Australian Hiker

Start: 8:21am

Finish: 3:14pm

Distance: 17km

Today was a shortish day with the guidebook saying 17km but the sign at Springs Camp saying less. In these cases I always work on the longer distance. I had a fairly late start this morning because I got into camp later than I hoped last night. The other hikers had gone to bed not long after I arrived so I didn’t follow my usual routine not wanting to disturb them and needed to play catch up this morning.

Today I was focused on getting to the Bridgewater Cafe for lunch. To get there I spent much of the morning walking along the cliff tops, getting views down to seal colonies, and learning about some amazing geological history of the area through the interpretive signage.

I have spent a lot of time both in a boat, on land, and in the water around seal colonies so it’s not a big deal to me. Even so, the best opportunity wasn’t from the main viewing platform but rather as I approached Bridgewater – I watched a large group of pups playing ‘chasey’ in the water. So much joy in their play.

I reached the Bridgewater Cafe at just on midday and departed after a very pleasant lunch consisting of a Cajun Spiced Salad which I would happily eat again. Being one hour in duration this was a long lunch for me but a chance to take advantage of the shorter day. It may sound strange to focus so much on food but after two weeks of eating hiking food and losing weight along the way, when I’m not thinking about hiking, I’m thinking about food.

After lunch it was another walk down the beach but this time it was a much less violent affair along a very wide and relatively calm body of water compared to the last few days.

The turn off the beach was obvious and one of the key things to keep an eye on is in looking for the trail markers but also keeping an eye on what’s coming up. If it looks like you can’t get around a headland due to the water then expect a turnoff. If there is no turnoff look for inland alternatives like I had to over the last few days.

Once I turned inland it was a matter of walking through the coastal bushland on an easy but undulating trail before arriving at Trawalla Campground.

This is a very similar campground compared to Springs, square table included! Where it was different was that the ground was very uneven and even with only three tents, it was a struggle to find a flat surface.

Like last night this is a fairly sheltered location and also warm so I opted to take advantage and wash my shirt which didn’t smell that great.

I was tired again today so nodded off to sleep fairly quickly which is why I’m writing this post in the middle of the night.

One more sleep to go, two more hiking days to go!

One conversation I had with my fellow hikers was on snakes and as a single and a couple, the others had four snake encounters so far where my tally is just one. Given that I’m at the back of the pack maybe they’re shooing them away for me!