Tuesday November 8, 38.5km/23.9mi

Frankland River Campsite (763.7/38m) to Castle Rock (802.2/30m) (WA)

I wanted to be at the “Land of the Giants” attraction at 9am when they opened, so I left camp at 6am and followed the Frankland River all morning.

I got there just before 9am and I was the second person in line. It was $21 which seemed a little expensive but it also included a second attraction & a bunch of interpretive information.

I love seeing the maps when all the continents were together….Gondwana.

The land of the Giants is an attraction where you walk on a platform 40m above the ground, near the tops of the Tingle trees, and it’s about 800m long. I walked up…

And up…

Even at this height above the ground, the tingle trees are still much taller than me.

40m (130ft) above the ground!

I spent awhile hanging out on the platforms just eyeing all the trees.

Eventually I descended from the platforms and entered the second part of the attraction, “The ancient Empire”.

This was a ground-level walk amongst the bases of a bunch of different Tingle trees.

Some of them had names… this one was “Grandma Tingle”.

Generally where tingle trees grow, the forest understory is full of swordgrass. It’s very sharp.

After an hour, I left the attraction and saw that a coffee truck had been parked out front! I ordered a huge slice of carrot cake and a flat white.

The rest of my morning hiking was less eventful, though I did see a couple more Tingle trees.

Eventually I left the forest and started heading towards the coast again, passing through some farmland along the way.

At 12:30 I was thinking that I was getting hungry, and all of a sudden a bench appeared randomly on the side of the trail. Score! Lunchtime.

After lunch I walked a for couple hours down to Conspicuous beach.

There were a couple other people here, just hanging out in the carpark, looking for the tiger snake that had crawled underneath their car. Neat. I had a nice hike along the ocean for a few minutes before the trail departed back into the dunes.

As I climbed up, up, up onto a high ridge above the beach, I noticed they had installed some erosion control devices into the trail, which made the hiking considerably easier than walking through deep soft sand.

Looking back down on Conspicuous beach where I had just been:

The rest of the afternoon was hiking along a ridge above the ocean.

I took a break at the Rame Head campsite shelter, and while I was having a snack I noticed a Dugite (snake) had just crawled into a hole underneath the sleeping platform of the shelter! Good thing I’m not sleeping here.

I left the shelter at 3:30 and hiked for a couple more hours along the ridges. These flowers seem to love growing in the coastal environment.

I’m always scanning for snakes, so when I spotted this scaly animal, I initially did not think “bobtail lizard”. He’s even sticking out his tongue at me!

There was a nice long boardwalk through a marshy area….

…. Which led to another very short beach section.

The sand dunes here had a ton of weirdly shaped pinnacles on them, I’m not sure if this is caused by wind or water….very strange.

This beach walk was on a rocky beach, so I had fun walking on the slabs of rock.

At 5:30pm I decided to setup camp, as I found a nice flat sheltered spot amongst the bushes near Castle Rock lookout.

There wasn’t any point in hiking further, as I need to pick up my food box in 3.5km at Peaceful Bay campground tomorrow, and their office doesn’t open until 9am. I enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the Southern Sea from my tent.

Monday November 7, 17.8km/11.1mi

Walpole town (745.9/14m) to Frankland River Campsite (763.7/38m) (WA)

After a leisurely morning, I stopped into a cafe for an early lunch and enjoyed a fish n chips. I was in no hurry to depart, since I only had 18km to hike today, so I didn’t leave town until noon. Walpole is tiny, after walking thru their town center park, I had left town.

This whole area was a cat-free zone, the sign about Cats Prohibited made me laugh.

The first stop out of town was at the jetty in Walpole Inlet.

And a couple of km later, Coalmine Beach. It was very windy, so it didn’t feel nearly warm enough to swim.

This sign at the beach was hilarious! So many poles nearby.

I passed by a holiday park, and these fascinating white& pink birds were lounging around. I don’t think they are native, since they weren’t anywhere in my guidebook.

I love that they put the local native language on the interpretive signs as well.

I left the waterfront area and climbed up 200m, to a hilltop with a lookout and tons of Red Tingle trees. Looking back down on Nornalup inlet:

There was a little park to showcase some of the biggest Red Tingle trees. They started big…

And then they became HUGE.

