Christopher Fulton (Cott)

Track Towns and Supplies

• How many days did you stay in Track Towns? 11
• Did you have any issues finding food/supplies? Yes
• Be careful about posting a supply box to Donnelly River Village, as they only collect mail once a week. Walpole visitor centre, bakery and cafe opening hours are erratic. Denmark visitor centre even more unreliable (and closing down completely soon). Difficult to find small gas canisters in Denmark.

Particular Track Towns that you would return to:

• Dwellingup
• Balingup
• Pemberton
• Albany

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Your Story or Advice for Others

General Comments
The Bibb has a way of showing you what is the right amount for you. Whether it is how far you can walk each day for the weight of your pack, the type and amount of food you eat, or your sensitivity to heat/cold, you should be prepared to adapt your plan so that you can enjoy your track time, rather than try to push through the discomfort.

Your Best Equipment
My down sleeping bag (Western Mountaineering Terralite) that was light, compact, and kept me blissfully warm through all conditions.

Your Worst Equipment
Rain jacket. In light rain there was no point using it, and in torrential rain I was better off with a tarp poncho (I switched to latter for the southern half).

Advice for Others
There will be good and bad days on the track, so be mentally prepared for both. Bend to the weather and circumstance. Persist and ask for help, especially when the situation seems helpless. But most importantly, be ‘awake’ and present in the moment, rather than preoccupied with what’s next (hut, town, etc). That way you will find joy within the situation you find yourself. It’s those little moments of joy each day that build into a beautiful journey.

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Trip Details

How you completed the Bibbulmun Track:

• All at once

• How many days did it take you to complete the Track? 50
• Who did you complete the Track with? Solo (primarily)
• Was undertaking your hike the PRIMARY/MAIN purpose of your TRAVEL from where you currently live? Yes
• What first prompted you to walk the Bibbulmun Track? Local knowledge
  

What did you use to navigate the Track?

• App (please specify)
• Other
• - Bibbulmun (Find the Fun by Paul Morton)
• - Track intel from other walkers.

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Your Experience

• Availability of information: Good - With hindsight, the end-to-end consultation could have been done much better with a first timer in mind. The advice I was given was based on a more experienced thru-hiker’s capacity to do multiple double-huts in the first 2 weeks, and town skipping between some of the most challenging sections (e.g., not great advice to skip Northcliffe before heading into the remote 8-day section to Walpole with the heaviest food carry).
• Amount of Wildlife Encountered: Excellent - Microbats feeding on the clouds of insects around dusk at Woolbales. Quendas that visit some of the hits (e.g., Torbay). Fantails that dance along the track in front of you. Shed-loads of tiger snakes.

Favourite Section
Northcliffe to Walpole (particularly Woolbales to Mt Claire) because of the diverse landscapes spanning swamp plains, to coastal heath and beaches, then up into Karri & Tingles.

Highlight of your trip
There were many. Lake Maringup. Frankland River hut. I wasn’t expecting the halfway mark to be such an emotional experience. But perhaps the winner was reaching the bench seat lookout over the western end of Mandalay Beach, where I sat and truly enjoyed the sight, smell and sound of the ocean.

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