21 April: 7km of beach (and 21km in total)

 

Today was going to be a relatively short day with just 20km to Williams bay. So I had time for a second cup of tea and took it easy. 

I started off in thermals and a fleece as it was a pretty chilly morning but quickly changed into a tshirt as the sun came out and the hills started getting steeper.

The scenery would have been similar to yesterday, but shortly after boat harbour, I could see dark clouds coming in from the sea and I could see the sheets of rain moving towards me. 

By 9am, it started to drizzle, so wardrobe change again into rain jacket. 

The rain changed from drizzle to a soft constant rain to an absolute downpour- and I was walking along the ridge line with no protection at all, no trees, only waist high shrubs. I saw lots of kangaroos and a huge black feral cat. 

By the time I arrived at Parry beach, about 11km from where I had started, I was once again pretty drenched. There is campsite there and I decided to stop at their picnic shelter for lunch where I met Ben,  who told me he was just walking from Albany to Walpole, but had done an end-to-end previously. He is another trail volunteer and was interesting to talk to. 

As the rain eased, I started along Mazolletti beach, a 7km stretch of beach that is just endless. I had envisioned a leisurely stroll, maybe taking off my shoes, stopping for a swim... but that wasn?t to be. It was still grey and drizzly - not exactly swimming weather. But the beach was still spectacular, even though the walking was hard in parts where the sand was very soft. I must have walked 1 1/2 times the distance, trying to find the spot where it was hard enough to walk on without getting my feet wet too close to the water. There were 4WD tracks that were sometimes great to walk in and sometimes deep soft sand - it took me 2 hours to cover the beach. 

At the end, I got to Greens Pool and Elephant Rocks - I think we have photos of me swimming there with amazing blue sky and the water in different shades of blue. We might just have to come back in the next couple of weeks! 

I saw a flock of Honeyeaters there - very cute, yellowish birds. 

From there, it was along a huge but mostly empty car park, up a hill and I had arrived at William Bay campsite. It was still early, so time for a quick wash at the water tank (much easier if you are not sharing a campsite with various guys!), a big cup of tea and a bit of catch-up on the blog, half an hour of yoga and drying my stuff. 

As I’m writing this, there are a few rats running around the roof of the hut and in and out from behind some wooden railings - I will need to store my food very safely tonight...