And then I found a friendly local couple to get my photo. I’m a good size reference, 167cm tall.

That tree was about 75m tall, had a girth of 24m, and is over 400 years old. Crazy!

As I walked along, there were tons more Tingles, but none as big as that burned-out one I stood inside of.

The next two hours of the afternoon were on a gently rolling trail thru Jarrah and Karri forest.

I walked into camp at 5pm and met two other hikers there, walking northbound. I had my usual dinner as they recommend other hikes on Tasmania, where I’m headed soon. I’m in my final week here on the Bibbulmun…hope the nice weather continues!

Sunday November 6, 39.7km/24.7mi

Woolbales Campsite (706.2/35m) to Walpole town (745.9/14m) (WA)

I fell asleep so early last night that I was naturally awake at 5am. So might as well start walking….

It was chilly when I started at 5:45am, but at least I didn’t have any more of those deep puddles to wade thru today. As I made my way south towards the ocean the terrain became a little rockier. Granite slabs!

The trail markers are embedded in the rock here.

The view from the top of the rocky dome towards the south.

There were a few wet swampy areas this morning, and fortunately they all had these nice wooden bridges. Why didn’t they have these yesterday?!

The spring wild flowers are in full bloom right now. I don’t know what these purple ones are called but they were everywhere.

The trail meandered among the sandy hilltops, it was a relaxing morning.

After 2 1/2 hours of walking I reached a lookout point. I made it to the ocean!

Looking Southwest to Chatham Island.

Looking southeast towards Long Point.

I descended from the viewpoint and a few minutes later was in the carpark (parking lot). It’s time for some beach walking on Mandalay Beach!

This area was a little more developed for day hikers. Pavement!

The trail used a boardwalk to get down to the beach, it prevents people from walking on the dunes and protects them.

I thought the illustrations on this sign were hilarious.

The beachwalk started off on really soft sand, which was slow going and annoying.

It was near low tide, so I was able to walk on the harder, compact sand.

The waves were enormous. I’m not sure if this was typical for the Southern Ocean or a storm was approaching.

This was a cool juxtaposition of bird footprints and the ripples from the wind.

I walked on the beach for only a kilometre but it was great! Just as I was leaving I even saw a seastack!

The trail left the beach and climbed almost 200 metres up to a ridge. I followed ridgetops for a couple of hours with amazing views down to the ocean below.

More of these purple wildflowers.

The flowers surrounded the trail on both sides in for a while it smelled like a florist, ha!

Near a trail junction, I watched an enormous kangaroo hop across the trail, and then this baby Kangaroo!

I had to climb up to another ridge, and surprisingly they even built stairs. So. Many. Stairs.

The trail kinda reminded me of the PCT because you could see where you were going to be hiking for the next hour, across the wide open landscapes.

Eventually I descended from the ridge and turned away from the coast, crossing the Deep River. My favorite type of bridge…a Swingbridge!

I had a short but very steep climb up to Clare mountain. Since it was almost 1pm I decided to take a longer lunch break at this shelter.

This area is known for a special type of tree called the Red Tingle tree. It is only found along the coast here for the next 100km…very rare.

Another Red Tingle. This one has a girth of 12 metres (39ft). These trees have a shallow root system, as they are adapted to a time when Australia had a much wetter climate millions of years ago.

I descended off the mountain and was on the final stretch into the town of Walpole. The trail parallels a road near here and I was able to stop by the scenic “John Rate lookout”. You can see down into the Nornalup inlet.

The last hour of the day followed an old railroad grade, it was nice easy walking.

This with the 3rd snake I’d seen all day, and the first one that didn’t move out of my way. Like, at all. By now the sunny day had become cloudy and cool, so perhaps he just didn’t have the energy to move. I walked around.

Once I was near town, there was a ton of this boardwalk constructed to get through the swampy areas and streams.

I walked into Walpole at 3:30pm and it looked like it was going to rain, so I went straight to the hostel. I love the name “Tingle All Over”, haha.

It used to be a YHA hostel, but for some reason YHA has sold most of their hostels in the last few years. So now it’s run by a local owner, and it had a great vibe with the other hikers there.

I had my weekly shower, did laundry, and got some dinner from a take-away place down the street. It seems to have started raining (which was not in the forecast), so it’s perfect timing since I’m indoors tonight!

