Gill Goes... Trekking the Bibbulmun Track End to End... Blackwood Shelter

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Day 26

Balingup to Blackwood

17.4km

I am soooooo ready to get back on the track, out the door at 08:30 having had the best sleep in a month. It is a beautiful, balmy 4C and sunny. Let the chooks out of the shed as I make a beeline for the coffee shop- last proper coffee for a couple of days and I know they have banana bread. Hussain, the new co-owner of 3 weeks, waves me off with half a fruit bowl as well as my purchases, wishing me a good journey. Pretty generous folk in Balingup. I'm still blown away that someone did my washing!

Anyway... the trail... after skirting the main highway I am on my way to the section that runs through the Golden Valley Tree Park. Jonquils line the road and the temp must be rising as that jonquilesque aroma is in the air (I actually hate that smell but the flowers are beautiful). It is such a stunning park, more so for us Western Australians who rarely get to see colour in trees beyond green or brown. The GVTP is a sixty hectare landscaped park that is heritage listed site with a collection of trees that was begun over a hundred years ago, and is now the largest arboretum in WA. It has an extensive collection of world trees as well as an 'Australian Collection'. For me I like anything with orange or yellow leaves- those "fall colours" the east coast and the rest of the world are lucky enough to experience. There are several good walk trails here as well as picnic facilities. IMO it's worth several visits at different times of the year.

http://www.goldenvalleytreepark.org.au/tree-park-map.pdf



I enjoy walking through the fallen leaves, and the acorns underfoot are a nice change to gumnuts or gravel. There are sheep, a farmhouse and historical building and multiple assorted signs to contemplate before getting back into the forest. It's a very comfortable walk, part of which is on the Greenbushes Loop Trail. Take a morning tea break at the most awesome spot- a newly installed bench overlooking farmland at the top of a hill. This spot has been earmarked for the Bibb Track - Bruce Trail (Canada) Friendship Trail and has a new signboard to inform track users. I sit a full 30 mins with a cup of tea and that excellent Balingup banana bread (who knew gluten free could be so delicious).

The trail then takes me down hill through some historical trail markers relating to the old Vultan tin mine from the 60's, lots of very dilapidated timber structures and warning signs everywhere. True to form there are well worn tracks through the "do not enter" fenced off areas. I admit it, I succumbed. Wonder how many people actually get injured or fall down shafts - luckily, not me! The Mount Jones Dam is next on this mornings journey back through time - purpose built for the tin mine and with an info board explaining the process.

By 13:00 I'm back into farmland- cows, calves, a run down old barn and a random palm tree along with some ascent/descents. The Southampton/Spring Gully turn off brings the beginning of the long ascent up the hill and through private land. It's actually a massive green hill and a really hot and sweaty ascent. Sudden absolutely ravenous hunger kicks in so I look for a suitable lunch spot. Hit a pine plantation which is also fungi central, the X Files of fungi- massive, oozy ones and clusters of bulbous ones. Find a non-fungated sawn stump and chow down the half a fruit bowl (thanks Hussain) and some bread and cheese. The post lunch walking is along a fire break road and the vegetation is dramatically different- lots of mean looking weeds, thistles, tangly blackberry vines and monster grasshoppers. The Blackwood Valley is now visible which means I am close to the hut. And just like that, after a final hot, sweaty last push the hut was there! Gorgeous deserted campsite complete with a dirt note to me! "Hi Gill", it said, how cool is that?! (NOT a hallucination from boiling brains- see photo).

Wash off sweat and revel in the view when a couple of other hikers arrive- Jude and Linda, they are to become my companions for the next several days as they, too, are walking south (Pemberton via Donnelly River). They are very organised and have their own individual ways- separate food, completely different set ups, etc. I don't know if I am surprised to find out they are sisters, they are so different to each other. It quickly becomes clear that the three of us are on similar wavelengths though as we are all washed, changed and set up by 4pm. Dinner eaten and food packed up and hung up by 18:00 (evidence of mice).

It was a beautiful sunset, the wind kicked up and got very chilly. The girls were tucked up by 18:20! Blackwood is a no campfire zone due to it being in a pine plantation and on top of a windy hill. There's not as much to stay up for when you can't sit around a fire and it's freezing- I lasted another hour (trying to catch up with this diary). The frog chorus was sensational. The mice darting around... not so much. But all in all, what a day- loved it!



Impressions of Blackwood Shelter -

Utterly sublime outlook, lots of afternoon birds including a raptor (shame it wasn't concentrating on the mice here!),

Body assessment- excellent (tape to calf firmly insitu)

Bird Sightings- red cap parrot, pink and grey galah, 28's, red tail black cockatoo, kookas, raven, grey heron, pacific black duck, grey fantail, splendid wren, raptor, etc (as in, I don't know what they were)

Animal Sightings- 1 kangaroo, 3 emu poos, mice (thousands I am certain)

Total people (other than in town) seen for the day - my 2 new roomies

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Photos

LETS GO!
Balingup trailhead shelter

Mount Jones Dam aka Vultan Dam
Remnant from the 1960's