June 21st 2021

Days km: 19.2km
Total km: 243.6km

It was not a pleasant walk today. It was actually really boring, with a few steep hills thrown in to compound the misery. I remembered that way back on day two Mick Beckers had warned me that this section to Collie was “flat and dull”. He was right in the money about the dull bit, by after hitting another steep hill I shouted “This is not flat Mick!”

My plan was to double hut today but when I got into Murray River shelter a full hour after I had intended to, I was undecided. I was just not feeling it today. I was sitting there considering pushing on when some older Northbounders, Andrew, Shane and Graham stumbled in. A few minutes later James showed up as well, having doubled from Dwellingup. I decided that in my mood some company would be a good thing and so I opted to stay.

I felt an unpleasant twinge in my right shin when I got up to set up my bed for the night. It ached enough that I took some ibuprofen to quiet it down. I hoped it would be right by the morning.

The Northbounders were a loud cheerful bunch and were good value. They got the fire roaring, and passed around some Jamiesons whiskey after dinner. There were tiny, gorgeous Blue Wrens everywhere and everytime we saw one Andrew would nod and say “There’s good eating in them”. (It is embedded in my brain now, because everytime I saw one after today I’d think “There’s good eating in them”

They headed off to bed when the sun went down. Dwellingup would be there last town before Kalamunda and they had big days planned so as to finish on 31st June.

James and I chatted around the fire. “I don’t expect a quiet night with these guys” I said. James nodded. “No, I expect not”. Just then there was the sound of a long, loud fart from the shelter. There was a long pause then Andrew said, “Jesus, Graham did you just shit yourself?”