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).

Sunday November 13, 2.7km/1.7mi

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse (0.0/15m) to Skippy Lookout (2.7/75m) (WA)

I didn’t sleep well in the busy hostel, with people coming/going all night. I packed up, grabbed a breakfast sandwich from the cafe next door, and boarded my 8am bus.

Most of the day was uneventful; it was neat seeing all of the towns that I had just hiked through from the comfort of a bus seat. There was no direct bus from Albany to Augusta, which would have been a 4-hour ride. Instead I spent all morning on a bus going west to the coastal city of Bunbury, then changing buses and going south to Augusta. I got off the bus and Augusta at 5:30pm, and immediately started hitchhiking. The third vehicle picked me up, and a nice guy Murray drove me the 10 minutes to the trailhead. He was a super cool guy and was actually a local hiking guide, so I got some good advice for where to camp tonight. He dropped me off at 5:45, and I spent a few minutes getting pictures of the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse.

It was under construction so I couldn’t get very close. Zoom lens was helpful!

I had the good timing to cross paths with a couple day hikers, who were nice enough to get my photo for the start of the trail.

After 15 minutes of getting photos and reading all the signs, I started hiking at 6pm. It started off walking along the ocean on these nice smooth rocks.

I soon passed by an old waterwheel, which was built in 1895 to supply water to the lighthouse and the keepers’ cottages.

From this vantage point I had a little better angle on a photo of the lighthouse.

The trail would alternate between beach and bushwalking. When it dropped down to the beach, there were often a nice set of stairs.

The trail markers were a neat blue and gold theme, just like my old high school colors.

About 2km into the hike I passed by the first trail register. Well signing in, I noticed that most of the previous hikers were southbounders and had finished here.

I hiked on for a few more minutes, and then found a nice spot to setup camp at a lookout point.

It was 6:45 and the sunset over the Indian Ocean looked really neat with all the clouds.

It was a long day on the bus today so it felt good to stretch my legs and hike just a little bit, even if I didn’t get very far. And camping next to the sounds of the ocean reminds me of the Pacific Northwest Trail or the Te Araroa!

Saturday November 12, 35.1km/21.8mi

Torbay Campsite (913.5/67m) to Southern Terminus / Albany (948.6/4m) (WA)

I heard noises all night, and when I woke up, there was a large mammal searching the ground for food or crumbs. Apparently this critter is called a Quenda (southern brown bandicoot), and is only found in southern Australia. Neat!

I hiked out early at 6am, knowing I had a big day to get to the finish in Albany. After a couple of km in the forest, I dropped down to the beach one final time.

The beachwalk was beautiful but *very* windy, fortunately the wind was mostly at my back.

The waves were massive, probably enlarged from all the wind over the past 24 hours. There were also some dark rainclouds slowly approaching.

These little guys were washed up everywhere, it is a bluebottle jellyfish. I was careful not to touch one, since even after death they can cause hours of pain.

The view ahead, Shelter Island is on the right, it is a sanctuary for rare marine birds. Cool.

The bluebottles were fascinating, they aren’t very big, about the size of a clementine orange.

After 6km, I left the nice beach, and up 181 stairs.

The view looking back to what I walked so far today. It was low tide, so it was easy beachwalking on the hard sand.

Another view of Shelter Island.

Just after I reentered the bush, the rain started. Fortunately, the vegetation blocked most of the wind, so I only got wet from the neck up.

Apparently it’s always a little windy here, since they decided to build dozens of wind turbines along the coast.

I love seeing these machines, and the cleaner future they represent.

For 30 minutes I was in a proper forest with trees, which was nice as there was no wind at all!

For the rest of my morning, this was my view, just walking east and keeping the ocean on my right side.

Towards some of the tourist-accessible lookouts, the path had been upgraded to a nice boardwalk. This one went on for hundreds of meters…so much lumber.

With the colder day and nice boardwalks, I could look at the views more, since I wasn’t as worried about snakes.

I stopped for an early lunch break at Sandpatch campsite, the last shelter on the trail. I ate the rest of my cheese and tortillas, all my Oreos, and saved one granola bar for the final 2 hours of walking.

The view ahead into Albany, behind the foggy bay

The trail dropped down from the ridgetop, away from the ocean, and entered the outskirts of Albany. I followed a paved bike path for an hour.

The view across the bay to Albany is foggy as ever.

Directly on the trail, just 4km from the finish, was a distillery! I had to stop and have a look. Best whisky in the southern hemisphere…how can I lose?

I tried 3 of their creations, sampling them both “neat” and with a few drops of water, which changes the flavors a bit.

After 45 minutes, I was back on trail, and entered Albany proper.

The finish! It took me a month to reach the Southern Terminus of the Bibbulmun, with so many neat people, animals, and plants along the way.

The weather was still doing its intermittent misting thing, so my rainshell was permanent attire today.

When hikers arrive to the southern terminus, you traditionally go into the visitor center and ring a big bell to announce/celebrate your finish. But…they close early on Saturdays. Boo. I got there at 3pm, and they closed at 2pm.

