Nevada or the southern PCT.

As I was walking along Smith’s Beach, I saw many fins in the water! Bottlenose dolphins, apparently. They swim in groups called pods.

Different country, same problems. Some greedy developer wants to encroach on the National Park, and circumvent a bunch of laws to do so. Gross.

Smith’s Beach was empty, I think because of the cooler weather. I had it to myself!

These rocks made the beach quite narrow at one point, I’m guessing at high tide you would have to time your steps with the waves.

After I left the beach I came to a junction where this sign was posted. There was a detour around the beach, good thing they informed us at end of the detour! Ha.

I believe these are called peppermint trees. They usually grow straight but in this constantly windy climate they tend to grow crooked.

Just before lunchtime I came to the tiny beach town of Yallingup. They had a nice little park and some shops, so I bought an ice cream bar and sat down and had a snack.

These things are amazing, they taste like a waffle with real maple syrup. Plus ice cream, of course.

I’ve seen a few trucks like this over the past month that I’ve been in WA. “No birds?” What do people have against birds here?!

I left the tiny town and hiked back into the bush. The sun was fully out now, and it was starting to feel warm….which means lookout for snakes.

Also lizards, apparently.

I kept watching the ocean looking for whales, as this is on the migration route for two different species of whales, the Southern Right whale, and the Humpback whale.

I thought I saw one, but it could have just been a large wave. I should get my distance vision corrected, haha. All afternoon was walking through the bushes above the sea.

I knew I was nearing the end of the Cape to Cape track when I saw the Trail registration book. I sign my name and details just like when I had started this trail 5 days ago.

The last 3km the trail are paved, to make it accessible for mobility impaired people.

It was easy enjoyable walking. And I saw three snakes, trying to warm themselves on the dark pavement.

If the trail traversed a rocky or wet section, the pavement would turn to boardwalk.

I made it to the end of the trail! Cape Naturaliste.

You can see the outside of the Lighthouse for free, but for $15 you can get a guided tour inside up to the top level. It was just before 4pm, so I decided to get the last tour of the day. Our guide explaining the history of the area:

The Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse! It’s only 19m tall, but it’s built on a 101m hill, so effectively it’s 120m tall.

The interior had just been refurbished earlier this year. Everything was so white and shiny!

Up, up, up the spiral staircase…

The top level held the motor and some associated wiring. The Lighthouse was built in 1903 and was initially lit by kerosene, then incandescent bulbs, and now LEDs.

The view to the north, past the furthest point of Cape Naturaliste.

The requisite trail finish photo.

When I was on the top level of the lighthouse I stepped outside to get a view, and a gust of wind blew off my hat and sunglasses. I recovered both items, but only the hat remained intact. Oops.

It was now 4:30pm, so it was time to find a place to camp. I hiked 1km away from the lighthouse towards Shelley Cove, and I found a nice little spot tucked into the trees by a car park. Even though I’m done with the trail, tomorrow morning I will have a 12km walk into town, where I meet a bus at 9:30am.

Another great trail!

Wednesday November 16, 32.4km/20.1mi

Kilcarnup Beach (64.6/13m) to 1km N of Quininup Beach exit (97.0/23m) (WA)

I packed up a wet tent (condensation) and hiked down to the beach at 6:45am. There was a neat fog over the hillsides.

I was only on Kilcarnup Beach for 1km, but I saw tons of birds. Seagulls, Cockatoos, Wrens, and lots of vociferous ducks.

After leaving the beach, the trail spent the next 2 hours weaving thru the coastal bushland. Most of the time it was quite overgrown and I was hiking in a scratchy green tunnel.

When I had a view, I could still see the sea, as I never got too far from the coast.

At 9am I arrived at Ellensbrook camp, where I refilled my water and sat on the ground to take a break.

Like the previous campsite, there was no shelter or tables to rest at, so I just sat on the ground. This trail seems much more popular than the Bibbulmun or Larapinta, yet the camping infrastructure seeing the lacking. There’s also only 4 campsites, and they are spaced at weird intervals, probably why I haven’t camped at one yet. A few minutes after I left the campsite, I passed by Meekadarribee Falls.

There wasn’t much to see, but it had a neat origin story from the local people. The word means “bathing place of the moon”. Another kilometer down the trail, I came to the Ellensbrook heritage site.

I didn’t pay the $10 to go inside and get all the details, but it was built in 1857 for/by one of the first European families to settle in this area. After leaving that tourist area, I was back next to the sea.

This coast is a very popular surfing area, and a bunch of these little bays have nicknames, like “umbies” and “lefties”.

