Gill Goes ... Trekking The Bibbulmun Track End To End Again
a trip by gillg
From: July 24th 2020
Until: September 10th 2020
The Bibbulmun Track is a long distance hiking track in Western Australia.
Where?
Western Australia.
Yes, Western Australia. For probably 99% of the world's population who have never heard of Western Australia it is far away from everywhere in the universe. It is almost 4000km from Sydney, 3400km from The Great Barrier Reef and 3700km from Ayers Rock (Uluru). And right now it is in its own bubble, as far away as can be with a hard state COVID-19 border separating it from the rest of the country, let alone the rest of the world.
Anyway, we have this world class hiking trail that measures some 1004km (and then some, there are generally some km adding diversions in place). It stretches from Kalamunda, in the Perth hills, to Albany in the Great Southern region of the state. Or ... from Albany in the Great Southern region of the state to Kalamunda, in the Perth Hills. Yes folks, you can do it either way.
"The Track takes walkers through towering karri and tingle forests, into mist-shrouded valleys, over giant granite boulders and along breathtaking coastal heath lands. It passes through many of the most beautiful national parks of the south west forests and coastline" (directly cut/pasted from the BTF website- they summed it up very nicely). Depending on the season you might witness the annual migration of the humpback and southern wright whales, see some amazing wildflowers, get up close and personal with Australian fauna such as kangaroos, emus, possum, bandicoots, a million birds, some deadly reptiles such as the tiger snake or dugite and some not so deadly reptiles like the blue tongue lizard.... and if you choose your season poorly, trillions of flies... and ticks. Don't go in summer. Seriously. Summer equals bush fire, high temperatures and those trillion flies ... and ticks.
Along the way are 49 campsites with 3 sided shelters, a drop toilet, a water tank, a table and benches and tent sites (actually, 1 of the shelters is enclosed- Mt Wells used to serve as a forestry lookout, it's on top of a windy hill and needs those walls and a roof). The shelters are all a little different to each other due to configuration, outlook and now building materials. Traditionally the shelters have been made from jarrah and iron but as a result of fires destroying some shelters, the rebuilds have been in either a colorbond material or rammed earth, it is hoped that these may be more more fire resistant.
The trail is marked by distinctive yellow triangles with a black snake like figure , they are called Waugal markers, the Waugal representing the rainbow serpent of the Aboriginal dreaming.
So... with my trekking trip to Georgia and Armenia off the agenda my plan is to walk south to north over 49 days. I walked north to south in 2016 in 58 days. I can shave off 9 days - easy. Can I?
Trip Length: 7 weeks
Blog Entries: 9
Photos: 200
Words: 8946
Blog Entries
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