Bibbulmum Track Western Australia 2003

PERTH

Wednesday 4 June: Start 3/31 Charles Street South Perth. Up at 7.00am, offloaded our spare gear with Phil in Flat 5. No 30 Bus to Wellington Street Train station and then on to Australind to Bunbury. B4 departing Leah bought some Spanish tapes. Train to Bunbury 2 ½ hours and a very nice trip. Good quality services and seating. Then bus to Denmark via Manjimup. Highway good and scenery as we remembered from 1998.

Overnighted at Blue Wren hostel ($ 18 pp p.night) with Graham S African proprietor. Dinner at local soup kitchen $ 3 each. Great meal as whole town was there. Met Robert East Germany and Hugo from Fredericktown Canada. Both had recently smashed cars in Oz – Robert still working to pay off his bills. Neither had insurance!! Denmark nice friendly town of about 4,000 people. Well endowed with supermarkets.

Thursday 5 June: We are on the way. Bibbulmum Track here we come. Dreadful morning – cold, rainy and windy. Nearly decided to stay put. However by midday things had cleared so off we went. Graham offered to take us to start point where track crossed coast road from Albany. He then took us a little further to Mooney Road so we would not have to start with a steep hill climb. All up he “saved” us about 7 km. So started 12.35 and got into Williams Bay hut about 3.10pm ie 2 ½ hours. Flat walk through sand hills and beachside track. Rained a bit but we did not get too wet. My poncho failed at the first donning. Cheap Chinese product. Hut really basic and a sign of things to come. Hut was wooden and closed on 3 sides. Wooden benches for storage and sleeping. Water ex a rainwater tank alongside. No fireplace or BBQ site due to fire risk. So dinner (Thai laska, noodles, salmon and tea) cooked on our small stove. Sleep on bench in our sleeping bags. A few mossies but not too bad.

Friday 6 June: Up at 8.15am and a late breakfast. On the way at 10.05. Little did we know!! 1 km to Mazoretti Beach. Long walk along beach - 1st half was soft sand and the tide was up so L got her boots wet. 2nd half the sand was firmer but the tide was still up so tricky at times around small cliff areas. Walked west to Parry’s Beach and had lunch there. Coastline rugged with huge waves. No animal life at all but a nice fine day. Parry’s Beach was tough with a climb to the top of Mt Hiller which really found me out. Wow. On trek down there were ‘roos all around and we saw one small green snake (dugite) on path. It moved off really quickly. Very hard walk to Boatharbour CS. I was struggling a lot towards the end and the sight of the CS was most welcome. Very late when we got in so dinner was by torchlight. Really tired so straight to bed. Mossies bad so we erected tent inner on bench (using boots as stays on one end) and got a good nights sleep.

Saturday 7 June: Up much earlier today and on the road at 9.25am. Long walk today and everyone says that this leg is one of the hardest. Wonderful thought on out 3rd day!! I am hopeful we can cheat a little by walking along the beach and wading across the Irwin Inlet entrance. This will save a long walk thru’ dune country to a bridge crossing. Time will tell if I am right or not. Few sharp climbs to start the day – just to psyche us, out and then straight run across the top of a ridge (not too bad). Area still sandy and duney with low scrub but not as bad as yesterday. Then downhill to Quarram Beach and joy of joys the tide was out. Beach walk was fine but L (masochist) wanted to follow path and wagguls back inland and brave the sand dunes just in case inlet was unfordable. However no problem the inlet was closed and the tide was low so we crossed without any dramas.
Really did save some time and distance. Continued around beach to Peaceful Bay CS. CS was a caravan park cum campsite at the end of a beach road. Pitched out tent after a feed of FandC at the shop. How nice were they!! Also bought a Mars Bar as a treat for L at some strategic point. Much better days walking as we kept mainly to the beach.

