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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