Gill Goes... Trekking the Bibbulmun Track End to End... Donnelly River Village

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Day 28

Gregory Brook Shelter to Donnelly River Village

22.5km

Super cold, damp night. Super cold night time toilet visit - damp uneven, slippy, tortuous route ... damp toilet.

Up at 06:45 - numb fingers packing up makes for a slower pack up. Hot porridge warms them up (briefly). I note that my gas bottle seems a bit depleted- still got 1/2 can left, maybe the cold? maybe using it without a wind guard?

Head off at 08:15, it takes a full 2.6km to thaw out. The trail to Karri Gully (Brockman Highway) is very easy-nicely cleared yesterday by Di, there's a little tunnel of bush, flowering wattle and thick waterbrush and a bright blue sky. Start to hear the highway long before reaching it. The tall trees emerge as do a couple of small creeks and huge amounts of deep leaf and branch litter. Quite a number of fallen trees emerge. One of them is absolutely massive and splintered and lies across the track. Going around is challenging as the bush is so dense and the forest floor litter deep. I end up balancing (of a fashion) along it, getting off at the lowest point. Arrive at Willow Springs (9.8km mark) at 10:35. Several people around- Bill and Anita from Canberra, and Liz, who I "met" online before my E2E. She started ahead of me and is walking for a suicide prevention cause. Spend about an hour sitting on a log in the sun chatting - Liz hasn't enjoyed her walk as much as she had hoped for a variety of reasons but is maybe warming up to it, she has had a couple of days at Donnelly River Village to regroup and refocus. I feel very lucky that my experience has been so much of what I have wanted and that I am LOVING it.

Basking in appreciation for what a great hike I am having, with renewed vigour I head onwards, Donnelly River bound. Hiking, hiking, hiking away, enjoying the fresh air and the birds up in the trees, mind somewhere else (clearly not on the track unlike the small camouflage stick/branch that was) when I found myself sailing through the air and then... on my hands and knees! Time slowed and as I was flying through the air I simultaneously thought many, many things including, but not limited to...

* I knew I should have taken off my wedding ring, when I fracture my wrist and my hand swells they're going to have to cut the ring off

* nope, not going fast enough to break my now outstretched wrists (unlike the roller blading incident in 2000), PLUS, I have been drinking so much calcium fortified Sunshine powdered milk that my bones will be unbreakable

* I'm definitely going to cut my knees- when did I last have a tetanus shot?, oh yeah- 2012, that'll work. Will the knees v sticks end up in a penetrating joint injury? Could I keep walking AND administer my own IV antibiotics?

* Did anyone see?

.... then at the point of contact with the very hard ground where the pain hasn't kicked in yet I knew nothing was broken, no major damage

.... but then it did (the pain), and you know that feeling when you feel like you are going to throw up and/or faint? Then I thought

* OK, get the back pack off and lie flat with your legs up on it, but what if I'm flat on my back unconscious- will I be able to protect my airway? Maybe I should try to lie on my side? Nah (as the world starts spinning), just lie on your back, then as the sweat starts pouring- hmm is it cold enough to get hypothermia??

... Anyway... that was the story of my renewed vigour - all happening in probably under 5 seconds! Although I lay there across the track for about 10 minutes (and no one saw!). I did look more hardcore afterwards though- blood oozing down into my gaiters!

And, as you can see by the following photos, there was a moment for a selfie... oh, dear.

Next meeting is with Janet, also solo, from Sydney and works with snails (yes, snails), sporting a black eye and healing grazes- she face planted from a trip and dive a week ago. Dangerous place this!

As the day unfolds Snake Road seems to be everywhere, as are fallen trees. Lots of climbing over is required.

Reach Donnelly River at 15:00, greeting by hundreds of roos, a bunch of emus and thousands of parrots. I also find my next resupply box at the general store. Pay $25 for a linen pack and the wifi password- this gives me a towel, sheets, quilt, etc so as I can join the sisters in their cottage for the night. The general store guy makes me a sublimely good flat white and sells me a sublimely good big fat chocolate Afghan biscuit. Sit on the verandah in the warm sun before heading up to the cottage to meet the girls. Damn fine Afghan!

Then it's unpack, make up bed, SHOWER, wash blood off knees, dress knees, do some washing (Donnelly River Village has a pay per use machine and clearly the sisters and I have transcended the boundaries of decorum- we all throw our stuff in 1 wash together!), cook dinner (expensive large packet of pasta from the DRV shop), have a glass of bubbly (thank you sisters!!!- that bottle was in their resupply box!) and chat by the roaring fire before an early night. It was just lovely!



Impressions of Donnelly River Village -

The village is fabulous, it is a nice stop in that it isn't surrounded by roads and shops like all of the other track towns. The speed limit is 10km/hr, and in the school holidays it's about 5km/hr as there are wall to wall little kids. The options for hikers are a shelter, a dorm bed or to rent a cottage (I'd advise you avoid school holidays). The store has a good inventory of fresh and dried foods so theoretically you could resupply here if you needed to. You can also buy hot meals and assorted cakes/biscuits/drinks. It's a really good place to bring overseas visitors- a guaranteed Australian wildlife extravaganza and an authentic old timber mill town experience.

Body assessment- hmm, enough said

Animals- millions

Total people seen for the day -on the track about 7, on the roads a few, at the village quite a few




** Leftover from re-supply Box 5- strip of Panadol Osteo and some anti-inflammatories, pack tissues, pack of wet ones, 1 cereal, 2 trail mix, 2 vita wheats and a piece of fruitcake. I donate 2 Moroccan beef meals (still hate them), pack of wet, ones, 1 cereal, remaining pasta bagged into 4 individual ziplocs, a book and my gas canister from Collie to the brand new hiker box at the DRV store.

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