Sam Burges
- Start date: 31 March 2023
- Age When Completed: 26
- Direction Walked: North to South
- Others in Group:
Tegan Sharp
Food/Supplies Comments
We dehydrated most of our meals and in terms of snacks, we bought everything before we started hiking and posted it to the visitors centres. If we were to do the hike again, I’d buy only half of the snacks we require and then buy the remainder in the local towns, given our appetite changed constantly on the track.
Favourite Section
Definitely Walpole to Peaceful Bay, loved the Tingle/ Karri Forrest and then the amazing cliffs and views from conspicuous to the bay.
Highlights
The many meaningful conversations with other down to earth hikers.
Hot showers in the towns.
Taking our first swim when we arrived at the coast.
Disconnecting from tech and connecting back to country.
Personal Reactions
The first thru hike I’ve ever done, and I’m so glad it was in my own backyard of WA. I’ve become so much more connected to this country after this walk, and so much more passionate about preserving the beauty of our southwest and wider Aussie nature identity.
Wildlife
Kangaroos, black cockatoos, wallabies, emus, marron, wrens, snakes
Your Best Equipment
Injinji socks were by far our best investment. We used an inner layer of injinji and outer layer of standard merino socks, no blisters for the whole track with this method.
Your Worst Equipment
N/A
Advice for Others
One the track, you’ll encounter a lot of what I call ‘Bibbulmun Whispers’ which means varying opinions and perspectives of people’s experiences on the track. It doesn’t take much for the telling of a negative experience to travel between dozens of hikers, so I encourage new travellers to remain on the positive side and make their own judgment of the situation.