Moving on from Denmark towards Albany on the Bibbulmun Track entails getting either around or across Wilson Inlet first. Unlike each of the other inlets encountered along the Southern Ocean coastline, this crossing can be done neither by wading nor by paddling - unless you have your own canoe or kayak. And so it was that I found myself forking out sixty dollars to the manager of the Blue Wren hostel in Denmark, to drive me all the way around the inlet and drop me off at a boat ramp on the northern shore of the Nullaki Peninsula - about six kilometres from Denmark as the crow flies, but a drive by more conventional means. Once there, the final 80km of the Bibbulmun Track stretched out in a generally easterly direction towards Albany, running roughly parallel to the coastline.
After following the southern shoreline of Wilson Inlet for the first six kilometres, the trail turned south and led in less than an hour to Nullaki campsite, where I caught up once again with David the journalist (and prolific haiku writer) from Perth. Soon after leaving the campsite the trail began to climb steadily through sand dunes towards the
Southern Ocean, with various bench seats offering walkers the opportunity to take a breather while enjoying views that everything from the vast expanse of Wilson Inlet to the gently serrated profile of the Porongurup Range; and before long also taking in the rocky headlands of Knapp Head and beyond to West Cape Howe, as long lines of swell slowly rolled in from the south to hurl themselves against the shore.
After a 27km day (with just the one tiger snake sighting) I reached the West Cape Howe campsite just after 4pm, to be greeted by not only David but also a strange young man with his dog in tow. What followed next was straight out of sketch. As David rolled out his sleeping mat and started to inflate it, Dexter Morgan (the dog) immediately wandered over to investigate... before plonking himself down on Davids mat! Then the moment his owner was distracted the dog proceeded to lick vegemite (that great scourge of Australian cuisine) from the inside of the jar.
Even more entertaining was the mans story. The way he told it he had served a year stretch in prison for an
undisclosed crime, and after being released his weight had ballooned to over 140kg (apparently the food was really good). So for whatever reason he had then started wandering in the wilderness to the west of Albany with his and had managed to lose over 40kg in just four months. Meanwhile he had begun visiting a Buddhist monk that lived in a temple nearby and received visitors each morning, and had decided to walk all the way through to Kalamunda along the Bibbulmun Track, in the hope of being ordained as a monk at a particular temple in Perth once he got there!
The only thing this story lacked was a female protagonist, and sure enough according to the man he had made it only as far as the very shelter at West Cape Howe campsite that we were by ensconced in, where he had fallen in love with a young woman (who was headed in the opposite direction) and proceeded to walk back to Albany with her, before returning to the Track to his pilgrimage. He failed to mention whether or not the relationship had been consummated in the shelter, and we declined to
enquire. In any case, the woman in question was headed to Perth (by coach) to attend a silent retreat, and the man was now undecided as to whether or not he should hook up with her when he got there or proceed with his plan to be ordained as a monk!
Where exactly Dexter Morgan fit into all of this wasnt clear, but given that pets of any kind are banned from all National Parks - as well as the entirety of the Bibbulmun Track - I could only imagine the man and his would have their work cut out trying to avoid the rangers of the various National Parks that the Track passes through.
