Trail town day! Waking up on the morning of a day that I will walk into a town always feels a bit like a holiday morning! Or like when I was a kid in Tennessee and I’d wake up to find a heavy snowfall had dropped overnight and I’d turn on the radio to hear that school was canceled for the day! Yay! 🎉🎉🎉 It was a clear cold night last night; perhaps down to two degrees. I got up for a bio break in the middle of the night and the starts were very clear above me. I say my goodbyes and I’m off just before 7am. I get my speed up and follow the trail in the dim light. As the sun starts to rise, I glimpse wallabies ahead scurrying back and forth across the trail in front of me in the golden dawn’s light like mice darting around a table. There are less Roos and Wallabies on this trail than on the Heysen Trail or else they are better at hiding from me. I hear Roo shooting is a sport with the locals so perhaps that has made them wary? I walk on wrapped in a forest like nearly all the time these past 15 days. Folks, this walk is challenging me as a photographer. I mean, 15 days of mostly forest and I’m creatively struggling to show it in fresh ways. Bird life is plentiful but my phone camera is useless for small quick moving wildlife. I’ll do my best and I try to grab any photogenic scene like a drowning man clings to a life ring… They say that long distance walking is really good for creativity - so I put it to the test. I start composing the lyrics to my first real song. I have several decades of playing guitar now but I haven’t been able to break through the creativity barrier of songwriting despite a few aborted tries. Guess what? It actually works! I chose an intimately personal subject (alas, so I may never share this song) and I let this deep feelings drive me where verses spilled out of me like water soaking into sand. It needs e weird - revision, and perhaps some adjustments to meter and then, of course, the hard part: putting these lyrics to music. But overall, I’ve come the closest yet at writing a song that is acceptable to me. The framework of the song is there. I’m looking forward to getting home to my guitar to see what melody falls out… The kilometres pass by quickly as I’m completely absorbed in this task - what I call active meditation where my mind roams freely (which, for info, is completely consistent with my Rule #2 of thru-hiking: free your mind, steel your emotions). 😀 About ten kilometres in, I push through an overgrown section that certainly needs a bit of trail maintenance. The growth threatens to wet me out from all the accumulated dew overnight. I get clear of the overgrowth and start up a hill when I meet Roberto, a north bound end-to-ender. Now living in WA, Roberto is from New Zealand and is three weeks into his hike from Albany. We trade notes and I find he overnighted in the hired room accommodation I’m staying at in Balingup. Another five kilometres and I reach the small town of Balingup. I’m immediately impressed. I’m a student of small towns an DC I don’t underestimate how difficult it is to make them thrive. Balingup has invested into itself with many cute shops and the sense of community pride in strong particularly when I speak to the locals. I head straight to the Mushroom Cafe at No 61 and get stuck into one of their national award winning steak and mushroom pies, followed by pecan pie and coffee. I’m not a pie person but wow! Big thanks to Roberto for telling me this is a no-miss. I then go to my accommodation. Rails & Bails (Raelean and Terry Bailey) are well known for hiring out a room in their private home; in fact almost every hiker I met had stayed there! They charge a pittance and generously offer all I need (shower, bed, kitchen and laundry). They are so kind; what can I say - it’s like staying with family! I get cleaned up and my clothes laundered and then I go exploring Balingup parks and shops. It threatens to shower as the weather prepares to turn wet again. I resupply at the small General Store which tries hard to cater to walkers. Some compromises must be made (for example, they only had large ziplock bags currently in stock) but I cobble together an acceptable resupply for the next six days. I go back and visit with Rails and Bails. We get fish and chips together as I’m lucky as Friday nights is the only night the cafe does dinners. I even bought a stout at the General Store to go with dinner. Rails and Bails are also early to bed and early to rise so I’m in bed by 7pm finishing this journal entry. I’m double hutting tomorrow, aiming to do 37 kms and a reasonable climb. Rain is forecast tomorrow but not too heavy at only 1 - 5 mm. I’ll aim to be walking at first light which is a late 7am. Last six day stretch before my next rest day; I’m looking forward to tackling it! Carl / Pilgrim Weather: clear cold start but clouding up as day went on to light sprinkles Calories burnt: 2672

