Total km: 967.1

I slept like the dead until 4am when I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. I felt well rested though, so just relaxed, enjoying the novelty of being dry and warm with internet access. After 7am James and I headed to the bakery for some brekkie, which was a super healthy donut and coffee. I also grabbed a toasted ham and cheese croissant to pack out.
The drive around the inlet was longer than I expected and it made me very glad I had decided to forgo the road walk. It was about 8:30 am when we got dropped at the trailhead, about 2km from Nullaki hut.

It felt great being on the track this morning, despite the weather being pretty grim. I was powered by coffee, donuts and excitement. The end was in sight, with only two more days to go! It also helped that the track was a lot nicer today, more direct and less steep ups and downs. I made good time, had a lighting quick stop in at Nullaki then headed to West Cape Howe. I felt like I was flying down the track.

I met a couple of hikers who were heading to Denmark, the older one looked like he was over it. I asked them about the next inlet crossing coming up at Torbay, and they mentioned it was chest high yesterday…yeah, thats going to be a no from me. I do not like the sound of that at all.

Physically I have been on a pretty good run lately, with walking being pretty much pain free. No blisters, no shin splints, no back pain when I cool down. But, I have a new issue developing, my shorts keep falling down. This is new for me.

At West Cape Howe I finally got to meet Scott and Wendy. I had seen their names in the log books, always a few days ahead of me. Had a good to chat with them and James whilst I ate my delicious ham and cheese croissant for lunch, along with a coffee. I didn’t stay too long though, as I had my sights set on Torbay. I said my goodbyes to James (who was staying at West Cape Howe for the night), Scott and Wendy then pushed on.

It was only 15.5 kms, but the wind was up and it was quickly getting cold. I started at the same pace as before, feeling more energised after lunch but it quickly faded. The rain finally came in as a constant drizzle that soaked through my rain jacket in no time. A good Scottish kind of rain. The track was also covered in branches and small bushes, I presume from the wild wind from a few days ago. It honestly looked like someone had gone through with a large brush cutter. The amount of times I tripped, or had a bush or branch wrap around my foot was…infinity times. It was beyond frustrating. I also had some chafing on my thighs from my wet, falling down shorts. This is what I get for sending my rain kilt home! I was really concerned because I was rubbing raw but I sorted it out by taking off my bag and rolling the waist of my shorts up a few times, essentially converting them to booty shorts. I’m sure I looked splendid, but I didn’t care too much as it stopped the chafage.

On top of this my speed dropped significantly. The Bibbulmun track map on the FarOut guides app is really great in that you can see exactly where you are and how far you have to go. The app is also pretty bad because you can see exactly where you are and how far you have to go. Im not sure what it was, maybe the weather, maybe the knowledge that I only had a little to go, but I was checking my position constantly. This heightened the impression I was moving at a snails pace, and I found myself getting angry when my reasonable expectations of walking 5km in 5 minutes were not coming true. I forced myself to put the phone away and vowed to not check it for at least an hour, that way I could concentrate on doing what I was here for, just bloody walking.  It seemed to work as when I did check again after an hour I was a further 4.5km down the track.

The good scottish like weather continued all day. There were some sketchy bits on the trail, were they had put wood slats down, I’m sure to prevent erosion. Thing is, wood is a slippery sucker when wet, so it made the last few km’s a real test not to fall on my butt.

I finally stumbled into the shelter at 18:30 and it was pretty much full. There were 5 people already in the shelter but two had set up their tents* so room was at a premium. After making my apologies for my late arrival (I mean, 18:30 isn’t even close to hiker midnight, but seeing as the sun sets around 17:30 it felt late and everyone was already wrapped up their sleeping bags) Harry kindly moved over to let me squeeze in. It was not the best position, it was under cover but if the wind shifted I’d get soaked. Ah well, can’t be picky when you turn up after dark. Plus this will be my last night in the trail so not a complete disaster if my sleeping bag got a bit wet.

It took me a while to warm up once I went to bed, you cool down super quick when you stop moving. I did not sleep well, my mind was racing and my feet were aching. Last night on the trail. Wow. The rain hammered down early in the morning, but thankfully the wind did not shift and I was able to doze off.

• I don’t get the setting up tents in the shelters thing we have on the Bibb, especially in winter when bugs are not an issue. Maybe its because my first introduction to shelters was on the Appalachian trail, were this was a big no-no.