Mutton Bird Campsite (977.7 km) to Albany (1,002.3 km)

Mileage: 24.6 km/15.4 miles

We started bright and early from Mutton Bird campsite at 6 AM having risen around 4.30 AM. It’s amazing how quickly the body clock adjusts to the daylight hours and your routine adjusts to that schedule. At the moment in Western Australia at this latitude, it gets light at that time and is not fully dark until 8.30 PM so there is plenty of available hiking time.

The morning started with a few isolated rain showers which were a feature of the first few days. Fortunately, these had mostly cleared by the time we got underway.

Morning rainfall at sunrise

The route for the last day quickly climbed back up to the cliffs where they stayed right through to Sandpatch campsite which is the last on the trail. The views combined with the early morning light were really impressive. Aside from the coastal scenery, the overriding feature was the Albany wind farm that the trail passes under on its way to Sandpatch

Hiking towards Sandpatch campsite

Albany windfarm

After a quick break at Sandpatch campsite where we saw Joel and Jessica again, we set off for the final 13 km to Albany. There was a beautiful view of Frenchmans Bay walking into Albany with the trail morphing from a sandy track (complete with a tiger snake sighting) to road walking interspersed with occasional bush sections.

Tiger snake

Frenchman’s Bay towards Albany

We also passed the 1,000 km mark. As there is no official recognition of this milestone given the trail finishes just 2 km later, we felt obliged to mark the event.

1,000 km  mark

We walked into Albany town centre, rounded a corner and then saw our families who had come to celebrate and walk the last km with us.

Welcoming committee

And then, finally, after 1,002 km spread over 5 years of hiking, we arrived at the southern terminus. It has been a fantastic experience which has been a growth experience and it has been great to make it to the end. I’ll post more detailed thoughts in a later entry but, in the meantime, here is the finish.

The southern terminus