Day 24. 1 Oct. Into

I was off at 6am this morning. 2 of the ladies going the other way were having a 5am get up so I decided to join them for an early get up. I am usually awake before 5am anyway as we are in bed before 8pm. That is a long time to lay down.

My aim was to arrive by noon at Balingup and minimise the amount of time walking in the heat of the day. What this meant was I was first on the track so I copped all the spider webs. My face was covered with them but I did not see any spiders. I think they string their webs across the track to get us walkers then sit back and laugh at us as we go through. No doubt I will come face to face with a big Aussie spider at some stage.

By 9am I was out of the bush briefly walking alongside a farm. A few sheep bleating made a change of sound. I am not sure what the trees are.

Pretty yellow grass flowers today. Found a nice log to site and eat my 6 dates for morning tea. I must remember to buy some snakes at Balingup to add to my snacks bag.

I arrived at my hosts at 11.30 and was shown to my home for the night, a caravan. Yvette and Kevin have a lovely home surrounded by bush. After a shower I felt a new woman and was also pleased to see that I had lost over 5kg in weight. I saw a sign on a steep part of Te Araroa that said “Sweat is just fat crying” So if you need to lose weight just go for a damn long walk. If anyone finds my lost fat on the track they can keep it.

After hanging out my washing I wandered the 800 metres into town to do a bit of shopping and catch up with the others for food and a beer from the General Store, in the park. I felt a bit like a hobo sitting drinking in the park.

Then I made a new friend outside the Visitors Centre. She looked over my shoulder as I updated my website. She didn’t have much to say. I suppose she has heard it all before as about as about 80,000 people are said to walk all or sections each year.