- Start date: 26 August 2013
- Age When Completed: 31
- Direction Walked: North to South
- Others in Group:
Ralph ECKART (Ralph / George)
General Comments
I walked my first end-to-end with my amazing boyfriend Ralph (Usual track name: Ralph) under the combined track name of “George and Mildred”. Hands down it was the best holiday I have ever had. As series of storm fronts went through while we were on the track resulting in about 2 weeks of scrabbling over and under fallen trees from Balingup onward, it made life a little difficult sometimes but we felt a lot better when we twigged that the people doing the Munda Biddi were probably having a worse time of it!!
Food/Supplies Comments
We pre arranged food drops that we picked up in the towns and supplemented them with locally sourced fresh produce. We ended up being part time food critics assessing the salad rolls on offer in each town we walked into (Hands down winner was the chicken and salad roll available from Linda’s in Collie - $4.50 and stuffed full of fresh, tasty ingredients!!)
I ordered a stack of dehydrated veggies online to have with rice and couscous . The aim was to have vegetable filled meals with minimal fat and sugar. Ended up conceding defeat in Dwellingup and turfed out the plain rice and couscous, replacing them with pasta packs - divine! I really underestimated how much I would need fat in my diet.
Favourite Section
Wow! A really hard question. I did really enjoy the sections Donnelly River to Northcliffe - beautiful forests and really enjoyable terrain. I know a lot of people bang on about how amazing it is walking along the south coast - it was very pretty but I’m still a bit dark about those sand dunes!!!!
Highlights
Hmmmmmm, where to start…
1. The joy of just ‘living in the moment’ for two blissful months
2. Learning a lot about myself and my body
3. Being able to spend quality time with Ralph and gain an insight into why the track makes him so happy
4. The realisation I had actually walked 1,000km
5. Meeting some really amazing people along the way (Bob Oxlade & Steve Bousfield)
Personal Reactions
Amazing!!!! I would really like to walk the track south to north in the next year or two.
Wildlife
We saw a variety of wildlife including lizards, snakes, kangaroos, wallabies, frogs, cockatoos and emus. Our animal highlights included getting photos and video footage of a much obliging echidna (super cute!!) and watching 5-6 wedge tail eagles circling for prey over both Mount Cook and Boonerring Hill.
The flowers were spectacular along the entire length of the track, well worth traipsing through the rain for!!
Your Best Equipment
Definitely Ralph!!! This was his tenth end-to-end so being able to learn about the track from someone so experienced was awesome and with him I never got lost (always a bonus!!). Otherwise my Therm-a-rest and boots were the bees knees
Your Worst Equipment
Hiking Poles (faulty) and a backpack that wasn’t fitted correctly.
Advice for Others
1. Do a bit of research, speak to people who have completed the track and use their information to draw inspiration on how you want to tackle it. Speaking with people I found out there are so many ways of doing things out there.
Take as much time as you are able to for the walk and enjoy the beauty and respite of being able to live simply.
Take each day as it comes and don’t think about it as a 1,000km trip if you think it will overwhelm you.