Saturday November 5, 39.5km/24.5mi

Dog Pool Campsite (666.7/56m) to Woolbales Campsite (706.2/35m) (WA)

Everyone in the campsite was awake by 6am, and I started moving at 6:15. After a nice breakfast (“brekkie”) by the stream, I said goodbye and was on my way at 6:45.

Looking down at Dog Pool stream:

Most of the morning was lovely walking on an old road, and for 3 hours I was thoroughly enjoying myself.

Then, the trail sadly departed the road and became a narrow singletrack for the next hour.

It’s much harder to spot snakes on a narrow trail and I was constantly searching the ground for any signs of danger noodles. The trail is generally very sandy and open so at least they would be easier to spot than a dense forest.

I think this flower is called Bottle Brush.

This tree was fascinating, it was completely burned out at the bottom and yet the top was fully green and alive.

The views were very expansive in these coastal plains.

I got to the Mt Chance shelter at 11am and had lunch.

I liked the name of the group that had signed into the book ahead of me… Wander Women!

The shelter is named for the short 125m tall summit behind it, Mt. Chance. I scrambled up the short granite slabs to the top.

Good views to the West!

To the east it looked like there was a fire. Hopefully it’s a planned burn.

The summit had a good phone signal so I updated my journal and then went back down. As I was packing up to go, a woman named Sarah had arrived who I had camped with last night. We chatted for a few minutes, it turns out she is almost 80 years old and is hiking this 100km section southbound! Cool. After an hour of hiking I came to a trail junction to another little summit. It would have had the same view as the summit I was just on, so I skipped this one.

And then the trail quickly went to hell. Initially I tried to skirt around the “puddles” in the trail, but it quickly became evident that this was a waste of time and my feet were still getting wet. So I started hiking straight through the water which was usually shin deep. And mucky…gross.

Occasionally the trail would surface above the water and be nice walking for a few hundred meters.

But it seemed like for a significant portion of the afternoon, the trail was underwater.

This was the only snake I saw all day despite keeping a watchful eye out. It was tiny, only 30cm long and kinda thin… I’m not sure if it was a baby tiger snake or just a different species altogether.

Thankfully I arrived at the Woodbales shelter, my ending point for the day. It was such a joy to behold as it meant the end of walking through gross water and I could dry out my feet.

I was the only one at this campsite, so I set up my bed inside the shelter, made dinner, and then walked up to the little summit behind the shelter. I sat up there for 30 minutes enjoying my dinner.

And watching the sunset.

And to the east was the rising gibbous moon.

As soon as the sun went below the horizon, I walked back down to the shelter, sorted my stuff, and went to bed by 8pm…it was exhausting pushing through water all afternoon.

Friday November 4, 41.0km/25.5mi

Gardner Campsite (625.7/47m) to Dog Pool Campsite (666.7/56m) (WA)

The morning started off comfortably cool and mostly cloudy, and I continued down the mostly flat, sandy path.

After a couple of hours, I came to an old road and crossed its bridge over the Gardner River.

When I left the road and returned to the usual trail, I started to find these short flooded sections. I could usually find a narrow herd-path around the side, but it was slow going.

And then, the snakes started appearing. I saw my first snake yesterday, and today I saw 14! Most of them were lying next to the trail.

Usually the snakes would notice me and move off the trail when I was getting close (2-3m away). This guy just sat there, so while I was able to get a really good photo, it took me awhile to get around him.

After 2 hours of intense focus of scanning the ground for snakes, I was able to take a mental break at the next campsite shelter.

It was 11am, so I decided to have an early lunch and read my book too. This shelter had a ukulele too!

It was next to Maringup Lake, which was a beautiful view.

In the short 100m walk back from the lake, I passed by 2 more snakes. Sheesh. I didn’t get photos of these, they moved quickly off the trail. I left the shelter and for the next 2 hours, I played the game “stick or snake?”. It was like a high stakes game of “Where’s Waldo.

Freakin snakes.

Every 10 minutes I saw a snake, I think most of were Tiger Snakes. Most snakes in Australia are poisonous.

There were a few more swampy areas, fortunately most of these had bridges.

Finally the route joined an old road, and I was able to relax the rest of the afternoon.

