Tom Road campsite to Donnelly River

Mileage: 10.1 miles/16.2 km

Sectional total: 66.7 miles/106.8 km

I had a really good night’s sleep last night. The bush was pretty quiet as were the school group and the only thing to disturb my sleep was the waning moon rising later in the night and shining straight into the tent.

We had a good chat with the teachers and kids in the morning at the campsite. A lot of the kids had never stayed overnight in the wilds before and it was a big experience for them. It was great to speak to the teachers and it was clear the kids just needed some positive words of encouragement speaking into their lives. One of them asked us if we were professional hikers to which I responded ‘We wish!….’.

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Boarding House to Tom Road campsite

Mileage: 13.9 miles/22.3 km

Sectional total: 56.6 miles/90.6 km

I ended up putting my tent up last night around 10pm as there was a fair bit of snoring going on in the shelter. I had a good night sleep in the end. The tent sites on the trail can be a bit hit and miss but the ones on this section are great as they have woodchips. This makes for a comfortable nights sleep rather than the hard rock common in the north.

We got going around 7.30 AM and it was clear that this was going to be a much easier day than the last two days. In many ways this was a bit of a transitional day with karri in the morning and jarrah in the afternoon.

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Beavis campsite to Boarding House campsite

Mileage: 12 miles/19.2 km

Sectional total: 42.7 miles/68.3 km

Today’s section is notorious on the Bibbulmun as being one of the hardest sections on the entire trail. This is because of three very steep climbs and descents of which one, known as the ‘V’, is very unforgiving. This is particularly the case for southbounders as the climb for them has no switchbacks and goes straight up.

The trail started off in a benign way from Beavis and was pretty straightforward for the first couple of km. After that, it was the first big climb of the day. It certainly got the heart pumping and the calf muscles. Whilst tough, it is all great training. I can’t imagine how people with 30kg packs manage this section though as it’s pretty tough.

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Beedelup to Beavis campsite

Mileage: 14.7 miles/23.5 km

Sectional total: 30.7 miles/49.1 km

There were so many mosquitoes outside my tent this morning, it was hard to summon up the motivation to get out of the sleeping bag. Instead, I stayed wrapped up and watched a wren outside my tent jumping from branch to branch.

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Pemberton to Beedelup campsite

Mileage: 16 miles/25.6 km

Sectional total: 16 miles/25.6 km

The day started bright and early with us setting off from Ben’s house at Leschenault just north of Bunbury. This made the drive to Pemberton that little bit shorter than driving down from Perth but it was still 2 hours before we arrived at Pemberton.

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As part of my training hikes for my upcoming Tahoe Rim Trail/John Muir Trail hikes in the US, I will be doing a week on the Bibbulmun Track starting from tomorrow between Pemberton and Donnelly River.

Pemberton is a town in the South West of Western Australia and was named after the original settler Pemberton Walcott being founded in 1862. We will be walking north along the track towards Donnelly River, an old timber mill town.

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