- Start date: 28 August 2016
- Age When Completed: 27
- Direction Walked: North to South
- Others in Group:
Michael Kressibucher
General Comments
We enjoyed the two months we spent on the Track. It was a great to be away from everything for up to two weeks, between Kalamunda and Dwellingup. Although we did not expect the weather to be that changeable. We had everything from sun to strong winds and hail storms.
Food/Supplies Comments
We planned to pre cook and dehydrate meals, but once we arrived in Perth we just wanted to start walking. So we decided to buy simple, nutritious food like lentils, rice, couscous and added some spices and stuff like sun dried tomatoes, dried mushrooms, etc to get some flavour. We did not send any food drops and did not have too much trouble carrying everything. At the beginning we did not have too much food, while we added more and more fancy stuff on the way. So we started bringing a fruit for each day, lemon butter to spread on toast and so on.
Favourite Section
We do not prefer just one specific section but different parts. So we liked Mount Cuthbert and Mount Cooke for the spectacular views, Donnelly River, the southern coastline.
Highlights
Getting out of the rainy WET lands and catching first sights of the sunny coast felt great.
Personal Reactions
Sometimes it was a challenge to walk on. Especially on days with sore feet, rain or when we walked over 30 km. But it is interesting how strong the will to make it to the end can be.
Wildlife
Against our expectations we saw our first wallabies on the first day on Track. And it was not the last one, we saw almost daily wallabies and kangaroos. But it took us quite a while to spot some emus except the ones in Donnelly River Village. Further on we saw many snakes and lizards in the southern part. At one place we were happy that a snake did not rush away too fast, so we could take a photo. On the whole way we enjoyed the rich birdlife. But we did not appreciate the mosquitoes too much.
Your Best Equipment
Due to the freezing temperatures we were happy we brought a great mattress (Exped Synmat Hyperlight DUO) and some extra silk and merino wool blankets from cocoon. Moreover it was great that we could zip our sleeping bags together.
Your Worst Equipment
We brought a light hammock and a slack line which had a lot of weight and we never used them because we had enough things to do at the campsites without. In Pemberton we sent these plus some smaller things to Albany, total 10kg.
Advice for Others
Hard boiled eggs are easy to bring along and serve as a great snack.