Grizzly
- Start date: 11 October 2016
- Age When Completed: 46
- Direction Walked: North to South
- Others in Group:
Jan Tepper (my wife)
General Comments
An amazing walk. We took advantage of long-service leave from work to undertake our end-to-end and it was the perfect way to escape the day to day of our working lives. We’ve done a lot of multi-night walks before, but this was our longest yet. Our previous longest was a 300km (including side trips) end-to-end on the Larapinta Trail. So jumping up to 1,000km was a big step up. I loved every minute of the Bibb, except the one when I fell down. Every day was challenging, amazing, interesting, peaceful, rewarding and just plain fun.
Food/Supplies Comments
We cooked and dehydrated our own dinners (as well as yummy hummus for lunch) and sent food drops to our pre-booked accommodation in the track towns which worked really well. Food drops included small packages of bulk items like powdered milk and coffee so we didn’t have to buy large packets in town. We did resupply with extras for breakfast, lunch and snacks in the towns. Some towns had fairly limited supplies, so we’re glad we arranged the food drops.
Favourite Section
Too many to choose. I really enjoyed the wildflowers in the northern section, but the Pingerup Plains were amazing too. We double-hutted from Woolbales to Mt Clare on a warm day and both felt that was probably our best day on the Track. The variety of landscape over the whole trail was a highlight, and this one day just seemed to have it all – from giant forests to stunted plains and from mountains to sand dunes and beaches.
Highlights
Again – too many to choose. The wildflowers and wildlife, the solitude and the people, the remote bushland and the welcoming towns. But above it all, the biggest highlight, was just spending that amount of time on the trail in one go. For over eight weeks we lived outside, in the bush. We were lucky to have over half of the campsites to ourselves, and near perfect weather. We only had about five or six hot days, and only three or four where it rained while we were walking.
We were also lucky enough to meet a few of theTrack volunteers on our walk (Hi Charmaine!) which was great. All lovely people with some great advice to offer.
Personal Reactions
There is something truly special about spending an extended period of time in the bush in one go. The solitude, and the constant closeness of nature gets under your skin. It’s difficult to return to the city and your regular life of work and traffic afterwards. There are challenges on the trail, and just pushing on day after day becomes a challenge in itself, but the rewards are everywhere you look at every minute of every day.
Wildlife
We saw loads of wildlife: 32 snakes (everybody counts) including a tiger snake that collided with my left foot (which caught us both by surprise), countless lizards, kangaroos, and emus (with chicks), hundreds of frogs, a couple of bandicoots, mardos, two echidnas, and an incredible variety of birds. The black cockatoos were constant companions from start to finish. The highlight of the wildlife was seeing a brush-tailed phascogale right in front of Schafer shelter one night. These little guys are tiny, nocturnal, and very shy so I didn’t think I would ever see one in the wild.
Your Best Equipment
Our super-light cuben fibre tent from ZPacks, our new lightweight Nemo air sleeping mats, and my Scarpa hiking boots (not one single blister the whole way!). And the one thing we didn’t use – our PLB. You never want to use it, but it is so reassuring to have it out on the trail when you have no mobile coverage (which is most of the time).
Your Worst Equipment
None. Everything was great and was well used. If it’s not great, and we won’t use it, we don’t take it.
Advice for Others
Just go. Do it. Do it now. But take your time. Plan a conservative schedule. By taking your time, you get more time to enjoy the country. You see and experience things that those rushing may miss out on. You are also less likely to be delayed by injury, blisters, or fatigue.
I’d also encourage walkers to join the Bibb Foundation or make a donation. The Foundation and volunteers do a great job, and the Track has incredible facilities that cost nothing for us to use. Contributing even a little may help ensure that this amazing Track remains amazing and available to all for years to come.