10th September

Day 32 - Warren to Schafer

Last night I had a wonderful night's sleep and awoke to a fantastic dawn chorus of bird calls. A mild spring night marked the first night that I didn't need to put my thermals on to be able to sleep in my sleeping bag. A reason for the warmer night could be that it was raining and the promise of more showers during the day seemed highly likely.

The following picture is of the River Road Bridge which is about half an hour's walk from the Warren campsite.

A lovely river walk followed with a few hours of large tannin stained pools and occasional rapids. After leaving the river and the Blackberry Pool track, the magnificent Karri forests continued until the private property near Schaefer hut was reached. Schaefer hut is named after Geoff Schaefer who developed the idea of the Bibbulmun track in the 70'2.  The hut overlooks a large private dam and many hikers stay at the nearby Watermark Kiln B&B to increase the luxury of the hike.

An hour or so after lunch a fellow hiker travelling north Colin rocked in to share the hut for the night. We went Marron spotting at dusk and came to the conclusion that the dam was indeed a marron dam as there were some great specimens that were easily observed. All night long there were geese nearby that kept honking so my sleep was constantly interrupted.

Day 33 - Schaefer to Northcliffe