Day 53 to West Cape Howe hut. First night on my own

There is a huge  William inlet at Denmark that we currently cannot walk across so I paid $50 to the hostel owner for a ride around it to start my day. 22km to West Cape Howe campsite. We’re Cape Hiwe us the southern most tip of Western Australia.

  Peter and I part ways now after about 40 days together. He doesn’t want to go out in the predicted the rain and has business calls to make. So I head out on my own knowing that there is little chance of meeting up with anyone else for the next couple of days.

It was cold and very windy and there was 2 short bursts of rain through the day. I was pleased that I  wore my merino t-shirt under my shirt for the first time and I did need it to keep me warm enough.  My rain pants and poncho also helped keep me dry.

There was seats every km along the way, perfect to rest and take the pack load off my back without actually taking the pack off. We need more of these along the trail. Shame it was too cold and windy to sit for any length of time to enjoy the views.

This section of the track is snake alley so I was happy to have the cold day (17°) as this meant I saw no snakes at all. The hut book has many entries of 7 or 10 snakes sightings in a day and some traumatized people.

I am at the hut on my own for the first time, snuggled up on my sleeping bag as soon as I had done my chores. Hot soup warmed me up. Then I did some repairs on my cheapo poncho which had a few rips from being caught on close in bushes.  Only 3 more days to go and it can go in the bin having served me well. These cheap ponchos are actually better than an expensive raincoat. They do you keep the rain off me and my pack and allow for the sweat to evaporate underneath.  They do flap around in the wind and look silly but I don’t care.

My first night on my own turned put to be the best sleep on the whole trail. I thought I might be on alert all night and not sleep well. But I only had my snoring and my mattress rustling to deal with and a nice background noise of the sea and wind. I was very pleased and proud of myself.