Walking the Bibbulmun Track - Part 1

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After getting back to Australia from Europe, I set my sights on trekking the Bibbulmun Track in Western Australia. The track is one of thr world's long distance walking trails, stretching from Kalamumda in the Perth Hills, to Albany on the West Australian south coast, a distance of just over 1,000kms. It would take me approximately two months to complete an End to End, carrying a full pack including all food. There are 9 sections to the track and you can re stock with food at track towns along the way or organise for food drops if you are able to.



So alot of planning was needed, but with Covid, International and State Border closures, coupled with a foot operation, it meant I was unable to get to Perth in West Australia till September 2022. I thought my reserach was on point, but as I was to find out, I had under estimated the weight of food needed for the first two weeks of the track from Kalamumda to Dwellingup. This is a distance of approximately 211kms which would take approximately 2 weeks.



So, after buying all my supplies in Perth and realising that my pack was going to be super heavy, I headed off on the local bus to Kalamumda and the Northern Terminus of the Bibbulmun Track to start my End to End trek.



Kalamunda to Hewitts Hill - The weather and track was lovely, quite undulating, but the wildflowers were beautiful. Passed quite a few people who were out for a days walk to look at the flowers. After about 9-10kms, there was a sign on a tree, which said cafe in about 1km. I thought this was a joke, but yup after about 1km, there it was, the Trail Hub Cafe. The lady there was lovely and I had an afternoon English pot of tea, with scone, strawberry jam and cream. Lovely, this track is good !!



The yellow symbol on the tree in the picture, is the emblem of the Track, or Waugal, a symbol of the Rainbow Serpent and the sign you look for to keep you on the Track. Well sometimes you miss them and thats another story !



So after only about a 12kms days walk, I arrived at my first campsite at Hewitts Hill. My first night on the track was a great learning curve. I met three ladies who were regular walkers on the track and another gentleman who had completed lots of long distance walks. After dinner, we sat around a camp fire and talked about the track and what lay ahead. My research had been good, but I had clearly under estimated the pack weight issue, with two weeks food on board.



Hewitts Hill to Helena - I headed off to Helena Hut, which I understand is the largest hut on the track and well used, certainly on weekends which it was. I had stopped for lunch at Ball Creek Hut and met a Scout Leader who was there. We talked and she asked me how much my pack weighed. I said I thought about 15kgs. She asked if she could lift it and she reckoned it was well in excess of 20kgs possibly up to 25kgs ! I had certainly underestimated the food weight as my pack had only weighed 8kgs at the airport.



Helena Hut has a double decker sleeping area, but I was able to squeeze in on the lower level and there were also lots of people camping around the hut area. I however learned that some huts maybe closed due to burn offs. Again, a good learning curve.



Helena Hut to Waalegh - Was a real eye opener for me. Twice on the way to Waalegh Hut, I missed the Waugul symbol on the track which cost me additional kms. At least when I got to the Waalegh Hut, two other hikers there had done the same thing. However, the real problem that day, was that the sternum strap on my backpack had broken, this would prove to be a real problem. It would mean that the shoulder straps would not stay in place and kept sliding off my shoulders, so I had to keep adjusting the pack, which was both tiring and very uncomfortable.



Waalegh to Beraking - A short day of only 9kms and greatly appreciated after the previous days experience.



Beraking to Canning - My original plan was to walk to Brookton Hut, but was advised that this was closed due to the Fire Brigade doing burn offs. However, there was a temporary campsite which could be used. The weather was poor with heavy rain and when I got to the Brookton Hut turnoff it was hailing, so decided to keep moving to the temporary campsite. This turned out to be a section of cleared land, with a Portaloo on a trailer, which was not nice and some jerry cans with water. I decided to keep moving on to Canning Hut, which made it a big day of just under 30kms in very wet conditions. By now, my backpack issues were making it very uncomfortable and painful on my shoulders.



