Day 49: Northcliffe to Gardner
We acknowledge the Nyoongar People as the traditional custodians of the land and waters along the Bibbulmun Track
Rain all day, but there are still beautiful wildflowers and scenery to enjoy.
Overview Map. Use Bibbulmun Track Foundation Map 6 - Northcliffe
Fuelled by our dinner at the Northcliffe Workers’ Club, we enjoy today’s downhill trend… but there still seem to be many little ups and downs.
Before we set off, Geoff checks distances and elevation, comparing earlier days to upcoming ones.
Today is going to be wet. Very wet.
We have already been along the track on our rest day looking for orchids, so now we follow the pavement to where the Bibbulmun crosses the road.
Today’s walk enters new open heath vegetation, with different wildflowers and more than a dozen orchid species in flower. It drizzles steadily for much of the day, but there’s no wading yet. Enjoy your dry boots while you can!
Despite the rain, we are loving the terrain and vegetation.
So many creeks
Picturesque wooden bridges. We just don’t have these in my home state, mainly because most creeks are small enough to step across!
And oh, my, the flowers. Plant enthusiasts, you will LOVE this section!
Beautiful Scaevola calliptera.
Just look at that variety!
A new orchid, the Pink Enamel (Elythranthera emarginata)
It’s larger and with a different labellum to that of the Purple Enamel orchid here. You’d think the colour would be diagnostic, but purple enamel orchids are often pink too.
Another orchid new to me, the Stumpy Spider (Caladenia ensata)
After years of use, our DCF pack covers are no longer waterproof, but it doesn’t matter because we also have liner bags. The Visp pants and jacket are performing well in the steady but light rain.
DCF is highly waterproof but not very abrasion resistant, so a pack cover is perhaps not the best application for this material. We’ll see whether we get another one. Some people don’t bother with pack covers and only use liner bags, but a nylon pack can absorb a lot of water, and we’d rather not carry more weight than we need to!
This image shows open and closed Flying Duck Orchids (Paracaleana nigrita). The flowers close at night and also if bumped. When an insect lands on them, they snap closed and the pollinator is trapped inside the ‘belly’, bumbling around and getting covered in pollen. After a while, the flower opens again to release the insect to share its pollen in another flower.
I photograph many of these Karri spiders - they are highly variable, and I’m not yet familiar enough with the species to know whether it’s a different species, or just a different example of the same species. When you compare this flower to the previous ducks, you get an inkling as to why orchid enthusiasts never get bored with the family!
Mirror black creeks like this always remind me of southern Australia. In the tropics and overseas where there are fewer eucalypts with tannins, the water is a completely different colour.
Rushing rivulets
Another stop, another check of the map.
Here is Gardner Hut, one of the new rammed earth ones.
These huts are well-designed but surprisingly cold. We’re sharing the space with Pat and Helen; they have their tent inner, but we are sleeping in the open. Soon the mosquitoes will become too bad to do this comfortably.
Pat’s rain gear is waterproof and durable, but heavy and breathes poorly. “Waterproof, lightweight, durable: pick two,” is one rainwear truism. Another is, “Waterproof, lightweight, breathable: pick two.” Our Visps are great for this track but there is no way we’d trust them in the Tassie Highlands where you can get snow and below freezing temperatures even in midsummer; unlike northern hemisphere dry snow conditions, ours is wet and hypothermia is much more likely to happen when your gear is drenched. Our goretex jackets are each heavier than our tent, but they are bombproof! On a track like the Bibbulmun, though, lightweight jackets are fine for spring hiking, particularly if you carry a dry set of camp clothes (we always do this, with merino long bottoms and a top).
There’s a lovely swimming hole at Gardner Hut, but we have been damp most of the day already! It’s worth exploring if you’re here in drier or warmer weather.
Good tent pitches again
And delicious ham and bean soup for dinner. Yum!
Tomorrow the wading starts. I wonder what it will be like?
