17th September

Day 39 - Woolbales to Walpole

Today was to be my longest day 41.4 km including the spur trail to Long Point Campsite. I think I went a little crazy today as I felt like having human company again. This was a fascinating day beginning early with some great granite peaks such as "Watermelon Rock" along the way. Vegetation changes were quite conspicuous as old sand dunes were crossed and followed. 

The first encounter with coastline for the entire walk began at 10 km with Chatham Island in the middle of an ocean side swale leading down to the beach. The beach itself had particularly soft sand making the beach walk more difficult than anticipated. Soon the trail led back behind the dunes and east towards Long Point. 

By the time I reached Long Point and had lunch it was 12 pm. With the arrival of some day trippers I decided to give them some space so I continued on with the goal of camping at Lake Clare. Originally I wanted to camp at Nuyts Wilderness Area but by now I had decided to catch up to Kevin. 

Just before Mt Clare I encountered the majestic Red Tingle Tree for the first time and so began my first foray into the third great kind of forest I had seen in WA. My goal after Long Point was to camp at Mt Clare but getting there at 3pm and Walpole being only 10 km further I had the strong urge to just keep going so I did.

Coming down Mt Clare, a thunderstorm struck and so I started to jog with my pack where I could. This led to me tripping over and all but destroying my second walking stick which now had a big unfixable buckle in the middle segment. The end segment was already damaged due to the loss of the titanium piece. I had replaced the end with a marri nut which appeared to give some protection.

A little after 5pm I reached Walpole and checked into the "Tingle All Over" which really wasn't my cup of tea even though other people I travelled with or met had a very high regard for the place.

Day 40 - Walpole to Frankland River

Mandalay Beach with Chatham Island