Sunday 8 June: Wet night and boots got damp so spent 2 hrs trying to dry them out. Small b/fast then pack up and on our way by 10.30. Walk supposed to be fairly easy apart from climb at end. Stocked up at camp shop b4 we left. Great track; followed west along beaches or around headlands. Saw some seals but no snakes. Stiff climb to Rames Head CS. Great great location and spectacular views all along the track … best day sofar. Waves crashing over rocks, views up and down coastline – superb. Mossies greeted us at CS and we are awaiting Roger the rat to visit us (as reported in Hut Log Book). So we scattered some broad beans and hope that will distract him from chewing our packs or whatever. Early arrival meant that we could settle in and read yesterdays WA News (yay). Erected tent liner again to ward off clouds of mossies.

Monday 9 June: Up for sunrise – really good sight over horizon. Reds, oranges on skyline and then sunrise. Worth getting up for indeed. No attention from Roger the rat so thank you Lord of the Jungle. Plenty of ‘roos munching around CS during the night though. B/fast was cereals and tea and we were off at 9.05am. Uphill for about 800m then down hill in dampish sand. Hard work but we got to Conspicuous Beach in less than 1 hour. Then off up gravel road to start of Nut Hill section. Gradual uphill which seemed to last forever. We made hard work of that section I can tell you. L nearly got lost at one stage – she missed a waggul and took the wrong road. All’s well as I rescued her!! Lunch at main highway crossing as we were heading into old growth forest away from the coast. Met 3 track minders, very nice people and they look after track and huts along the Walople – Albany section. Then onwards to Giants CS. Steep uphill to start and then flat thru’ Tingle trees. Lovely walk – took us nearly an hour as there was much to admire. Nice hut and not a lot of mossies. Dinner – Macaroni Cheese, Tuna, G Peas, Soup and Tea (yum).

Tuesday 10 June: Up early, breakfast but raining quite hard so we were slow to start. Got going around 10.30am and up to Tree Tops walkway. Too expensive so we opted for a choco bar and peanuts (L). Talked to a kiwi couple from Dunedin. Onwards to Frankland hut. Great track thru’ Tingle trees (unique to this small area of WA). Huge slow growing kind of eucalyptus. Very hard wood but has a fantastic dark red or light brown grain. Makes beautiful furniture but expensive. Trees have huge trunks a bit like our kauri ie all trunk but not too high. They also have big buttresses to help stabilize a shallow spread of roots. Arrived Frankland River CS around 3.00pm. Pretty site right on bend in river. ½ hour after we arrived huey really chucked it down. Tremendous rain which lasted most of the night and sounded awesome on the tin roof. I really expected to be flooded out but the river level barely changed. Some kind soul left us Violet Crumbles in the campsite tin. They were gone in 5 seconds!!

Wednesday 11 June: Night was memorable in more ways than one. A dreaded camp rodent chewed out Leahs pack. She left some sultanas in it – needles to say they were equally chewed over. Still raining so we waited until 10.30 and then took off. Rain eased thank goodness as it was a damned nuisance putting on /taking off poncho all the time. Old Murphy must have been watching us. Walked thru’ jarrah and Tingle trees. Nice forest and good path. Stopped for lunch at start of Tingle Forest walk. Fantastic old growth group of trees – I remember doing the walk 5 years ago. L then took over and set a really fast pace down to the SW Highway. Quite a steep descent; then across country to Walpole/Normalup inlet. Blowing a gale off the sea but we were protected by a strategically located row of trees. Then a heritage walk into Walpole. Checked the YHA but the owner was very offhand so we booked into the backpackers.. Simon (owner) very welcoming and L got a lift into the CALM office to let off some steam about the rodent. We had a nice room and the place was warm. We did laundry at local Laundromat and had a great shower. Melissa (pommie traveler) looked after backpackers after hours. Nice girl on her OE. She recommended we do the inlet tour ie boat trip around the barbour. We had a day to kill awaiting the bus to Northcliffe so why not.