Canning to Monadnocks - Not a long day of 17kms, but my shoulder pain was now quite bad. I spent a sleepless night trying to work out what to do and had decided to try and keep going to Dwellingup. I spoke to a lady who had lots of track experience and told her my plan to get to Dwellingup and then head back to Perth. She advised me that there was no public transport from Dwellingup. The previous evening a lady had arrived late into the camp. She said that she had walked in from Sullivans Rock and was heading back to Perth. I asked her if she would give me a lift to some public transport and she said yes. So we walked down to the Sullivans Rock car park and she dropped me off at the Kwinana train station and I made it back to Perth, upset and with the view of just heading home.



After a long shower and good nights sleep, I decided next morning to take my broken backpack to a local Anaconda store and see what they would do for me. At the store I explained to the assistant what had happened. They agreed that it was a product defect and offered to either reimburse me the money or give me credit. Bouyed by this, I decided to get a bigger and more robust backpack, some other items and head back to my hotel to plan my return to the track. I had also downloaded the Far Out app, which proved to be excellent and kept me on track.



Having taken into consideration public transport, I decided to take the Translink bus to Collie and head back onto the track from there.



Collie to Yabberup - Started off in light rain, but with my new and stronger backpack, felt good to be back out walking again. A good 19.36kms walk was a great way to restart my trek.



Yabberup to Noggerup - As prevuiosly commented, the wild flowers were out and beautiful. A lady I met at Yabberup Hut told me that she had seen numerous types of orchids, I am afraid my knowledge of flowers is limited. The highlight of this section was supposed to be a deicious hamburger, topped off with a cold beer at the Mumballup pub. Unfortunately, the pub was shut, so lunch was my normal snack. However, after leaving the Mumballup Pub, I walked along an old disused train track, before turing left and heading up a very long and steep road, which was nearly 2kms log. That was tough and I must admit, if I had eaten a big lunch with a cold beer, it would have been tougher !



Noggerup to Grimwade - Again a really nice hike of 23kms, with more beautiful flowers. The track was nice and I was making good time.



Grimwade to Balingup - I would have to admit, I was happy to be travelling south on this section, as the path just before Balingup was very steep. I had hutted the last three nights with a young lady and she had booked accomodation at Balingup as her feet were giving her problems, but I did not have any accomodation booked. She gave me some names and phone numbers of accomodation in Balingup, but when I arrived, discovered that the day had been declared a public holiday as a day of Mourning for the Queen's passing. Nothing other than the general store was open, but I was lucky enough after a few phone calls to get accomodation for the night.



Balingup to Blackwood - The lady who I had stayed with, dropped me back into Balingup and I headed off to Blackwood Hut. After leaving the highway, the track went through an area called the Golden Valley Tree Park. This was really lovely, with sheep roamimg around.



The track was quite steep, especially the last part up to the hut, which was at the top of a hill with great views. After being at the hut for a while, I was joined by a trekker who I had met back at the Helena Hut. He was doing an End to Ender and just stayed for a quick lunch before heading off for a double hut day. He told me that it was going to be a cold night, with a big storm coming through. I had the hut to myself and in the middle of the night was woken up by something chomping the grass next to the wall where I was sleeping.



Blackwood to Gregory Brook - The storm had passed through and whilst the ground was wet, it was a beautiful day. I headed off and met the midnight munchers ! Again, I was happy to be walking south, as the path became very steep. Luckily I was going downhill, but with a full backpack it was difficult and I had to be very careful.



Gregory Brook to Donnelly River - The track to Donnelly River was quite flat, but the Far Out app had saved me, when I failed to see the sign just after leaving the Gregory Brook Hut. I had been told that you could stay in Hikers Accomodation and that the food at the Donnelly River store was great.



Arriving at the Donnelly River Store, it was like a mirage ! I walked in and was greeted by the young manager. A coffee, food and a place to sleep please ! I sat for a while, savoured the great coffee, munched through the great hamburger and collected my towel for a hot shower. I got to my Hikers accomodation, a bunk style room, which I had to myself for the first night. After a great hot shower and another coffee, I decided to stay for an extra night, rest up and more importantly do some washing. Thank goodness for small mercies.



Donnelly River was a great place to just chill and rest for the day. It was school holidays, so there were lots of families enjoying the wild life, bike and walking tracks.



I had heard differing information as regards the water levels on some sections of the next parts of the track. These ranged from chest, to ankle and then waist high water levels. I therefore decided to miss some sections and start again from Walpole. I was able to get a lift to Pemberton and then caught the Translink bus to Walpole. I restocked with food and butane gas at Walpole and headed off.



