April Long Weekend 2015 Bibblumun Track

I have been maintaining regular Saturday walks during 2015 with Peter. I have not updated my blog as many of the walks cover walks I have previously done.

This ANZAC weekend it was different. Kathryn kindly dropped Kim, Steve and myself off at the Brookton Highway entrance to the Bibblumun Track. Over three days we planned to hike back to Mundaring weir. This would give us two night stops on the way.

My backpack was not too heavy at about 13kg. Steve seemed about the same. Kim we referred to as Kelvinator Kim a sit looked like he carried a Kelvinator fridge on his back!

The walk commenced with 5 km diversion as the Brookton hut was burnt out earlier this year. We met a walker going the other way, you do come across a few solo walkers. Trade secrets are exchanged before continuing in our respective directions.

The weather was great, but did not need to be any warmer than the mid 20s that we were enjoying. Our first stop was a lunch break at the Mt Dale hut. We had to backtrack a short distance to this hut as we had missed it by taking a wrong turn up a gravel road and then stumbling across the track as it crossed the road we were on! We then realised this had caused us to miss the hut.

After a lunch break we completed the second half of the journey which had more climbs and my boots were feeling tighter than I last remembered them to be, I had not been in them for 14 months. The afternoon was quite warm and I drank through my 2 litres of fluid. No real problems besides sore feet, we completed approximately 27kms today. Just before we got to camp we disturbed three black pigs and half a dozen piglets. We were very happy there were no boars to be seen!

The campsite was occupied by one women solo walking in her mid 50s. She joined us for our evening meal. Latter on a joint couple set up a tent for the evening. Steve was our expert fire lighter. We had an early to bed time, although cold feet kept me awake much of the time.

Day two was less of a walk at 18kms. We saw many more walkers on the track and the hut we had lunch at there was one solo walker preparing to move on and another party of 7 who joined us for lunch. The afternoon walk had some very challenging hills referred to as Grunters. We felt the direction we walked was easier than the north south route.

Our second night stop was a beautiful sunset location. We joined a father and son team that did not seem all that well equiped for a hike, learning the ropes as you would say. There was a young Thai women in the hut also, and Dutch man camped outside under a tarpaulin and he seemed to be partly living off the land. I left him with my Deb instant potato mash. Kim also gave him a few items. Makes your own packs lighter.

The last day was a relatively easy walk of 14 kms through very varied trees. Some tape around my toes made the walking easier. As we approached Mundaring we saw many more people. Around 1:30 pm we arrived at the historic Mundaring Weir Hotel. Kathryn collected us around 2:30pm.

The next leg I plan to cover is from Brookton Highway going south to North Bannister, a three night, four day walk. Plan to do this in June, God willing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Needs to be updated

There has been a big gap in the updates on this page as my walking partner - Peter has been hibernating down south of Perth. He will soon be inhabiting Perth again soon, so hopefully we will see some Saturday walks around Perth reappearing. 

Saturday April 12th Walk Update

Hi

Haven't updated the walk blog for some time, like late last year. This doesn't mean there hasn't been plenty of walking happening. Late last year I was with students in Cambodia and Vietnam which included a strenuous 4 day hike near Dalat a town in Vietnam. January this year I walked the Overland track in Tasmania over a 7 day period with Steve, well worth doing. This year I have had several walks with Peter, and today after a 5 week break we got back into it again.

The weather is still too warm for this time of year, but we arrived at Mends Street Jetty around 7:15 am. I thought I had some pictures on my camera but they don't seem to be there! We walked along the South Perth foreshore, under the Narrows Bridge, over the bridge and along the freeway until West Perth then on the pedestrian overpass we walked into the CBD and down Hay street to have breakfast. From here we walked to Barrack Street Jetty to catch the 9:10am ferry back to Mend Street Jetty on the opposite side of the river.

Not strenuous walk, but a pleasant one.

 

 

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Last official walk for 2013

Peter and I have had a few walks since I recorded the last official walks. As the weather has become warmer we haven't completed all the bush walks in the guide boof we have been following.

