Day 1
19 Km Cape Natualiste to near Wyadup car park. Forecast 18 degrees C with light showers.
I arrived at bus stop nearby to the Backpackers in Busselton and the bus arrived around 7.00am to depart around 7.15am. The happy bus driver, who has a cleaning business and photography business, showed me some great photos around where I was walking. His company is called Natural Reflections Photography and you can look them up on facebook.
I arrived at Dunsborough right outside the Tackle World camping store at 7.50am, a closed (gone fishing) sign on the front door said it all. I rang the number again and left a message but no reply.
I waited outside Coles supermarket for their 8.00am opening to buy a couple of bananas for breakfast and for the trek.
I rang the Dunsborough taxi for a $35 lift to the Cape Naturaliste car park and he was there in about 15 minutes. He mentioned enjoying the soft sand and the 6km walk into Hamelin Bay. This haunted me everyday until I was at Hamelin Bay. I arrived at the starting lighthouse at 8.40am all good, only half a day behind. He also gave me advice about the weather- rain clouds roll quickly across so you’ll experience a brief shower. True advice as the rain started and was over as quickly as it started.
At the lighthouse I started off heading along the track when I realised the path to the right was not going to get me to the Lighthouse and so back I went to the start again only to find out the lighthouse opens at 9.00am but by now only a 5 minute wait and costs $5.00 to get in. You pass the 3 stone cottages to the lighthouse. Took a couple of photos and some video then off. The real Cape to Cape trekkers were two girls with backpacks still hanging around the lighthouse who I would see setting up their tent at Mount Duckworth and a younger solo girl who I would later see sitting on the beach at Yarralup.
The track starts off well paved until Sugarloaf Rock where lots of tourists visit. Just after the rock and a quick toilet break is the track’s registration book and the start of single lane dirt track for many kilometres.
Wearing raingear top and long pants suddenly I got too hot and I would soon put the jacket away in the backpack to not come back out until the very last day. The Parramatta peak hat chosen because of the potential rain forecast was way too hot also so it kept coming off and on as the sun came out and went away behind the clouds.
There was a southerly breeze so not so good for the surfers today.
An amazing array of wildflowers lined the walking track as expected as this was the reason for the timing of the walk at this time of the year. Lots of photos and videos were taken slowing my progress.
By 11.00am I had my sunglass’ lens fall out and by 11.30am the glasses had broken in half. Tip – buy good sunglasses for walking.
By midday I had arrived at Mt Duckworth and sitting at one of the two picnic tables opened up lunch of Rice cakes and Kraft cheese, packet of crisps and a muesli bar. I overtook only two people on the way here who arrived behind me and decided to have lunch at the other picnic table. Looks like people had open fires recently. I topped up my 1 litre water bottle and the 600ml Be Free filter bottle. 12.45 departure.
Quickly to Yallingup and my first walk along the soft sandy beach. Now I know what the taxi driver was saying about “enjoy the beach walk”. It was a hard slog with a full pack and I was starting to fatigue. After stopping for some water at the toilets I just popped into the caravan park office looking for a gas canister They only had propane bottle for a different stove ie no screw on but a trail angel behind the desk went and got a canister that had about a ¼ of gas inside for me to take. This lasted the whole trip, thankyou.
There was a short detour before Smiths Beach as the original entry to the beach had been washed away. The detour took you uphill then along the hill where the path took you up and down valleys and ridges before a steep downhill section lead you to enter the beach. Past Smith Beach’s sand walk, I was getting low on water again and could not see any taps or creeks to fill up the water bottles.
Past Canal rocks, I was able to fill up the filter bottle and the 1 litre bottle at Wyadup Brook which was very yellow. Horses were grazing in the paddock of green grass. After the car park and another dirt track I stopped at 4.15pm on green grass, right next to the track, at a sheltered spot behind some rocks at Wyadup. , Location -33.682477 and 114.994284. While the wind stop blowing at night I found the waves kept crashing against the rocks all night, all day. I was in bed at 6.00pm and started to listen to my ebook but started dosing off and fell asleep by 7.00pm.
I had used up all the water for dinner. My first and only time I had water spilt off the burner even though it was resting on a rock. I decided in the morning to go back to the Wyadup Brook and get some more water to have breakfast with. Of course, this also left me with not enough for the walk ahead. Tip: I needed to get out my 3 litre bladder and fill that up.
I really struggled today with hip soreness and overall tiredness after Smith Beach plus dehydration and I needed more fitness beforehand. I should buy those plastic legs you can put on the gas container to balance it more to avoid spilling the water over.
I needed a lighter more breathable (less hot) peak cap.