2018 Bibbulmun Track
First day back on the trail after my rest stop in Dwellingup. While the rest days have been good, allowing my body a chance to catch up on some much needed rest in particular my feet, I am finding that each time I stop it’s almost like starting a whole new trip. I find I need to get my head into the right frame of mind. Once I start walking again everything falls into place.
This is my last week of the hike with around 211km left to reach Kalamunda. Today’s 34.5km takes me down to under 180km so each day over this remaining week I will average around 30km with my last day into Kalamunda being the shortest. Today’s walk was relatively easy as the terrain on the most part was relatively flattish. While I expected the last section of today’s hike up to the campsite on the summit of Mount Wells to be difficult it was actually a pretty easy ascent. I came across a total of six hikers after I left Chadora, including two who are staying at Mount Wells who all said that the walk up the other side of the mountain was much more difficult so I’m thankful I got the easy option for once.
Mount Wells is an old fire watching station so is the only enclosed hut on the Bibbulmun having been repurposed rather than built from scratch. There are two sleeping rooms as well as an indoor kitchen seating area and at best you could sleep may 10-12 people but that would be a real stretch; five would be comfortable.
In talking to one of the hikers I passed today they said there was a mist that rolled in at night and this also occurred tonight before I started writing this post. This may also explain why it’s so cold up here compared to the rest of the track. Unfortunately the weather forcast is not great for the remaining week with rain, thankfully not much, being forecast for most of the days.
It’s actually noisy up here as the Bauxite mine I passed a few days ago is still nearby and you can hear works happening even from this campsite. It won’t stop me sleeping but it’s still in the background.
Mt Wells campsite