June 24th 2021

Days km: 33.6km
Total km: 319.4km

So the plan today was to double hut to Harris Dam. At 33 odd km this would be my biggest day on the trail so far. The profile looked pretty flat for the most part and it would mean I would get into Collie tomorrow. The promise of town food and a shower beckoned. The main concern was my shins as they were getting quite painful by the end of each day.

After two days of dull firetrail walking today was a delightful change. It was mostly single-track with some really nice sections. Early in on the day it felt like I was walking through Japanese gardens with small trees, the occasional grass tree and moss everywhere.

Yourdamung shelter was a lovely place to have lunch. It had quite a nice aspect and I almost regretted not staying there for the night. As this was my biggest day on the trail, I had a good lunch and took the time to recharge my phone. Only the bloody thing would not charge. I ended up spending 30 minutes at the campsite trying to get it working. I cleaned the charging port, dried the charging port, pleaded with the charging port, attempted to bribe the charging port. But no dice. Shit.

I couldn’t hang around for too long as it was still another 14 or so km to Harris Dam so I packed up and headed on, trying not to think about my phone. Not far from Yourdamung I met Michelle, a northbounder, and said a brief howdy. Weirdly, we both looked at each other like we had seen each other before.

Around the 24km mark my shins started to give me some real grief. Now the pain was in both of them and they flared up causing me to slow down a fair bit. I really should have stopped and taken some ibuprofen but I stubbornly kept putting one painful step in front of the other. I was making good time you see…absolute muppet.

I limped into Harris Dam shelter before 5, which I was pleased about because ‘I made good time!’ and James already had the fire going (sensing a recurring theme here?), the absolute legend. Warming myself by the fire I contemplated my shins. They were pretty damn painful, and seemed to be getting worse by the day. I was really beginning to worry about the rest of my hike. Hopefully a rest day in Collie will do me some good…(please let it do me some good)

Signing into the logbook I noticed Michelle was from Newcastle, so maybe we had seen each other before after all?

I tried to charge my phone again. Nada. James let me try with his cable, and his power bank. Still nothing. Shit shit shit! Looks like I’d be without a phone tomorrow. Which meant no map, but worst of all no podcasts!!

After that failure I decided to cheer myself up and have the Butter Chicken meal I’d been carrying around since Dwellingup. I put my stove on and…nothing. It wasn’t bloody working. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me!” Thankfully James let me use his Jetboil so I could at least eat something warm.

My shins ached, my phone was essentially dead and now my stove was busted. Next thing I know my sleeping pad will explode, my pack would break and my shorts would fall down. I tried to be positive and consoled myself with the thought that I was only 20k’s from town and it was probably the best time for things to fail. But no podcasts…