Thorsten Brocke
- Start date: 1 October 2017
- Age When Completed: 41
- Direction Walked: North to South
General Comments
“It is what it is.” Best maintained Track ever done. Would be impossible to do without the water tanks. Track maps provide good guidance, but non-track roads/paths are outdated and often fully overgrown; therefore useless to find short-cuts or emergency escape.
Food/Supplies Comments
Muesli with powdered coconut milk (when available) or condensed milk for breakfast, cereal bars or flap jacks for lunch, pasta or rice dishes, liquorice tea and a tiny bit of chocolate (!) for dinner. Disappointing resupply in Dwellingup, Balingup and Northcliffe.
Favourite Section
Kalamunda to Albany.
I might be able to pick short some non-favoured sections, but overall the Track is a beauty that must be enjoyed in its completeness.
Highlights
Meeting great people at the shelters, the steak at Dwelly Pub, crossing rivers on fallen trees converted into footbridges, accommodation at Pipinnvale, arriving at the South Pacific in a storm, the dugite almost running me over at Boat Harbour Shelter, ...
Personal Reactions
Great community maintaining and walking the trail. Since all the work is done my volunteers and access is for free, hikers try hard to leave no traces and leave sites in a better condition than they found it in. Please keep that culture alive and stop talking about charging for the track.
Wildlife
Countless trees, manageable numbers of mozzies, two echidnas (echidnae?), feral cats, feral pigs, heaps of wallabies, kangaroos and black cockatoos, a goanna, a few skinks, plenty of lizards, a goanna, three brown snakes, three tiger snakes, 14 dugites, a bush rat, ... and I am sure the list is incomplete.
Your Best Equipment
My backpack (Osprey Kestrel 48 M/L), my stove (Trangia Mini), my clothesline, my boonie hat, my GPS (Garmin eTrex 20).
Your Worst Equipment
My sleeping bag (with 5°C comfort too light for the nights), my secondary water bottle (leaky, and no shop along the Track had Platypus bottles stocked).
Advice for Others
Although there are some minor climbs and descents, the overall walk is rather flat; and therefore hiking poles are not mandatory. The tent is a secondary option to house you in case of a shelter is closed or full or the mozzies appear in larger numbers (never experienced any of those); therefore go as light as possible or even without. Take track data for the Munda Biddi with you; it can provide alternate routing in some places.