I did see a couple more snakes, but on such a wide road, they were far off to the side, and visually easy to spot. I entered this National Park, and had a snack break at its little info kiosk.

The rest of the afternoon was thankfully uneventful, and I cruised along old roads until I got to camp at 5:30pm.

There were many people at the Dog Pool Campsite, 3 were setup in the shelter, and 3 others in tents nearby. We had a campfire (this is the last shelter where they are allowed), and it was a fun group to get to know. Most of them saw “only” 4 or 5 snakes today. Hopefully it’s less snake-y tomorrow!

Thursday November 3, 38.8km/24.1mi

Ridge above Warren River (586.9/149m) to Gardner Campsite (625.7/47m) (WA)

At 5:30am I awoke in my tent, one of the few nights on this trail that I had used my tent. It was a warm morning, already 18C, so I ate breakfast in my tent to avoid the mosquitos. The trail cruised thru Karri forests all morning.

At a dirt road crossing, some prankster had put a “bus stop” sticker on the post. Ha!

The understory of the forest was full of these little blue flowers.

By mid-morning, I was starting to see more farm fields.

At 9am I came to Schafer campsite, which had a beautiful location next to a little lake.

I sat there for awhile and had some snacks, read the journal, and thought about swimming.

The trail journal had some really strange entries but this one was definitely the weirdest. Britney Spears was here last week?!?

After leaving the shelter, I noticed that the trail had become very sandy. I’m very close to the coast now, I think only 50km away.

I walked through a farm for an hour, winding thru on old tractor roads. Most of the fields were full of cows.

A woman drove by in her very old Toyota truck to check on her cows, and we had a chat for a few minutes…. about the trail, where I’m from, and why people do crazy things like this. After I left the farm and re-entered the forest, the Karri trees came back one last time.

And then the forest decided to be really colorful. This bird is called a Western Rosella.

And these cool flowers that are a combination of orange and pink.

Just before I got to the town of Northcliff, I passed by a really tempting picnic shelter. I thought about stopping there for lunch, but it was only another 15 minutes to town.

When I arrived to town, they had helpful signs for hikers everywhere.

There was some fun artwork on various buildings in this town. The town is basically only a dozen buildings.

I went to the post office to get my food box that I had mailed myself 3 weeks ago. Luckily it was a Thursday and the post office was open regular hours. When I mailed all my boxes out, I had a really thought about me arriving to town on a Saturday or Sunday. I walked to the park next door and sat in a pavilion to sort out my food.

While I was there, this very brightly colored bird kept coming over to visit me.

I walked over to a cafe and got a milkshake, and for the first time in Australia, it was a proper milkshake with enough ice cream. Excellent! I went to check out the little Pioneer museum, but it was locked. Hilariously, the note on the door said to call a phone number and somebody would drive over to let you in. Small towns are great!

I left town at 2pm, and for a couple kilometers it was a roadwalk.

After I left the road, I was in a sandy forest all afternoon. Some of the sand was that annoying soft loose sand, where its hard to walk in. Especially on uphills.

I followed the Gardner River downstream, crossing and re-crossing it a few times.

I got to the Gardner Campsite at 6pm. It was a little later than my usual ending time, but I had spent a few hours in town relaxing and eating, so it didn’t feel like a long day.

Surprisingly, I was the only one at the campsite, I’ve been seeing all these names in the trail logbooks, but I think I am just behind or just ahead of them. Maybe tomorrow I will see some people, and maybe see the ocean too!

Wednesday November 2, 29.5km/18.3mi

Pemberton town (557.4/129m) to Ridge above Warren River (586.9/149m) (WA)

The sun rises at 5:15, but I didn’t notice today in my dark hotel room. I had a lazy morning and left the hotel at 10am, walking straight to the Wild at Heart cafe. Except…they were closed. Bummer.

Another cafe was open and I spent an hour enjoying my food and planning travel for the Tasmania portion of this trip.I left the cafe at 11:30 and had a nice walk out of town on the paved multi-use path.

After 30 minutes, I had arrived at the famous Gloucester tree. It was one of 8 Karri trees that used to be used as a fire lookout.

There were rebar rods installed into the tree, so they could be climbed as a ladder.Unfortunately the lookout platform was closed for maintenance this week. It is 58 meters up to the top. Eek.

