18 April: In and out of Walpole

The feeling when you have eaten most of your food and your pack feels so light that you could skip into town? That was me this morning. And the thought of a cooked breakfast got me going to arrive in Walpole by 9am. 

It was a little random to walk out of the bush after 6 days of wilderness to step onto a golf course before walking into town. 

I ate my way through Walpole: breakfast at Banksia cafe with scrambled eggs with spinach and salmon and a large coffee. Followed by a magnum ice cream from the supermarket, followed by a apple sized plum, followed by a veggie cheese panini from the bakery for lunch an hour later. I basically only skipped the local pub, but otherwise did my best to support the local economy. 

I?m just so hungry, all the time. Not just the “i’ve been for a run this morning, I need breakfast” hungry, but just always hungry. As in “hiker hunger”. I am eating 3-4 “servings” of oats with dried fruit and nuts for breakfast and start thinking about muesli bars an hour later. Considering I have been walking around 30km or more with a 15kg backpack every day for over 3 weeks, it’s probably not surprising that I?m burning a lot of energy. 

My plan was to have breakfast, pick up my box, quickly drop into the supermarket and do my laundry at the laundromat and then see if I could shower at the caravan park. Well, that didn?t quite work out. The laundromat was closed anc the caravan park isn’t open to non- overnight guests because of COVID. 

So, the content of the resupply box to the rescue (and a bit of improvising):

Laundry powder in a ziplock bag + public toilet + hanging wet tshirts and socks on the outside of the backpack to dry: fresh smelling clothes

Half a mini hotel bottle each of shower gel and shampoo + just arrived bikini (as I’m getting to the beach part of the walk) + a (cold) shower at a picnic spot near the inlet: fresh smelling hiker with washed hair

Neither very glamorous, but it did the job. 

Oh, and I’ve booked accommodation for Denmark in 4 days time. With shower and laundry facilities. 

Absolutely enjoyed the afternoon walk, 15km through Karri and tinglewood gum forest. The tingle trees are often 60, 70m high and have these enormous trunks. 

On the way, I met a south-to-north hiker who told me that there were 9 people at the next hut, including a group of 6 or so very loud women, so I braced myself for a noisy evening and setting up my tent as far away from the action as possible. He had decided to press on for the extra 15km in Walpole to have more peace and quiet. 

I only arrived at Franklin river campsite by 5pm, and found 3 people there, a couple who had to abort their end-to-end hike last year in late March due to COVID and a single lady just doing an overnight walk. The noisy group of women were just day walkers who had left again after half an hour. We had a lovely chat over dinner and all went to bed just after 7pm.