Thursday 12 June: Up early and down to book tickets for cruise. Boat held about 25 and tour leaders were Gary and Leah (sic). Gary was 7th generation local and had done track (end to end) in 17 days . That is so unbelievably fast. Boat was flat bottomed and quite comfortable. Gary was a real extrovert and totally into the Walpole area. Spent most of the time talking about the history of the area and not too much about the natural features. Inlet is formed by 3 rivers (Frankland, Normalup and Walpole – lots of imagination there) and the locals are always scared that one day the inlet will close at the mouth. Very narrow as it is. Still trip was great and he was passionate. Poetry, readings, acting – he did the lot. Best was his story of a horse (1 of two survivors) which came back from the Middle East at the end of WW1. 50,000 horses sent to Palestine and only two got back. This one horse was reunited AT THE WHARF with its soldier owner, who recognized it by its white blaze. Even better the horse responded to its owners voice and special command. Also told a tale about some shipwrecked Norwegian sailors. They were flukily rescued by Garys great grandparents. Hard to remember all the details though. Walked across a spit of land at head of inlet to a beach facing the Indian Ocean. Pretty wild sort of place but they used to break in and train all the AIF horses there. Great trip: 2 ½ hours wasn’t really long enough. Back to unit I wasn’t feeling too well so L did the shopping while I lay down. Quiet night – L talked to Melissa and others who came in.


Friday 13 June: Talked to Melissa over breakfast about CELTA course. She is thinking of doing same in WA after walking the track. Then we packed up the provisions (more on that later) and off to the bus stop. Nice bus ride to Northcliffe (120 km away). It is a small ex timber town trying to get into eco tourism ventures eg cyclecross, moto cross etc. Met a most unusual lady here. She walked around wearing a gas mask as she claimed to have respiratory problems. Something about exposure to deisol fumes over the years. Most unusual sight. Stopped for lunch and (oops) between us we had left one food parcel behind in Walpole. All our breakfasts and lunches. Instant blue (and black) as we politely discussed the whys and wherefores. (but look at the date). Whatever we were short of fuel on the longest stretch between townships. So the local General Store suddenly doubled its turnover as L bought up big. Just as well in a way as we ended up with a better variety. Instant mash never tasted so good. However the atmosphere was somewhat cool for a few hours. Also lost our sharp knife and my bottle opener – how I don’t know to this day. Still we were on the way to Scafers CS just b4 midday. Quite a boring 14 km walk and we arrive just b4 4.30pm. New location by a small lake and NO rodents. Started a fire which was good as we could dry some things that tended to stay wet eg socks and nikkers. In bed fairly early but were awoken at midnight by kiwi John Scott who walked from Northcliffe IN THE DARK. He reckoned that the moonlight was sufficient. Crazy. Strange sort of a guy. He was a chippy by trade but worked in the gold mines at Telfer for Newcrest (way up north WA). 14 days and 12 hours per day ON then 7 days OFF. What a life. He seemed to have all sorts of financial problems and seemed to enjoy telling L about them. First genuine track walker that we had met sofar. Said that he was getting out at Pemberton and then would return to Telfer. So that kept us awake until 1.00am.

Saturday 14 June: said goodbye to John fairly early by our standards. Fully expected him to follow and then pass us on the way to Warren but no sign. Maybe he went back out to Northcliffe. Strange guy. Quite a long walk so we had a number of stops along the way. My pack was giving me problems and L’s also was not set up correctly. Damned nuisance. Saw a few ‘roos but little else. Beautiful walking day and track wasn’t too hard thank goodness. Arrived at Warren CS late pm. Another nice site right beside a little lake. Frogs croaking all night. Got a fire going and a good thing too as it was very cold.

