Patrick Louden (Paddy Louden)

Your Story or Advice for Others

General Comments
My long service leave was booked for this time but the Covid19 shut-down of international travel forced a big change of plans. However, this provided me with a good opportunity to complete an end to end on the Bibb Track. Something that I had long wanted to do, but I was forced to plan a strategy for walking through the summer months. I decided to start in the north as early in December as my work would allow and I separated the walk into three separate walks to accommodate Christmas with family and time off in January - hoping to avoid the some of the hot weather.

Your Best Equipment
Platypus in-line water filter - 4 litres of clean water in a few minutes, packs down light and small - a ripper device.

Your Worst Equipment
Boots. I trashed my feet in the early parts of the walk and had to purchase new boots.

Advice for Others
Get your family, or get your friends and get out there. If you can't get others excited, then get out there by yourself. It is always rewarding to walk in the bush. Day walk, end to end, it doesn't matter. It is not a competition. Just get out there.

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Trip Details

How you completed the Bibbulmun Track:

• All at once

• Who did you complete the Track with? Other - Nil
• Was undertaking your hike the PRIMARY/MAIN purpose of your TRAVEL from where you currently live? No

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Your Experience

Favourite Section
Such a difficult question. It is all beautiful in its way. When compelled to answer this question, I generally protest and then say, Northcliffe to Walpole. The diversity in this section awesome, and I had the good fortune to see the Swamp Bottlebrush, a personal favourite in full bloom.

Highlight of your trip
The south coastal sections are awe inspiring. I also really enjoyed the walking the vast sections of Jarrah Forrest and observing how the various trees and pants recover from past fires. Some, many winters past and others very recent - this was consistently fascinating to me.

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