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.

The first part was pretty flat and before we knew it we had passed the half way point for the trail – 501km to Kalamunda and 501km to Albany. I passed this sign a few years ago when the track was shorter. Since extending the track past the 1,000km mark, they have had to re-do the sign and relocate it. It is now in a much more auspicious location backing on to a valley of karri trees.

We then reached our break for lunch at One Tree Bridge. There is a small picnic area here and it was a good chance to stop and relax for half an hour.

An older lady came up to talk to us shortly after we sat down. She explained her daughter and friend were cycling the Munda Biddi which is a mountain bike track which often parallels the Bibb between Kalamunda and Albany. She was acting as support crew. She had with her three dogs and, as an animal lover, I couldn’t resist stroking them. Her daughter turned up shortly thereafter and also came up for a chat. Very nice and friendly people.

After lunch, the trail became quite narrow and overgrown as it followed the river making forward progress difficult. Fortunately it only lasted a few km before the trail climbed out of the valley.

The trail then turned into thick jarrah forest on its way towards Tom Road. The forest was so dense, you could only see the trail in front of you and it felt a little like navigating through a maze.

We reached the campsite after a few more km. As we approached, we started to bump into school age kids coming the opposite way. Turns out our scout group we were expecting is actually a school group from Manjimup Senior High. These guys are a little noisier than scout groups so Ben, myself and one other hiker are tenting it tonight in our last night on the trail.

I have a great tent site and am all set up for the night. Looking forward to dinner, a good night’s sleep and seeing what our final day on the trail tomorrow has to offer.