There were also a few memorials along the trail this morning to various local surfers who had died doing what they loved.

This view is what most of my day looked like, hiking on a cliff above the sea through bushes and wildflowers.

I came around a corner to find this lizard running directly at me, as a hiker walking towards me scared him down the path. Now he was trapped in the middle! I think it’s a Monitor.

He scurried off the side of the trail, and both of us humans had a good laugh.

More wildflowers by the sea.

Sea views all morning!

At 11:30, I came to the tiny village of Gracetown, and I stopped at the general store for a snack.

A breakfast burrito counts as a snack right?

After 30 minutes of eating and charging my phone, I continued on. The trail was a little difficult to follow through the cliffs outside of town, as there was a maze of intersecting trails made by locals. Eventually I got back up on the ridge above the sea.

After a couple of hours I passed by the Wilyabrup cliffs, where I saw a group of people packing up a rope.

I wonder if there is climbing here?! That would be cool. The saunter above the sea continued.

I arrived to the Moses Rock campsite at 3:30 and refilled my water bottle.

Unfortunately, the water tank did not contain just water. It was a medium brown color, gross.

This was very strange, as I have used dozens of these tanks along the other trails in Australia and have always had clean water. I decided to continue hiking, as there was a waterfall another hour north of the campsite. As I was leaving, a southbound hiker had just arrived and we exchanged trail information for a little while. I left the nice campsite and hiked into the stormy afternoon. There were little viewpoints built every kilometer or so, and I could see the approaching clouds.

The little rainclouds were scattered and very intermittent, so I was able to mostly dodge any moisture. This section of trail was better built, and there was a nice elevated walking platform through the swampy areas.

When I got to the trail junction for the waterfall, I hiked the 300m side trail thru soft sand to Quininup Falls.

I’m glad I made the side trip, hiking in soft sand is such a pain but it was a peaceful little spot and I was able to refill my water bottles with cold & clean water. I re-joined the main trail at the beach, near these cool rock formations.

I hiked another kilometer, back uphill into the bushes. It was 5:30 and now that I had my water, I was ready to find a campsite. There were plenty of little viewpoints that were flat, but unfortunately were very windy.

I found a nice sheltered campsite a few minutes later. It’s quite sheltered, it’s kinda hard to spot the tent!

A closer view.

I got my tent setup quickly, before any rainclouds decided to come over and visit. Then I wandered over to a viewpoint to watch the setting sun.

Back in my tent I was doing my evening ritual of cleaning up and changing into my sleeping clothes. My shoes and socks were so full of sand, I was able to dump them out and make a small pile!

By the time I finished eating dinner and writing my journal, it was dark and time for bed. Tomorrow is the last day of this trail!

Tuesday November 15, 30.3km/18.8mi

Boranup Hill Lookout (34.3/190m) to Kilcarnup Beach (64.6/13m) (WA)

The wind had died down overnight, and when I woke up at 6am it was perfectly calm. The first couple of hours was spent walking along old roads, which is my favorite type of trail in snake country.

And there did seem to be plenty of snakes around as I saw evidence of their passing by. Snake tracks!

Eventually the burned coastal landscape turned into a nice Karri forest.

I thought about taking a break at Point Road campground, but it was all taped off and closed.

It was strange because even though it was in the burn zone, the campground itself looked perfectly fine. I hiked another 15 minutes and took a break at the Conto campground instead. After refilling my water bottle and snacking, I came across this lizard on the hike out. He was unhappy to move from his nice sunny spot in the middle of the trail.

A few minutes later, and I was approaching the coast again.

The trail weaved closer…

…and closer.

For an hour I hiked on a cliff above the beach, and I could see people down there swimming and napping.

The trail was still in a burn zone, but nature has a way of renewing itself pretty quickly. These little purple flowers covered the ground near the trail.

And the whole area was full of bright green new vegetation.

And then the trail started to descend to the beach again, to an area called Bob’s Hollow.

There were plenty of little limestone cliffs on the way down.

And some of them even had shallow caves in their base.

I thought about stopping at Bobs Hollow for lunch, but it was still early so I kept going for a little while. One of these things is not like the other….

As I rounded the corner, Redgate Beach came into view.

Even from this distance, I could see the beach was crowded with sunbathers and surfers.

When I got down to the beach, I had a good time watching a group of people try to surf the waves.

Apparently this beach is the home of the famous Margaret River surf school.

I stopped at the far end of the beach, and had lunch on a nice flat warm rock.

I spent at least an hour on that rock… eating and napping. After lunch I had a beach walk, which was on some very soft sand, fortunately it was only for 20 minutes.

