Wet and Cold

Hiking the Bibbulmun this time of the year is meant to be 'too hot'. But our experience so far is the opposite. Perhaps it is unseasonably cold, but we've been cold more often than hot. Today was no exception.

After a cold night we woke up with drizzle, which really heralded in a wet day. It is 24+kms from Boarding House to Tom Road hut, and after we had an early lunch (1130am) at a nice spot on the Donnelly river the rain started.

 

An hour before our expected ETA  I took off my rain coat thinking it was the end of the rain and put on my Patagonia Houdini, a light weight wind protection jacket. The rain was not frightened by the waterproof looking jacket and came back with a vengeance, drenching me, my shirt and boots and left me cold and wet very quickly. Wearing my Vibram five finger bare foot runners didn't help as they are pretty much as warm as bare feet.  I was cold, and 6kms from our destination. Marilyn in her rain coat was also cold and wet and ready to call it a day.

Then when I stopped to put my rain coat back on (over my wet T-shirt.  ) Marilyn discovered a spot of phone coverage! Cold and miserable we both quickly called our loved ones right there and then, now 4kms from the hut.

We just padded the official half way mark today! As we skipped a large section of closed trail for is we are well past the half way mark already :)

It has been almost four days of no internet/phone now. This means all my daily written blog updates will not show till we get proper internet reception. I could not hang around long enough shivering there for everything to slowly send and receive with only a marginal signal :(

At the hut it took mere minutes for us to jump into warm dry clothing and make soup/chocolate etc. We are the only ones in the hut and there is nihil phone reception again. Looks like another cold night, but tomorrow we will find the caravan at the Donnelly River village.

In the short period of reception I also received an SMS to confirm an offer from Karen and Dennis H to move the caravan from Donnelly River to Ballingup! As soon as we get reception I will confirm with them! It is amazing how supportive the community has been to us!! Thank you to everyone who has helped and is helping us! And that includes the camping ground etc where we have been able to leave the caravan for many days without even being asked to pay!