June 29th 2021

Days km: 23km
Total km: 404.4km

Max left pretty early. I dillied, then I dallied and eventually got moving. I did not sleep all that well, another baffle burst in my sleeping pad and I kept waiting for more to blow.

I don’t recall much of the walk to be honest. It was reminiscent of the last few days, a pleasant stroll through the forest. As well, I’m finding the hills a lot easier to tackle, so they don’t stand out so much in my recollection. So thats a big plus.

I really, really wanted to push on to Balingup as it was the perfect terrain to hit the big miles. But my body said no. For the most part my sh…bone flutes felt really good…until they didn’t, which was usually in the afternoon. Hitting the 17 to 18 km mark was when my… shank bones started to whinge and complain.

Grimwade is a lovely shelter, hard to describe why really. It just has a lovely vibe. It does have nice views from the loo, so maybe thats it? It also has Telstra reception if you walk 20 or 30 meters up the hill behind the shelter. So I was able to call home and talk to my wife and kids for a good while. That obviously added to the good vibes I was feeling.

I found a pair of cheap sunglasses at the shelter, they had obviously had been there for a while. So cosmic balance was, kinda, restored. I mean, I would have traded more than a few pairs of sunnies for an unf@cked sleeping pad. But what can you do?

Just before sundown Dougal, a northbounder, arrived. He had previously done the Munda Biddi trail, a bike trail that pretty much parallels the Bibbulmun, and caught the hiking bug after meeting some hikers. We chatted for a bit over dinner but he went to bed pretty early. He was looking a bit shattered to be fair, and he explained that yesterday he had double hutted into Balingup, a section of trail that included the infamous cardiac hill.

Once again I drifted off to sleep to the dulcet tones of exploding baffles.