June 20th 2021

Days km: 13.3km
Total km: 224.4km

A short day was planned so I stayed in town for as long as possible. I had another leisurely breakfast at the Blue Wren, where I met my first fellow Southbounder. This was James, though I didn’t get his name until a few days later.

There was a big family having breakfast at the Blue Wren when I arrived and they were very impressed I had walked from Kalamunda. They even offered to buy me breakfast, which I politely declined.

I bought a Boost Sim card at the IGA as Optus reception on trail is spotty at best. Did you know that Sim cards have expiry dates? I didn’t. This one was over a year out of date which was a little annoying. But I had dawdled long enough and decided a Telstra SIM could wait until Collie. It was well after 12pm by the time I got going.

It was a really pleasant, gently undulating forest walk, with the occasional section through some pine plantations. There were some pretty steep bits as well, but nothing too taxing. The rain came on and off throughout the afternoon

This section of the trail marked my first fall. It was impressive, if I do say so myself. I stepped over a branch but caught my back foot on it so I came down in a half somersault. I gave it 6.5 for style.

Swamp Oak shelter was nice, in spite of its name. Even though it had been a short walk I had no trouble getting to sleep when the sun went down, though I was woken up a few times in the night when the rain absolutely hammered down.