Hiking/Backpacking

Bibbulmun Track, Western Australia

Western Australia, Australia

time : Jun 9, 2023 6:53 AM

duration : 6h 25m 49s

distance : 23 km

total_ascent : 357 m

highest_point : 314 m

avg_speed : 4.6 km/h

user_id : gstreet

user_firstname : Carl

user_lastname : Greenstreet

Trail town day! Waking up on the morning of a day that I will walk into a town always feels a bit like a holiday morning! Or like when I was a kid in Tennessee and I’d wake up to find a heavy snowfall had dropped overnight and I’d turn on the radio to hear that school was canceled for the day! Yay! 🎉🎉🎉 It was a clear cold night last night; perhaps down to two degrees. I got up for a bio break in the middle of the night and the starts were very clear above me. I say my goodbyes and I’m off just before 7am. I get my speed up and follow the trail in the dim light. As the sun starts to rise, I glimpse wallabies ahead scurrying back and forth across the trail in front of me in the golden dawn’s light like mice darting around a table. There are less Roos and Wallabies on this trail than on the Heysen Trail or else they are better at hiding from me. I hear Roo shooting is a sport with the locals so perhaps that has made them wary? I walk on wrapped in a forest like nearly all the time these past 15 days. Folks, this walk is challenging me as a photographer. I mean, 15 days of mostly forest and I’m creatively struggling to show it in fresh ways. Bird life is plentiful but my phone camera is useless for small quick moving wildlife. I’ll do my best and I try to grab any photogenic scene like a drowning man clings to a life ring… They say that long distance walking is really good for creativity - so I put it to the test. I start composing the lyrics to my first real song. I have several decades of playing guitar now but I haven’t been able to break through the creativity barrier of songwriting despite a few aborted tries. Guess what? It actually works! I chose an intimately personal subject (alas, so I may never share this song) and I let this deep feelings drive me where verses spilled out of me like water soaking into sand. It needs e weird - revision, and perhaps some adjustments to meter and then, of course, the hard part: putting these lyrics to music. But overall, I’ve come the closest yet at writing a song that is acceptable to me. The framework of the song is there. I’m looking forward to getting home to my guitar to see what melody falls out… The kilometres pass by quickly as I’m completely absorbed in this task - what I call active meditation where my mind roams freely (which, for info, is completely consistent with my Rule #2 of thru-hiking: free your mind, steel your emotions). 😀 About ten kilometres in, I push through an overgrown section that certainly needs a bit of trail maintenance. The growth threatens to wet me out from all the accumulated dew overnight. I get clear of the overgrowth and start up a hill when I meet Roberto, a north bound end-to-ender. Now living in WA, Roberto is from New Zealand and is three weeks into his hike from Albany. We trade notes and I find he overnighted in the hired room accommodation I’m staying at in Balingup. Another five kilometres and I reach the small town of Balingup. I’m immediately impressed. I’m a student of small towns an DC I don’t underestimate how difficult it is to make them thrive. Balingup has invested into itself with many cute shops and the sense of community pride in strong particularly when I speak to the locals. I head straight to the Mushroom Cafe at No 61 and get stuck into one of their national award winning steak and mushroom pies, followed by pecan pie and coffee. I’m not a pie person but wow! Big thanks to Roberto for telling me this is a no-miss. I then go to my accommodation. Rails & Bails (Raelean and Terry Bailey) are well known for hiring out a room in their private home; in fact almost every hiker I met had stayed there! They charge a pittance and generously offer all I need (shower, bed, kitchen and laundry). They are so kind; what can I say - it’s like staying with family! I get cleaned up and my clothes laundered and then I go exploring Balingup parks and shops. It threatens to shower as the weather prepares to turn wet again. I resupply at the small General Store which tries hard to cater to walkers. Some compromises must be made (for example, they only had large ziplock bags currently in stock) but I cobble together an acceptable resupply for the next six days. I go back and visit with Rails and Bails. We get fish and chips together as I’m lucky as Friday nights is the only night the cafe does dinners. I even bought a stout at the General Store to go with dinner. Rails and Bails are also early to bed and early to rise so I’m in bed by 7pm finishing this journal entry. I’m double hutting tomorrow, aiming to do 37 kms and a reasonable climb. Rain is forecast tomorrow but not too heavy at only 1 - 5 mm. I’ll aim to be walking at first light which is a late 7am. Last six day stretch before my next rest day; I’m looking forward to tackling it! Carl / Pilgrim Weather: clear cold start but clouding up as day went on to light sprinkles Calories burnt: 2672