Walpole to Frankland River - For the first time, the track took me down to the sea, well Walpole Inlet to be exact. I walked past Coalmine Beach Caravan Park and started the climb up to Hilltop Lookout.



The track continued to climb through large Karri trees, before arriving at the Giant Tingle Tree. I arrived at the Frankland River Hut, which was packed as it was school holidays and families were walking sections of the track.



Frankland River to Giants - The track was good, but there had been quite a lot of rain, with some creeks I passed over having a lot of water flowing through them. A couple of kilometres before Giants Hut, I arrived at the Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk. I decided not to do the Tree Top Walk. I had seen alot of trees through the last few days. One thing I did do however, was to but a great coffee from the vendor in the car park, j1ust great. I headed down to the Giants Hut.

Giants to Rame Head - I was told that the weather was to be lovely today, from memory 24C. So I stripped off my trousers bottoms, put on a short sleeve tee shirt and headed off, felt great to be out walking. For the first day on the track, I hit a sandy track. It didn't concern me too much, the weather was good and I was feeling great !

The flowers were again beautiful and I was making good progress, then I hit the sand at Conspicuuous Beach. After a short while, the track went off the beach and I had a scramble up the dune to join the track. The track then meandered through the dunes, before heading up a quite steep hill. Luckily the track was a zig zag style, which made it much easier.

Towards the top, the view back down to the beach was beautiful. There were Balck Cockatoos and kangaroos around, but all keeping their distance.

The track leveled out and was a pleasure to walk on. The view across to Peaceful Bay was good to see and certainly an incentive to push on.

Rame Head to Peaceful Bay - The day started off overcast, with some occasional showers, meaning rain gear was off and on. Again some beautiful and interesting flowers on the track, which was sandy and undulating. I had passed a few people headed North and stopped to rest and chat to a group who were on a day trek to Conspicuous Beach. They left me and after a few minutes I decided to take a photo before heading off myself. I got my phone out and discovered that half the screen was black. Funny, I couldn't put the password in or do anything. Oh well, I will just start walking and see if it clears, perhaps something had happened to it whilst in my pocket. After a while, I again tried my phone and the bottom half of the screen was black and down the right hand side of the screen was now various shades of green. I made it through to Peaceful Bay, but by now my phone was dead, no response at all. I could not access the Far Our app, which had been my life saver and kept me on the track numerous times, especially down on the beach, where the signposting was not great.

After all the other issues I had had, I have not mentioned numerous things which had gone wrong, this was the last straw for me and I decided to head back to Perth and home. I stayed in a Chalet for the night, thank goodness as it would have been a cold and wet night in a tent ! I arranged to be picked up at 8.00am and driven to Walpole, were I could catch the Translink bus back to Perth. Luckily the visitor centre was open and I could buy a bus ticket. I got back to Perth, booked into a hotel and then tried to get a flight home to Cairns. I was able to get my phone repaired, the screen had gone and after the shock of the airfares back to Cairns, made it home.

My initial feeling, was after all the issues and problems I had had, to just forget going back as it appeared to be a logistic nightmare to complete the track. But after a few days and having looked at the logistics, I intend to head back, maybe once or possibly twice to finish the Bibbulmum. I will be wiser and more informed next time and keener to push on. Thats why, I headed the Part 1.

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Photos

Start of the Bibbulmun Track - Kalamunda
Start of my End to End

The Northern Terminus of Bibbulmun Track
Only 1,000kms to go !!

Kalamunda to Hewitts Hill
Lovely first day on the track, plenty of wildflowers and great afternoon tea !!

Waalegh to Beraking
A lovely days hike, short but very nice

Beraking Hut
Typical of most of the Huts on the trail

Back on the track at Collie
The sign was vry welcoming to me !!

The track ahead
I love setions of tracks like this, where you can just get into arhytmn of walking and enjoy the moment

Midnight Munchers !
Just past the hut, were two big kangaroos. One hopped off as I approached, but the other just stood and watched me walk past

Great place to rest
The log was just the right height to rest my backpack and be surroundd by lovely flowers