I continued on into the forest, and saw this unusual bird sitting there in the trail. It moved just enough to get out of my way, but refused to move any further.After an hour, I arrived to the other local attraction called The Cascades. It’s a little waterfall on Lefroy Brook.I had a snack on a nearby picnic table, and departed the loud flume. The rest of the afternoon alternated between forest and fields.Sheep! The forest parts were nice, and I was in a green tunnel again.
I followed the Warren River upstream for hours, and occasionally crossing it. This sign was hilarious to see, I’m glad I can cross on the footbridge.Many of the bridges on this trail are re-purposed old train bridges.The river was flowing very slowly, but it looked deep.I arrived to the Warren campsite at 4:30pm, refilled my water bottles, and decided to keep hiking. Because the campsites are awkwardly spaced in this section, tomorrow was going to be a 48km day. But it was early and my legs felt good, so I decided to knock off some of that distance today. I hiked until 7pm, at which point it was just getting dark. This owl posed for a photo!I setup my tent in the dark, at a nice flat spot on an abandoned road, and up out of the cold river valley…. perfect!

Tuesday November 1, 23.2km/14.4mi

Beedelup Campsite (534.2/148m) to Pemberton town (557.4/129m) (WA)

It’s always a good start to the day when there’s Karri trees! The three older guys who I had camped with last night were all gone by 6am, so I got to enjoy the quiet forest to myself.

It was a chilly (14C), foggy morning. Occasionally the trail would emerge into some farm fields, and the views were very misty.

In order to get in or out of a farm field, you have to climb over the wire fence. Just like in New Zealand, they provide these little sideways stairs to easily get over the fence.

I got to walk along the fenceline for a little while under the cover of the trees. It wasn’t raining… but the fog was being blown by the wind and making things a little damp.

Halfway through the morning, I entered an arboretum that had trees from all over the world. Each tree had a little sign explaining its species and country of origin.

Neat!

From here, the last hour to town was along well developed pathways. I joined the paved trail around Big Brook Dam lake. There were tons of people out for their morning walk.

These developed areas always have lots of little benches and structures to take a rest. I had a snack in this little cabin while listening to the sounds of the lake.

Big Brook Dam Lake. There is a very small developed (sandy) beach across the way.

After a couple of kilometres, I had hiked to the end of the lake, and the dam itself. I love checking out the civil engineering structures of other countries.

At noon, I walked into Pemberton, which is a very small town with one main street. There were a bunch of little shops, half a dozen restaurants and cafes, a grocery store, a post office, and a laundromat. Everything a hiker needs without much else!

The kale and green bean smoothie was excellent. The pies here are always good, they have so many kinds of meat fillings. This one was salmon and capers, basically a lox bagel but inside of a pie.

I went to the IGA to go grocery shopping, I don’t need to buy much since this is only a 2-day section until the next stop, where I mailed a box of food. I noticed that they keep eggs on a regular shelf at room temperature, like every other country I have been to. Apparently the USA washes its eggs in many chemicals, necessitating refrigeration for storage.

Vegemite also comes in squeezy?!? What a time to be alive. (Yes, I love a good Simpsons reference.)

The laundromat was super modern, instead of using coins and trying to find change, you just use the touch screen to select your washer and dryer, and tap your credit card.

The laundry finished at 9pm, and I spent the rest of the night planning my next hike in Australia (Cape to Cape, 140km/87mi), and reading my book.

Monday October 31, 38.9km/24.2mi

Boardinghouse Campsite (495.3/165m) to Beedelup Campsite (534.2/148m) (WA)

I awoke in an empty shelter, and noticed the rain had stopped. Great! It was a cold morning packing up, but I warmed up quickly on the first uphill. At the top of the hill I saw a new kind of wildlife…a rabbit! I didn’t know they existed here.

The trail was in a green tunnel all day, much like this.

The trail followed the Donnelly River all morning, repeatedly climbing up to a ridge, then returning to the valley to visit the river. The first river crossing was on this cool old Karri log.

After climbing 100m uphill and back down again, I crossed a second time on a brand new steel bridge.

The next uphill, this one 150m, was especially steep. This is how an elevation profile gives the middle finger:

The bridge at the bottom of this descent was another neat old log bridge.

The green tunnel along the river continued all the way to my lunchtime shelter, the Beavis campsite shelter.