The rest of the afternoon, I walked around town doing errands, buying food and a fuel canister for my next hike, the Cape-to-Cape Track. I get on a bus at 8am tomorrow morning, and the bus drops me off near the start of that trail at 5pm, so this was my only chance to resupply.

I had some surprisingly good chinese food for dinner, and then checked-in to my hostel at 1849 Backpackers. The hostel wasn’t great, it was loud until midnight and a little dirty, but it was the only one in town with available space.

Bibbulmun Track is complete! I had an enjoyable hike and would recommend it to anyone looking for a relatively easy trail who wants to experience some uniquely Australian landscapes.

Friday November 11, 33.5km/20.8mi

Denmark town Drop-off (880.0/10m) to Torbay Campsite (913.5/67m) (WA)

The Bibbulmun Track has a gap in it, since the ferry across the inlet isn’t running this year. The owner of the hostel gives rides around the inlet for a small fee, so myself and two other hikers were scheduled for an 8am departure. The Denmark bakery opened at 7am so I had plenty of time to stuff my face before I left.

So many pies, muffins, and sandwiches!

Mark (the owner) dropped us off at 8:15, and I hiked into a very windy coastal day.

Within 20 minutes I came to the first shelter. I didn’t need any water or snacks so I just signed the logbook and continued on.

I found a snakeskin on the side of the trail. I hoped it’s over wasn’t nearby!

I caught up to Rich and Ellen, who were also hiking the Bibbulmun southbound. Here is Rich demonstrating the proper use of one of these funny benches. The back board is a little higher so you can rest your backpack on it, taking the weight off of your shoulders.

The weather today was intermittently rainy. It would rain for 5 minutes and then be sunny for 2 hours, and always windy.

The entire day was spent walking through scrubland on a ridge above the sea.

The second shelter I came to was the West Camp Howe campsite. It was 1pm, so I had lunch and entertained myself reading the logbook.

I love a good anthropomorphic drawing.

After lunch the trail improved slightly, and was wider and less overgrown.

All day I had amazing views down to the sea, but I never got anywhere near it. Given how windy it was, it was better that I wasn’t on a barren exposed beach.

The spring wildflowers were lining the trail all afternoon!

Looking to the southwest:

There is a beach down there, hidden behind the cliffs.

It was incredible how big the waves looked, and how loud the ocean was, even from a distance.

Back to the overgrown trail…not ideal in snake-y areas.

Towards the end of the day, I came to a lookout point. Somewhere in the distance along the coast there is the small city of Albany, where I will finish tomorrow.

This guy had his own memorial lookout point.

Randomly, I came across an open granite slab. Going up….

And back down…

The view above Dingo Beach was cool! In the distance I could see wind turbines, which signified the ending point of this trail. And there is also a faint rainbow, which I did not realise when I took the photo.

Torbay Campsite was my destination for today, and it will be my final campsite for this trail.

Surprisingly there was nobody else here. The people on this trail seem to come in clumps, with large gaps in between the groups that I have seen.

Tomorrow is the finish of the Bibbulmun!

Thursday November 10, 30.6km/19.0mi

Parry Beach Campground (839.0/13m) to Denmark town (862.1/14m) (WA) + 7.5km to Blue Wren Hostel

I left the campground at 6:45am, aiming to catch the beachwalking section at low tide, which was 6:35am.

There were plenty of people out exercising and walking their dogs.

The sunrise over the Southern Ocean looked really cool reflecting over the breaking waves.

The beach was wide here, and many people were driving across it.

The walk along Mazzoletti beach was easy on the firm sand. (It starts off as Parry’s beach, but then changes names to Mazzoletti). I noticed a small body of water to my left, this must’ve been Parry’s inlet, which everyone was concerned about crossing. Ha!

The beach was super wide here and everyone was driving on it to go surfing. There were dozens of people out in the water, they are the little black dots in the photo.

As I walked along, a friendly dog approached me and wanted to follow, so I had to tell him to sit and stay.

He was was a sad dog, he was whimpering and howling at his human who was out surfing the waves. After walking on the beach for 7km, it started to become rocky.

The exit from this beach was rather unique. The stairs were made from round erosion control haybales, and they were pretty steep, so a handline rope was provided as well.

After I got to the top of the stairs, I had a good view behind me of Mazzoletti Beach.

After walking for 30 minutes through the coastal bush I came to the William Bay campsite shelter. I took a nice long break and ate a ton of food since I had packed too much. Just after leaving the shelter, I crested the hilltop and noticed these 2 weird rock formations.

This was a tiny snake, he wasn’t a tiger snake but I’m not sure what kind he was. Likely still poisonous, since I’m in Australia.

I had been hiking in the national park for an hour, but there wasn’t a sign until I got near a developed beach.

Another nice little secluded beach.

I don’t understand why the symbol for beach was two birds, one of which is looking up at the other birds. Usually the symbol is some sort of umbrella in the sand…

The memorial bench to this person had a fantastic plaque. Who doesn’t love pi?