Sunday 15 June: For once got things organized and left Warren by 9.30am. Quite a long walk into Pemberton and we didn’t want to be in too late. Not a bad walk – mainly up and down with a big UP to get to Gloucester Tree. L says “tell it all warts and all” so … a big fight over a Mars Bar of all things. I was interrogated over buying a Mars Bar in Peaceful Bay . Where, why, who and how. Well I don’t like MB’s so guess who it was for. By some impenetrable female logic that was not on. How dare I purchase a MB and (a) not tell her, and (b) allow her to purchase a Chocolate + Nut bar along the way at Giants. I couldn’t win!! A kind thought is thrown on the rock of fulsome feminine fickleness. Gloucester Tree is a fire lookout. The foresters drive in a whole lot of long spikes into the trunk in a spiral shape winding their way up to a platform way up high. Some one climbs up at the beginning of the fire season and keeps watch. I think that this one (now more touristy) is about 80m high. No use me trying and L got about 1/3 of the way b4 descending. Those spikes do not look safe. Walked into Pemberton an old timber town – 2 sawmills still in operation. Booked into Backpackers (twin room) at $ 18 each. Very cold room and bunks only average. L talked to young people there most of whom were doing casual work pruning and thinning in local vineyards. Terribly cold night. L did shopping at local supermarket to cover next 4 – 5 days to Ballingup. Keith (owner of BP) seemed a good guy but facilities really needed upgrading. Spent good part of night in lounge trying to keep warm!!

Monday 16 June: Spent a fair amount of time sorting out our provisions. L got bad info re gas canisters which held us up as we had to exchange at a real big price!! Daylight robbery but we had no choice. Not too impressed with Pemberton. It is a town that should be well set up for trampers and backpackers and the like, given its locale. However maybe the place is still coming to terms with the loss of the milling industry. I would like to see it in say 5 years time. Left town at 10.40 am much later than I had hoped as we had a long walk ahead. Nice start along the river and around a reservoir. Met a guy from Melbourne who had done a forestry degree in Chch. He was out looking for a job in WA. Depressed me greatly when he said that the AB’s had lost to the poms 13 – 15. Carried on and had lunch in an arbortereum (and met that guy again). Getting late so we pushed on hard to the Campsite. Covered the last 12km in just over 3 hours and arrived at Beedleup CS after 4 pm. Nice site in a small valley right beside a stream. Geoff and Leigh from Melbourne turned up from Beavis at around 6 pm. Really great to talk to them. They are very much like us Own a couple of homes which they rent. They have sold all their possessions and intend caravanning around Oz. Checking WA for the lifestyle and maybe to buy a backpackers somewhere. Really envious of our EU, SA, NA plans. Both pretty fit and have done a lot of tramping around Oz. So great to talk to them. They were very well equipped – TVP meat + 2 vege, custard and fruit for dessert. GandL are doing end to end – hope to catch a plane to Melbourne on 15 July.

Tuesday 17 June: Left Camp after 9.00am. Said goodbye to GandL after having b/fast with them. Went down to Beedleup falls – really more like a small water tumble over some rocks (not great). Almost lost the track but no problems in the end. Passed Karri Lodge which used to b e an alternative lifestyle place (Hare Krishna I think). Closed down due to WA intolerance and is now an upmarket resort. Met a lady who was a guest there. She was amazed that we were walking the track. She thought that “the roos would knock us over and do us in”. Strange. Rest of track pretty tame. We followed Donnellys River for fairly long period. Steep climb to Beavis CS was a bit hard at the end of a long walk. A large grey roo and L eyeballed each other close to the hut, Who got the bigger fright I don’t know. I must have walked right past it. OK camp site. Tom Smith ex Perth rocked in around 5.30pm. He had double hutted (38km) – left at 9.30 and had only one stop. Tom was a carpenter and was doing end to end. Had this huge pack which must have been 30kg at least. He talked about tramping and his gear. He has tramped in NZ (Routeburn, Stewart Is) and all over Oz (Tassie, Victoria, etc). Has a sister in Chch. Tom and family came to WA in early 1970’s so born a kiwi but raised an aussie. Really cold night.

