- Start date: 16 May 2015
- Age When Completed: 35
- Direction Walked: South to North
General Comments
What an amazing adventure! I encountered sand dunes, snakes, forests, people who’d encountered aliens and tried and failed to catch-up with ‘Soul Seeker’/Lindsay T. who I believe has the honour of having completed the first full, S-N End-to-End on the re-opened track following the recent bushfires (with diversions). I was only a few days behind him but it meant I was second…not that I’m competitive or anything 
The fact I was able to complete a full, official End-to-End after initially starting out with a plan to miss out the Walpole - Northcliffe and Collie - Dwellingup sections is reward enough for me!
Food/Supplies Comments
This is where I had the most success, preparation-wise. I bought a dehydrator (on sale in Myer - result!) as well as a vacuum packer and had all my meals - breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks - all individually prepared for each day. My boss at my previous job also advised me that spaghetti bolognese make a great meal to dehydrate and boy, was she right! I put down clingfilm to stop the sauce dripping through the grills in the trays in the dehydrator and it worked a treat; what came out was like a large, beefy biscuit! Best of all, rehydrating the bolognese with just a dash of beef stock made it seem as if I wasn’t eating a dehydrated and vacuum sealed meal at all. Very tasty and highly recommended. The dehydrated stir-fry didn’t work as well; still tasty but the meat pieces were too large to rehydrate effectively by the time the rice was ready. It was kind of like eating jerky stir-fry!
Favourite Section
This is a hard one. The whole track is incredible and is so varied that it’s hard to pick just one section. Gun to my head, I actually think the section between Walpole and Pemberton was the most memorable. I passed through and along the coast, burned-out bushland, forests and farmland, all in relatively quick succession . This section also has some of the most lovely campsites; Schafer, Dog Pool (even without the shelter) and Lake Maringup are, in fact, the campsites I remember most (as well as Blackwood, which I believe I have the honour of being the first member of the public to stay overnight at after it reopened, according to the Red Book!)
Highlights
Spending the night with a gentleman who swore he’d had numerous encounters with extraterrestrials was certainly an interesting experience…Blackwood was a major highlight as well, not only because of my being the first one in after it reopened, but because of the photos I took in the morning of the mist pouring through the valley below. Breathtaking.
Personal Reactions
You can read all of my personal reactions on the blog I started to keep a record of my travels - www.stevenjamesfleming.tumblr.com - It includes a day-by-day account of my End-to-End. At the time of writing this, I’m in the process of writing the final entry - Dwellingup to Kalamunda.
Wildlife
Saw three tiger snakes in one day (and no more after that), the first of which I nearly stepped on! Saw lot’s of roos and wallabies (of course), startled an emu near Nerang, the black cockatoos (both red and white tailed) were very noisy and the blue wren’s were incredible - that electric blue makes them hard to even look at!
Your Best Equipment
Wet ones. Absolutely essential. Was able to give myself a “bath” at the end of the day, wash my hands after using the toilet and, if rinsed to get rid of the chemicals and left to dry the night before, use as toilet paper!
Your Worst Equipment
My spork. Absolutely rubbish. Broke the tines off the fork bit during the first week and the spoon bit broke off the week after. Had to buy a proper metal spoon in Denmark and scoop up food with the remaining bit of spoon in the meantime.
Advice for Others
Weight is most important thing to think about first, then water and food. Plus, don’t just think about meals; snacks are what keep you going. Make sure you have enough energy bars, bags of fruit & nuts etc. in your pack for eating between campsites (or even better, in the pockets of your cargo shorts - shorts with extra side pockets are also essential if you don’t want to keep having to take your pack on and off every five minutes).