As I was eating lunch, I saw a group of people drive by on an ATV, which is weird because motorized vehicles aren’t allowed out here. As I hiked away after lunch, I could see the tracks they had left.

One more uphill to leave the Donnelly River valley for a final time, as I would no longer be seeing this river. The tall (50m/170ft) Karri trees provided a nice distraction.

Karri trees are also very identifiable by their peeling bark, it comes off in huge thick sheets.

At the top of the climb, I crossed a road and entered a burn zone. I like that they provide a sign to explain why these prescribed burns are a good thing.

The burn had happened 2 years ago, and already the forest is recovering with new growth.

Suddenly, on another downhill PUD, I saw an emu!

The afternoon went on in the burned forest, with lots of little pointless ups and downs (PUDs). Eventually I came to a tiny waterfall and a unique tree. It’s a Karri tree combined with some other tree species!

I entered Beedelup National Park, and immediately I started seeing more day hikers.

In a few minutes I was at Beedelup Falls, which was a very developed part of the trail. There were walking platforms and stairs and ramps and handrails and interpretive signage everywhere.

From the lookout platform I could see the falls, it was pretty impressive.

This side hike looked pretty cool but I didn’t have the time it was already 5pm and I still had another kilometer to get to camp. Walk-thru tree!

The final bit of trail was very freshly scraped, by what appears to be a bulldozer. It was soft, brush-free, and very nice to walk on.

I got to Beedelup campsite at 5:15 and there were 3 guys already set up in the shelter. I think they must have gotten there really early, because two of them were already getting into bed at 5:30pm! I chatted with them while I was making dinner, it sounds like they are doing a section southbound so I will probably see them again tomorrow in town.

Sunday October 30, 38.7km/24.1mi

Donnelly River Village (456.6/252m) to Boardinghouse Campsite (495.3/165m) (WA)

I awoke to Wayne getting his bunk packed up (Dave slept outside in the 3-sided shelter, he likes it cold), and I got dressed and headed over to the kitchen.

There were 3 of us packing and having breakfast in there (it was the only heated room), so it was busy. I said my goodbye to them and hiked out at 7:45am.

The trail immediately left the village and entered a Karri forest. I love the massive trees.

It kept going in the Karri forest for awhile.

After an hour, I heard a commotion up ahead and saw a large group of Emus (a “stampede”) in the trail. Most of them went off to the side, but 2 kept walking in the trail. I was stuck in morning traffic on the Bibbulmun.

It rained for 10 minutes in mid-morning, and it did this four more times in the afternoon too. I kept walking along the Donnelly River, and occasionally crossed it. There were a variety of bridges.

The river wasn’t very big, but it was slowly increasing in size as I hiked downstream.

The trail basically had 2 modes all morning: wall of brush, and open Karri forest.

I stopped for a very early lunch at the Tom road shelter.

As soon as I got there it started to rain again, while I enjoyed my burrito and snacks from under a dry roof. The shelter was situated right on the Donnelly River, which by now had grown larger. There was a path right to a nice swimming hole! Too bad it was only 13C.

The Sun came back out and I continued down the trail. For a little while I merged with the Munda Biddi trail (the Bibb’s bike trail sister).

And of course, I followed and crossed the Donnelly River a few more times.

The most unique bridge was a historical one, called “One tree Bridge.” A large Karri tree had fallen across the river, and they had decided to build a bridge with that log as the base.

That bridge’s modern replacement was a fun swingbridge.

There was a picnic shelter by this area which was fortunate because it was starting to rain, so I ducked under there for awhile and had a snack. At least these rainstorms only last 10 minutes each…

An hour of hiking later, and I was at the trail’s halfway point, which even had a special sign to commemorate the point. 501km to either end!

Across from the sign was a pole to hold your camera or phone. I thought this was really entertaining.

At the end of the day, I crossed the Donnelly River one final time on a large Karri log.

Tonight’s campsite shelter wasn’t directly on the trail so I had to hike an extra 300m.

Just after 5pm I sat down and took off my pack, and signed into the trail register as usual. Some of the other hikers’ entries were especially entertaining, and reading this joke about photons made my day complete.

I started making dinner and then another rain storm came through, but I didn’t care as I was sipping hot tea under a dry roof. Hopefully tomorrow’s weather is drier!