Kalamunda to Dwellingup

“The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.”John Muir

I took my shoes off and inspected my feet. I was horrified, I had never seen them this bad. It looked like I would have to adjust my plans after all.

It had all started yesterday morning. This was the first of my proper training hikes of the Bibbulmun Track. The plan was to do the entire track from the Northern Terminus to the Southern Terminus in about 5 different trips. I was planning to backpack the 1000km track in less than 15 days which would make it the fastest known time. I had planned my hike in the middle of the Aussie summer, early December. Temperatures can reach well into the 40's (110 deg F) at that time of the year.  But this was the end of July - mid winter. I had started at the Northern Terminus of the track - Kalamunda on Saturday evening. As the track starts right in town I had decided to walk for a few km to get away from the city and find a nice quiet place to camp. 

  

Start of Bibbulmun track - Kalamunda

It was a pleasant walk with lots of birds singing, and walkers and runners enjoying the last hours of their Saturday on the track. Soon however I left the people behind and made my way down beside a bubbling stream toward the valley floor. I was excited, I had planned to walk just over 200km to the first town of Dwellingup about 3 days later. I had done a lot of planning and I was keen to get going. I reached the bottom of the valley about 5.30pm, just after sunset. I selected a good campsite and set up my hammock and tarp in time to enjoy the last fading light of the day. I had camped right beside the creek and as I lay down to have an early night the sound of the water gently lulled me to sleep.

 

Bush camp - Kalamunda

I awoke at 3.45am as planned and sprang quickly out of bed. I had a big day ahead of me and wanted to get on the trail as soon as I could. I quickly packed up my camp by the light of my headlamp, grabbed a bite to eat and started walking. The weather had not been good the last week or so. This is our wet season and it had been raining for most of the last week. Rain easing to showers the forecast had said, and I hoped it would fine up. Ordinarily I didn't mind rain, as long as you can stay warm, I quite like hiking in the rain. But this time I was on a mission. I had a lot of km to travel to my pick up point in Dwellingup in three days time. The official Bibbulmun Track website suggests the average time to do this section is 13-14 days. Two of our friends from USA who are seasoned hikers and have successfully walked the Appalachian Trail recently did the Bibbulmun track also and did this section in 7 days. So, I certainly had my work cut out for me!

I arrived at Mundaring Weir just before sunrise about 3 hrs later. This is a fascinating place, full of history. The dam was built in 1898-1903 and a pipeline added transporting precious water hundreds of kilometres inland to the gold mining towns of Kalgoorlie and others. When it was built, this was the longest fresh water pipeline in the world. Even today, the town of Kalgoorlie-Boulder with a population of over 30,000, some 700km inland, would not exist without this life-giving water supply. I lost at least half an hour negotiating this tourist attraction in the pre-dawn light, trying to find the Bibbulmun track amidst the maze of walking tracks, roads and buildings. This is a really nice place to come for a picnic and has lots of very tame kangaroos grazing around the grounds. Eventually, I was able to continue along the track which winds its way along the Eastern shore of the Mundaring Weir past Ball Creek , Helena, and Waalegh huts. 

It was quite cool and I wore my jacket all day. It also rained on and off all day and even when it wasn't raining brushing past dripping foliage meant that my shoes and socks were constantly wet. It was a nice walk, fairly easy terrain and undulating country. There were sections that were quite rocky and technical but for the most part it was quite easy walking. I met up with two guys who were training to do a multi stage race in Europe and hiked with them for about 10km or so. It was very interesting talking with them and helped pass the time. At this stage we were making about 6km/hr on average. After they turned back I kept going towards Beraking Campsite.  It was late afternoon as I passed Beraking Camp, and the wind had picked up again. Some of these camps were perched on the side of steep hills and provided magnificent views of the surrounding country, the problem was on cold wintry days like this with the wind howling they offered very little shelter. The huts are three sided with a roof and usually face away from the prevailing wind but some of the huts along this section faced into the wind and were quite cold even in the middle of the day at this time of year. Fortunately I had no desire to stay here for the night, and after refilling my water bottles and signing the log books at each hut, I pressed on.

 

Beraking Camp

Mt Dale was the next obstacle. Just before the climb to the top the track heads down into the valley and then climbs to the top of Mt Dale at about 480m above sea level making it a total elevation gain of about 300m over 6km. It is an almost constant climb, not too steep, but consistently up! I finally reached the summit just on sunset and enjoyed the last dying colours of the day as I headed down the other side to the Mt Dale hut. 

From here, it was about 8.3km to Brookton Campsite just 2.5km from the Brookton Hwy. I had wanted to get to Canning Camp before I camped for the night, but after arriving at Brookton Camp at around 8pm I decided to stop one camp short for the night. I had travelled 71.2km so far only 11km short of my original goal. I considered going on the extra two hours but decided a longer sleep was probably more important. After setting up camp for the night and enjoying a hot meal I got some well earned rest.

Blackboy pool

The next morning saw me up again at 3.45am and on the trail by 4am. A nice easy few km to the Brookton Hwy worked out the kinks in the muscles and then up and over a hill then relatively flat all the way to Canning Camp. As was my custom, I stopped for water, filled out the log book with my details and then headed on to the next camp. I left Canning Camp at about dawn.

There are some ups and downs to negotiate for the next 16 or so km to Monadnocks Camp, the last 6km a steady climb. This is a very picturesque camp and I would have loved to stay longer, but I replenished my water and pressed on.

