June 11 2021

Days km: 21.4
Total km: 37.6

I felt pretty great this morning, much to my surprise. I got going before 8 and hit the Perth Hills Discovery Centre pretty quickly. It wasn’t that impressive, I was glad I stayed at the hotel to be honest.

After an hour or so I reached my second shelter on the trail, so I stopped for morning tea. The start and end of the Bibb have shelters very close together (around 10km apart), so it’s easy to double or triple hut. That changes the further south I go, where the distance between shelters averages 20km. There was an older gentleman there, I didn’t catch his name, and we had a chat. He was telling me how to walk properly…apparently I had been doing it wrong?

I headed off quickly, keen to get to Helena shelter which is supposed to be a stellar one, and to get away from lectures on walking. I arrived just before 1pm and had long, leisurely lunch, drinking in the view. The hype was justified, it was pretty stellar. The hut was huge having just been rebuilt after it had been destroyed in bushfires a couple of years back. A hiker was rescued from Helena just before the flames reached them.

I decided to push the next 9km to Waalegh as it was still pretty early. I was just about to get going when the old gent turned up again. Good choice I thought, next thing he’d be telling me I wasn’t breathing properly or something.
I was maybe 100 metres from the shelter when a northbounder trudged past me. He said g’day and kept going. Obviously on a mission to get the shelter. But I recognised him. I said “Are you Mick Becker’s?” Which stopped him dead in his tracks, he was! I told him how much I enjoyed his videos and blog and we chatted about the Bibb for a bit. He was on his 2nd last day. He warned me that the Dwellingup to Collie section was flat and dull. After taking a selfie with me he was on his way. I forgot to take one of my own, but here is the one he posted on his blog.
The hike to Waalegh was way tougher than I expected. There were lots of big ascents and descents and I was shattered by the time I reached the shelter, in the dark at 6pm.

The shelter was pretty cool though, and it had a great aspect, much like Helena. A great view, plus there was phone signal!

Edit: Turns out the old gent was the hiker rescued from Helena before it went up in flames. Mick Becker’s covers it a bit on his blog here: https://mickbeckers.com/2021/06/21/day-35-mt-dale-to-helena-918-6km-29-3km/comment-page-1/?unapproved=4082&moderation-hash=4a7b645384ff595ba2c505579e750f67#comment-4082
Oh, what’s that? A post dedicated to me? Aw shucks

Coffee with a view