Wednesday 18 June: Said goodbye to Tom at 9.30 and started out to Boarding House. All comments in Site Book – really tough, hard work, steep climbs, hilly -. Have to agree, I found the hills hard going. They seemed to come one after the other for the first 15km. Last 7 – 8 km not too bad but we were late getting in to the campsite. Track much the same as the others ie mainly second growth jarrah, marri and ti tree. Marri nuts all over the path. Very hard about table tennis ball sized. It would be easy to turn an ankle on one of them so care required. Bibbulmum use old forest tramways and roads a lot in this section. Tramways quite good as they are flat and well formed. Theory is that hilly bits are there to add interest to the track. Well they added something, but NOT interest (just sore lungs). L handled this section better than I did. Boarding House CS very nice and I managed to get the fire going. Ate late and in the dark. All sites now seem to have a resident rodent so we are careful where we put out packs and food. I use my food bag as a pillow: L puts hers in the CALM storage Bin. No fights today hurray.

Thursday 19 June: Long trip to Tom Road so we left fairly early. After Beavis – Boarding House I was worried that track may be challenging again. Actually not too bad. Up and down hill to begin with and then fairly flat as we followed old tram lines. Saw some black cockatoos with white tipped tails. They are getting close to the endangered list so I guess we were lucky. Tom Road CS quite pleasant and we arrived at a reasonable time. Few stops on the way but all in all a pleasant walk. Dinner in daylight (for once) and we slept out as the weather was quite warm.

Friday 20 June: Left Tom Road late but no worries as only 16km to Donnellys River. Walk was flat so we made great time without trying too hard. I suspect that we are becoming track hardened and much fitter. Got into Donnellys at about 1.15pm, earliest yet. Donnellys was an old timber town; now set up as a tourist place. All old cottages were built exactly the same – dunny and washhouse both outside. Town set up in 1958 and it was all over in 1978. 20 years, seems a very short life span for a town but they cut out all the old growth trees in that time. Tony (ex Wgtn) and Sally owned the village and the store. Tony really chatty but also a bit “agin the Government”on everything. We stayed in schoolhouse (old teachers room converted into small semi self contained unit) $ 12 ea good value after Pemberton. We had showers and did some washing in one of the empty houses. Plenty of roos and we nearly had a fight with a couple to move them on and away. They are so tame that they have become aggressive. Also a couple of emus but they were no bother. L watched TV while I read a book. Great lasagna and soup for dinner. Tony has DR up for sale. All the buildings form part of the package but no land as it is owned by CALM. Price $ 1.7m. Seems high I can’t see how one could get a decent return on that valuation. We liked the old photo display in one of the classrooms. The place must have been something in its heyday.

Saturday 21 June: Left DR late after L spent over an hour chatting to Tony. Walked a bit uphill to join the Brockman Highway. We are getting fitter as we covered 9.5km in 1hr 55min!! Met a trekky going south. He was unemployed but traveling with his video cam. He was filming his experiences along the track and his brother in law was going to edit and show final result on Community TV (Access Channel 21). Not too much to report on track. Followed old tram lines most of the way and arrived at Gregory Brook CS late pm. Not such a good site with lots of sand, dust and dirt. Also inevitable camp mouse. I lit a really good fire and got all our clothes dry. Warm night so we didn’t pitch tent. Slept in shelter. No night animals or anything – a bit disappointing!!

Sunday 22 June: Left GB at 9.05am and glad to be off. The CS was a dirty one with lots of red dirt around which tended to get into everything. Good walk to Blackwood River. Spotted one emu but it ran away. Also saw some green parrots. Followed Blackwood River for about 3 km. It is slow and deep but reasonably impressive. One of WA’s biggest!! Then Heartbreak hill. Up about 200 m traversing back and forth thank god!! I must be getting fitter as I only needed to stop 3 times for a breather. L sort of plod, plods her way up at a steady pace without stopping!! Half way up it started to rain and steadily got worse as we neared the top. Then 2km to the hut. Weather cleared but shortly after we arrived the heavens opened. Fierce rain for a short time then it cleared. Blackwood CS was on top of the hill with a spectacular view out across the river valley. Awesome after the rains – clouds, mist rolling in, then the sun. Just sat there and watched. After hanging out wet clothes of course. No sense in wasting the sun. Bothered during the night by a couple of very persistent mice. Oh for a good temporary cat. Not too much sleep as a result.