I left the beach area and travelled inland, crossing some farm fields, using stiles to get over the fences.

The final hiking task for the day was to climb Mount Hallowell. It was quite a steep climb, gaining 250m over 1.5km. there were some rocky outcrops along the way, this one was called Monkey Rock. There were some bolts on the rock and I checked out the climbing routes… It looked like difficult slab.

The trail kept climbing up and up, weaving through big boulders and rocks along the way.

Just when I had arrived to the top, a big cloud was quickly coming in and I could see rain in the distance. Looking Southwest:

A minute after I left the summit, the rain had started. I was happy to be back in the trees and protected from the wind, but descending on these big slabs of rock was a little tricky because they were wet and slippery. Wet slab! The 2nd best kind of slab.

It was all downhill to town, and I had entered the outskirts of the little village of Denmark. They had installed some nice benches overlooking Wilson Bay.

I followed the community trail for 6km, and it went through various little parks and sometimes peoples backyards.

I love this street name. I was hoping the cross street was named “Rock”.

I was hiking in a drizzly rain, but this sign made me smile.

I made it to the Blue Wren hostel at 2:30, where I had booked a bunk for the night. While I was waiting for the manager to return, I chatted with the other guests, most of whom were also hiking the Bibbulmun.

It finally felt like a trail town! I hadn’t seen a large group of Bibbulmun hikers since Dwellingup, when I was hiking with that big fun group. I walked over to the IGA (grocery store) and pizza shop. The downtown was only 5 blocks long but really nice.

I returned to the hostel after doing my errands, and relaxed while making dinner with the other guests, and listening to the rain pour down outside. It’s a great night to be indoors!

Wednesday November 9, 36.8km/22.9mi

Castle Rock (802.2/30m) to Parry Beach Campground (839.0/13m) (WA)

I slept in since I didn’t need to start walking until 8am, I used the extra couple hours to read and watch the sea. The hike up and over Castle Rock was easy.

In the short 3km section between my campsite in Peaceful Bay, I saw 8 kangaroos! Apparently a group of kangaroos is called a mob.

Most of the ocean here is really rough and unsafe for swimming, but occasionally I hike by a little protected cove that looks inviting.

I even had a little bit of beach walking just before I got to Peaceful Bay. Sometimes beachwalks can suck, but this one was easy because of the hard & firm sand.

I walked into Peaceful Bay at 8:45, it’s basically a bunch of summer holiday homes in a village.

Since I had 15 minutes before I could get my package (the office opened at 9am), I stopped into the little cafe and got a drink and a grilled cheese.

When I went next door to the office, my box was easy to find, since they had so few of them from other hikers. I stuffed the contents of the box into my food bag, threw out the extra packaging, and hiked out.

For a couple hours, I had a nice easy stroll down an old road through some coastal bush.

Then suddenly the trail…ended.

I was at the spot the guidebook warned about. I had to paddle across this little inlet, using one of the canoes provided by the Bibbulmun track foundation.

The paddling itself was fairly easy, but there was a catch. I took the last canoe from my side of the inlet, and there are supposed to be 3 canoes on each side. So I dropped off my pack, took 2 more canoes from the shed on the other shore, and towed them back to the first shed. That took awhile, since I was paddling with the drag of 2 canoes behind me, plus against the wind and waves. After 45 minutes I was finally done with all those shenanigans, and hiked on into some beautiful rolling countryside.

I probably saw 12-15 more kangaroos in this section, they seem to love the vegetation here.

More ‘Roos!

After an hour of that, I descended to a beach and had a nice walk on the sand for 6km.

The beach was great walking with the hard compacted sand.

The waves are so huge in this ocean, crashing violently just offshore, it’s one of the loudest beaches I have ever been to.

Eventually the beach became a rocky shoreline, so the trail headed inland a little bit and I got some good views. Looking ahead to Quarram Beach.

I was on Quarram Beach for only a few minutes, before heading back up into some even higher hills. Looking back onto Quarram Bay with some nice wildflowers in the foreground:

Looking ahead:

When I got to Boat Harbor Campsite, it was already 3pm, and I still had 10km to my destination, so I did not linger. I quickly refilled my water bottles, signed the trail register, and kept walking. Five minutes later I was at Boat Harbor Beach.

This beach was more annoying to walk on, it was that soft sand that slips under your foot with every step. Fortunately it only lasted 10 minutes and then I was back up on the hillside far above the ocean.

For the next 2 hours I had a lot of little ups and downs on these hills, it was slower going than I would have expected from the map. But at 6:15, I finally arrived to Parry Beach Campground. I walked straight to the caretakers cabin and checked-in, and she said Bibbulmun hikers camp for free! Awesome. I quickly set up my tent on my assigned site, and as I was cooking dinner the couple who were camped next to me invited me over for some food and wine. Double awesome.

John and Sylvia are friends, and are taking a road trip around the country. When they were in town today, they caught a fresh fish (grouper) and bought some salad and chardonnay.

We had some really fun conversation, but by 8pm I was ready to fall asleep. I said goodnight and promptly passed out.