I was glad to leave the beach and hike back up into the dunes again. I had noticed something the past couple days, that all of the trail marker posts seem to have a blank spot on the side, it looked like something had recently been pried off.

By now I had hiked by hundreds of trail markers and they all looked similar. Weird. I wonder what the pried-off piece used to be. I continued uphill along Boodjidup Creek…

…before crossing it on this very nicely engineered bridge.

The other side of the creek had a beautiful little green oasis, with a bench and a flat spot that looked perfect for camping.

I took the bench as an invitation to have a snack, and then I climbed up 340 stairs to the top of the hill. Even though I had been in the National Park this entire time, I didn’t see a sign for it until now.

I had a relaxing couple of hours in the afternoon following old roads through forests.

Near the end of the day I came upon the final obstacle, the Margaret River.

I would have to wade across the river, and supposedly it’s less than knee deep. In winter and early spring it can be quite deep, so there is a detour around this spot. I saw little kids playing in the river, so I knew it was quite shallow. I took off my socks and shoes and easily walked across.

I put my shoes back on and exited the beach back up into the dunes. I walked for another 20 minutes, getting some amazing clifftop views.

I hit my 30km goal for the day, so I stopped and setup camp in the bushes at the southern entrance to Kilcarnup Beach.

After dinner I walked the short 100m down to the beach itself, to catch the sunset.

Another great day!

Monday November 14, 31.6km/19.6mi

Skippy Lookout (2.7/75m) to Boranup Hill Lookout (34.3/190m) (WA)

I slept great in my little camping spot tucked into the bushes, and the bright sun was streaming in by 6am. I hiked out at 6:30, and spent the first couple of hours hiking through the bushes above the coast.

Every once in awhile I would get a viewpoint, and I could see back to the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse that I started at yesterday.

I could also see down to the ocean below me, which was crashing loudly on the rock cliffs.

Eventually I descended through some sandy dunes and down to a beach. The soft sand was very slow going but it didn’t last long.

I walked along Deepdene Beach for 8km, and it was pretty nice walking down near the water where the sand was firmer.

Occasionally there were these rocky limestone outcroppings, and some of them had the weirdest formations. A giant hole!

This one was a big slab that was all cracked throughout.

These insanely bright purple flowers grew all along the edges of the rock in the sand.

When I was stopped for a snack break, this bird came over and was looking for a snack of his own. It kinda looks like the photo of the Hooded Plover in my guidebook, an endangered coastal bird.

The beach walk went on all morning and was very relaxing.

At the northern end of the beach was an area called Elephant rocks.

These lizards loved sunning themselves on all the warm rocks. At first I did not know the lizards were there, and the first one made me jump a little bit. They’re about half a meter long.

The water was making these cool sounds as it sloshed against the big rocks.

And there were many more of those large erosion holes.

Eventually the rock became so eroded that it looked like a miniature version of the needles district in Canyonlands National Park (US).

The trail climbed away from the beach and for 30 minutes I was back in the bushes.

I passed by this modern lighthouse on a hilltop.

I also had good phone signal up there, so I updated my journal and checked my messages. I love the variety of this trail, it’s not all in the bushes or all on the beach.

When I descended back to the beach, the ocean had some interesting turquoise colors to show off.

The beach walk was pretty easy and only lasted a kilometer.

When I arrived to Hamelin Bay Beach, there were tons of people, cars, and interpretive signs. This area had once been used for shipping lumber from the inland of Australia to around the world. Some of the pilings from the old pier were still visible, the pier had mostly been destroyed over 100 years ago by a fire.

So many people!

This area had a caravan park (campground) so I stopped into their little store to buy a cold drink and some ice cream.

I met another couple there, they were hiking this trail southbound, as most other hikers seem to be doing. They weren’t very talkative, so after a few attempts I abandoned conversation and they returned to their phones. After finishing my food and refilling my water bottle I continued back on the beach.

Hamelin Bay Beach went on for awhile, it was 6km long, and I saw 4 more hikers heading south.

I realized it was only 3pm, and I would be at my planned camp spot within the hour. So I took a very long break on the beach and just laid there on the sand reading my book. Eventually I hiked on, and soon I climbed off the beach up onto the ridge. The spot I had planned to camp at and been burned over.

So I hiked on for another 30 minutes before finding a great spot on top of a little lookout. It was almost ideal – on bare ground, under trees, and away from water. But later in the evening it became quite windy, and I had to readjust the tent stakes to make the fabric stop flapping. Ugh. At least it had great views of the entire surrounding area and a pretty killer sunset (I forgot to get a photo).