Monday 23 June: Valley looked great early in the morning. Again mists rolling in across farmland. Got going early for walk to Ballingup. Animal count 1 x emu. Plenty of domestic stock. We also passed the remains of an old tin mining operation (Greenbury). Not much left but you could see where they created a small lake to provide water for a sluice (I think). Stopped for lunch at Golden Grove near Ballingup. Interesting idea – an area (50 – 75 acres) set aside as a native and non native tree reserve. Most of trees in early stages of growth so one doesn’t get a good impression. However a couple of fantastic old oak trees which were part of the original estate. Ballingup want to develope this as a land tourist initiative. I think that it has potential but they will have to wait for the trees to grow!! Maybe come back in 10 years. Walked into Ballingup and booked into local backpackers (back of Post Office). Very warm and comfortable. Kim was relief Post Master and he told us a bit about the area. Town very small and not many facilities eg NO pub. Bought a very basic lot of food from the local general store. We would have had trouble stocking up if we wanted to go further on the track – selection was really limited. Quiet night in hostel followed. Ballingup a hippy style town with lots of arty crafty type places. Washed our dirty clothes and dried in front of fire.

Tuesday 24 June: Got up fairly early as we had to decide whether to return to Perth or carry on to Collie (5 days away). Decided to return for two reasons (1) difficulty in getting good supplies (2) chance to get L’s pack repaired. Down to tourist Office to book tickets but cancelled as it was wrong service and did not connect with train. Eventually sorted out and L went off to find old hostel cum yoga retreat that she visited 5 years b4. I stayed at centre chatting to Ian. Interesting guy – he owns a BandB resort (good quality) on road to Nannup. Used to work for Rank Organisation as an entertainer cum organizer (bit like Michael Edgley). He then came to Perth and operated a roller skating rink b4 setting up in Nannup. Really good at doing impersonations esp famous people of 1950/60’s. Caught bus at 1.40pm to Bunbury then train to Perth. Joy of joys - rang Lillette and she had a spare place for us for a week in Charles Street. Nice train trip back to Perth and then bus to south Perth and back into flat. Good to see Phil again. All too easy. L booked herself in for work and life is back to normal?

Verdict

Good walk – one is never too far from civilization.
Track is generally easy. Steep sections are no more than 300m high so the uphill is not too hard on the body
Huts OK if a little primitive. Rainwater could be a problem during summer esp as track gets more popular
Scenery good on south coast esp Rames Head to Walpole, but inland does tend to get a little “samey” at times
Rodents at camp sites a bit of a nuisance esp Frankland. Most other animals spotted along coast.
Evenings tended to drag as it was dark by 5.30 pm.

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ITINERARY

START - Denmark Distance (km) Time (Hrs) Comment
Willams Bay CS      14.7      2.5
Boat Harbour CS   18.8     6.42 Snake
Peaceful Bay CS     22.7      4.1 Caravan/Campsite
Rame Head CS       10.5      3.33 Great view and beaut sunrise
Giants CS                15.6      5.15
Frankland River CS 13.7   4.5 Tree Top Walk Tingle Track
Walpole                  17.5      4.75 Harbour cruise - excellent
Northcliffe Bus
Scafer CS                14.0     3.83
Warren CS             21.1       5.5
Pemberton            21.7       5.75 YHA bit rundown
Beedleup CS          23.7      4.83
Beavis CS              19.5        6.1 Grey roo
Boarding House CS 19.1    5.5 Black Cockatoos
Tom Road CS        22.9      5.5
Donnelly River      15.9      3.1 School room
Gregory Brook CS 20.6    4.75
Blackwood CS        18.0    4.42
Balingup                  17.7     4.25 Post Office Room