Last Saturday November 9th we had our last walk around Bibra Lake. It is a really nice walk of 6kms. There is a good path that varies from being shaded to being in the open sun. As the day was intended to be hot, it was a good thing we commenced walking by 7:15pm. It took one hour to complete the walk which was spot on to our estimate of walking at 6 km per hour. I also wore my backpack to help prepare myself for a couple treks later this year and early next year. We are vey fortunate in Perth that we have a number of recreation sites with good facilities.

We were disappointed that our breakfast location was to be at Point Walter, a lovely site by the river!a great location to finish the year off. We left in disgust due to the bad service. We waited 5 minutes to be seated, and then after 10 minutes we still hadn't been asked what we wanted for breakfast. We feel the shortage of staffing is because they take advantage of the location and think customers will put up with the ordinary service. We ended up with an adequate breakfast at the Dome Coffee Cafe in Ardross. No pictures as I didn't have my camera with me.

 

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Walk to Abyssinia Rock

Peter and I didn't make the full distance to the rock today, but it was a pleasant one hour trek along the Bibbulumun Track from where it crosses over the Brockton Hyw. Great that it was not raining. This is the last walk in my book, although there are a couple more to complete over the next month that we have jumped over.

I didn't take any pictures today. Was a little disappointed to see someone had driven their four wheel drive into the busha nd up the track and dumped all their trine pruning a on the track - Philistines!

We finished the walk with a great breakfast at Genesis Cafe Roleystone. Food was very nice and made on the premises. Peter was pleased that it wasn't cheap and it was my turn to fork out. We had two eggs in a tomatoe based mix, supported by sour dough bread and agreat coffee.

As they say - keep walking

 

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60 Foot Falls Martin

This is the first official Saturday walk this month, the rain has been delaying the action. I know Judy at work has been missing the weekly update as she finds these walks so inspiring! What is so amazing is that this walking location is so close to home, you could almost walk there from home. We are so fortunate to have such well preserved beauty spots to walk in the metro area.

Peter and I had a short but invigorating walk this morning. It is quite a steep climb, but as the path is of pretty good quality, with well made steps in sections it helps the process. It was very enjoyable seeing the amount of water flowing over the falls. I had my backpack on so it was a good activity to prepare myself for a two day walk along the Bibbulmun track in a couple weeks time.

The wild flowers were out, so that added to the beauty of the occasion. Although we only had to walk a couple kilometres it was challenging enough to raise the heartbeat a few levels. We will see if the rain holds off next ?Saturday, at this stage it is forecasted to be raining until next Friday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mt Dale Satuday August 31

The last day of winter, but still very wet weather at the moment. I looked at the weather radar and it looked like we were not going to be rained on.

Mt Dale is the furtherest walk from home in my guide book. Mt Dale is approximately 45km east of Perth. We also had about 17km of gravel roads. The Fiesta hasn't been on many gravel roads and handled the rough road quite well. Although it changed its colour to a light brown, requiring a wash down when I arrived home.

Mt Dale is the second highest point on the Darling Scarpe at 546 metres. Mt Cooke further south is a little bit higher. Not a high point as far as mountain tops go, but still an impressive view from the top. Haven't been here before and it was quite beautiful taking in the view across the Jarrah forest.

The walk was around the hill top, only a little over 2 kilometres but extremely pleasant with many wild flowers appearing. It was cool, but not cold, the undergrowth was wet, but nothing too unbearable.

On the way home we intended to have breakfast at Roley on the Ridge in Roleystone. It was closed and I suggested Thornlie Square Cafe, he was not thrilled so we settled for Kent Street Weir Cafe. There is so much water going over the weir that you can see the weir at the moment. It has been raining constantly for the last five days. August rainfall is above average.

 

 

 

 

 

Nice to have a nice toilet block in the middle of the bush!

Sundew plants that feeds off catching insects in its sticky leaves

Kim passed through this way some weeks ago, we walked on a small part of the Bibulman Track

 

 

 

 

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