24 April continued: Snakes galore and a stunning coast

24 April: 28km from West Cape Howe to Mutton Bird

I left camp still a bit teary and with a cold gale blowing, but clear skies. 

I had been told the next part of the trail would be very overgrown and was bracing myself for lots of bushbashing, but there were only about 100m that looked like this: 

And after that it was easy walking on rolling hills and along the cliffs with stunning views of the coastline. 

I ran into two trail Volunteers whom I told my sad story about the impact of the Perth lockdown and they were very emphatic and lovely. 

With the beautiful scenery and weather my spirits were slowly lifting and I came up with a few alternative plans for my trail finish. 

Today, I saw at least 4 tiger snakes and lots of rustling disappeared into the undergrowth - so my snake count has probably tripled (depending on how you count) and I finally feel wearing gators makes a lot of sense around here (I have been wearing them since the day I first saw a snake though!). 

I passed Torbay hut just before lunch time and refilled my water and then walked along Cosy Corner beach, sat down, had lunch and went for a swim. 

The beach was about 6 or 7km long with a little bit of rock scrambling in the middle until I got to Torbay inlet (where the couple I met in Denmark was in chest deep water). I had planned my day to get there at low tide, but the passage was completely dry anyway. What a difference! 

It felt so good to walk barefoot along the beach and there were hardly any people around until I got to the southern half, Mutton Bird beach. 

There were lots of 4WDs with dogs which I?m a bit weary of after the incident a few days ago, and people were driving up and down the beach. Saturday afternoon on a long weekend. 

One guy stopped and asked if I needed a lift anywhere- old, ratty pickup truck with tons of junk in the back, the guy in a Bintang singlet that had seen better days and almost no front teeth. I politely declined, saying that given I had walked here from Perth, i should be ok making it the last few hundred meters to the end of the beach. He went ?oh, Perth- they have the virus. I?m not worried- I AM a walking virus?. Well, thanks anyway, I think I will keep walking... 

I went for another dip at the end of the beach before climbing up some steep stairs. 

The views at the lookout at the end and above the beach were just stunning and from there, it was only another hour to the campsite. So shoes and gators back on. 

On the way, I kept hearing Shots in the distance - which was a little disconcerting given the rather bogan crowd I encountered at the beach, and I couldn?t exactly locate where the shots were coming from. But it turned out to be a shooting range that I passed. 

When I arrived at the hut, I met Dave who told me lots of stories about the trail and knew every nook and corner. He told me that he stopped counting his end-to-end walks in 2016 when he had completed 26 (!) of them. 

I later found out that his trail name is “pack animal” and he is a bit of a legend who basically lives on the Bibbulmun track and just walks sections and up and down. How cool to meet someone like that on my last night! 

Before dinner, I walked back up the hill to a little bench seat hoping I’d have reception to call Birger. The good news: no more Covid cases in Perth, so hopefully the lockdown will be lifted by Monday night. And we agreed on a plan B for Albany. 

I will finish the trail tomorrow as planned (I don’t have any food left...), check into our booked accommodation and spend the night there. If all goes to plan, we will know by Monday mid day if Birger will be in Albany on Tuesday. If that is the case, I will literally do what I said a couple of days ago: if it wasn’t for Birger, I would just turn around and do it again. So I will walk back tomorrow  the last campsite that I will skip tomorrow, spend one night there and walk out again to meet Birger on my way on Tuesday. 

 

The last sunset of my trail adventure.