The end of the Bibbulman Track for the moment

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One of my last posts was about the Bibbulman Track, a walking trail in Western Australia which covers a total of about 600 miles or 1,000 kilometres. Over several years our friend, Lynn, has now walked almost all of the track. A few weeks ago we took Lynn to Walpole and followed along in the bus as she walked several more sections. The second part of this particular walk took us down to the coast. At one point Lynn had to cross a sandbar, wading in water up to her knees. She was very pleased that she wasn't carrying a big backpack like some of the other walkers. At the Irwin Inlet, she had to launch a canoe and paddle several hundred metres to the other side. She was 7 kms into the walk as we weren't able to help her at this stage. Luckily, we had met a young couple who were also on the trail. Although they walked much faster than Lynn, they happened to be at the inlet at the same time and very kindly took her across. We caught up with them several times over the next few days and I borrowed their walking sticks for a photo to make me look more authentic. There is a very ordinary photo of a paddock but hopefully you will be able to see the many black swans that were feeding in the lush swampy grass. Much of the land was very, very wet. The ducks were in the one of two caravan parks we stayed in. Otherwise we free-camped along the way. At one campsite the bus was buffeted all night by strong winds. Lynn came in that night soaked to the skin. Her boots were often soaking. The last part of Lynn's walk was through scrubland which had been hit by a bushfire earlier this year. It was amazing to see how fast the bush is regenerating. Although we'd done a recce in the car a few weeks earlier we still managed to get the bus almost stuck at the very last pick-up point. The peppermint tree branches were quite low and we had to do what seemed like a 36-point turn before we managed to get it turned around.