My feet were very painful, they had been getting steadily worse since late afternoon the first day. Being constantly wet made the skin terribly macerated, which in turn caused blisters. Blisters are something I am still struggling with. I have bought at least 4 different kinds of socks, all claiming to be the latest technology and the answer to blister prevention. Normally blisters are minor inconveniences for me. If they get bad, I just drain them and keep going. This trip however I learnt how painful serious maceration can be. It was slowing me down and I wondered just how far I would get this day.

Monadnocks Camp.

A few km after leaving Monadnocks camp I came across the twin hills of Mt Cuthbert and Mt Vincent. These are rocky outcrops that are quite steep and give great views of the surrounding areas. They are situated close to the Albany Hwy near Sullivan Rock and are a popular day trip for sightseers. I encountered a few visitors along this section. It was a cold, rainy day and the trail is quite rocky and technical both up and down these two small mountains. It was at the top of Mt Vincent that I felt the large blister on the ball of my left foot separate the skin between my toes as the fluid in it was forced out. I knew I had to stop and drain it or it would end up worse than ever, so I stopped on top of the mountain and took care of it. Soon after reaching the bottom of Mt Vincent you pass the spur trail that connects with the main Hwy a few km to the West. I continued on to Mt Cooke Campsite.

Summit of Mt Cuthbert

I was struggling. I knew that my feet were in a bad way, and I knew that I would have to make some decisions soon. I decided to take a closer look at my feet at Mt Cooke camp.  I had no idea they were that bad. I had never seen my feet in this condition before. Not having the luxury of time to sufficiently dry them out I decided right then to cut my trip short. It was raining pretty heavily as I sat there at the hut staring off towards Mt Cooke considering  my options. I have a SPOT tracking device that I take so that my wife can keep an eye on me and monitor my progress. I knew I wasn't going to make my desired destination at Dwellingup on those feet! It was only about 2pm as I recall so it was still far too early to stop for the day. I decided to go on to Nerang Camp and stay there the night. Then hike out to the Albany Hwy the next morning and get picked up there. This would be my last extraction point for the next 60km or so. Given that I only had to walk another 13.4km to Nerang I decided to rest here for half an hr or so. It was the longest I had stayed at one spot since I left except for camping of course. I dried my feet out as best I could and then pushed on to Mt Cooke.

The summit of Mt Cooke is the highest point of the Bibbulmun track at 582m above sea level. It was my last obstacle for the day. Having tiptoed over the technical rocky track up Vincent and Cuthbert on sore feet, I wondered what the track was going to be like. I was pleasantly surprised. The track up the Northern side is very good, well graded and easy walking despite the steep climb. The Summit of the mountain offers great views in every direction as you walk down the other side and there are magnificent boulders perched in precarious positions. There is a lot of exposed rock on top with little or no growth which is great for views but provides no shelter for the wintry winds that whistle through here. The track down the Southern side is hard to find as you follow cairns of rocks and I somehow lost the trail temporarily. It got steeper and steeper and I was following a rocky washout as I dropped lower and lower on the Southern slopes. It wasn't until the trail faded away that I knew for sure that I had gone off the track. Each step at this point was agony. I did not relish the thought of backtracking up the steep track I had come down to try to locate the trail once more. I looked at the map and made a decision to continue on the heading I was on and I should bisect the trail again within a km. It wouldn't be long until dark, I had wrenched my ankle a couple of times coming down that washout, and my feet hurt. This however was not a place I wanted to stop at for the night. After scrambling through fairly thick bush and scratchy scrub for what seemed like hours but was probably less than 45min I picked up the trail again as I had predicted. I was very glad to be back on the track again. From here, I still had about 7km to go to Nerang Camp. It was nice and flat and most of it was on a 4WD track but it seemed it would never end. Each step was becoming more and more difficult. Eventually I pulled into Nerang Camp at just after 6pm, about 30 min after dark. I had never been more glad to stop for the night! Once again I had the hut to myself and I set up the hammock under the shelter as I had the previous night. After consuming another delicious hot meal I turned in for the night. 

Acacia Tree - Australian Wattle

As I only had about 20km to walk today to my pick up point at Albany Hwy I decided to sleep in until sunrise. The morning was a bit warmer than it had been the day before and I set out about 7am. It was a nice flat walk with only gradual changes in elevation all the way to the highway today. It was a nice morning and I ditched my raincoat for the first time in days. I was even joined by my shadow for a few hours as the sun came out and warmed me. I sent a message to my wife on my SPOT device to pick me up at the Hwy and hoped she interpreted it right. About an hour before midday saw me at Gringer Creek Campsite which is only a couple of km short of Albany Hwy. I filled up with water and started out on the last stretch. I finally got to the highway at a few minutes past noon and was very relieved to see my wife waiting for me. She had timed it perfectly and had arrived only minutes before.  After topping up with fuel and having a lovely hot meal at the riverside roadhouse at North Banister, we started on the long drive home. It was so good to get off my feet!

I had covered about 150km of the 210km I had originally planned. It had taken me about 35 hrs of walking in two and a half days to cover this distance at approximately 4.3km per hour. All in all, I was reasonably happy with the outcome. We ironed out a few of the issues with the SPOT tracker and I had done a section of the trail that I had not previously seen. I also learned some good lessons about how debilitating wet feet can be. I will certainly take steps to avoid that as much as possible next time.

If you have ever suffered from chronic blisters or badly macerated feet and have some solutions that work for you please let me know in the comments below!