Advertisement
Published: December 18th 2017
Edit Blog Post
Day 21
Collie to Yabberup Shelter
19.5 km
What is it with sleeping in a bed these days? Another not awesome sleep- why? Too comfortable? Too many town noises? Too much to eat last night?
Who knows, but this morning is misty and rainy and perfect for a late start. The Colliefields Hotel includes a help yourself breakfast (homebrand bread and spread, individual yoghurt serves and individual fruit cups) and has the added bonus of an onsite cafe which I hit up before starting my walking day (mug of double shot flat white, muffin, ham and cheese sandwich to take-away for lunch $16). Michelle, the owner, drops me back up at the trail head. It's 10:21 and so begins Day 21!
I am so glad to be back out here!! The sun has come back out and I am feeling very enthusiastic. Today is my most decidedly meandering day so far. Take lots of photos. Stop often to watch and listen to the birds. Feeling very refreshed and under no time pressure. The area along the Collie River is really nice. Hive of activity for birds- black faced cuckoo shrike, scarlet robin, black cockatoo, blue wren
Weird Camera Effect
Burnt out sheoak forest and grey fantail. The swampy flats lead to the old bridge ruins and a wide stretch of river. The track then heads towards the Mungalup Rd bridge before hitting the powerlines. Four kangaroo sightings and something that I just glimpsed out of the corner of my eye- squat, black and very fast- ? wallaby, ? pig. The various foliage has been contrasting today too- pine groves with a strong pine scent, eucalyptus and close to the powerlines are golden wattle.
It's already 1:40 by the time I take a lunch break (that sandwich from Colliefields was
not awesome - stale cheap bread, cheap ham, cheap cheese) and reach the Mungalup Dam. Initially the water was very green, stark contrast to the red muddy soil surrounding it. It then completely changed colour as a massive black cloud came over. Nice visual, no rain. Lots of stark tree trunks and super low water level.
Despite a very easy hiking day with easy gradients I don't reach the Wellington Dam Circuit signs until nearly 16:00. Out of nowhere a voice appears- I have a hut companion for the night. The hardest part of today is actually the short climb up to
Yabberup Hut. My hut buddy is very talkative, very, very talkative. How would I summarise him?
- unusual, interesting, not big on eye contact
- friend of Hugo (from Chadora Hut)
- ultra light gear geek (he goes through his kit, piece by piece, weight by weight)
- loves Black Laurel Canyon gear and has a cuban fibre frameless pack
- doing a PhD in creative writing, thesis is on bushwalker tales, has self published a book on Bon Scott
- is a frequent traveller- Tasmania and Japan are two faves
It buckets down for hours and gets cold. No fire tonight. Give my hut buddy half of my dinner and some milo. In bed by 8. It's great to be back out in my sleeping bag. Hut buddy does not snore but gets up several times in the night to pee (he tells me this over b/f the next morning), despite this I sleep well.
Impressions of Yabberup Shelter - Standard 8 berth, nothing overly remarkable but nice and foresty Body assessment- still excellent, very clean with clean smelling clothes Total people seen for the day - apart from the inhabitants of Collie, just my hut buddy who has walked the Collie River route to get here. He hopes to establish an indigenous walk trail along the banks of the river. I hope he succeeds.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.084s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0219s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb