Short km day planned for 3 main reasons7km of beach walking - not a huge deal but sometimes the sand is sinky and the gradient steep which makes it more laborious, andTorbay Inlet possibly impassable and requiring an approximately 18 km detour walk aroundI really want to have lunch at the coffee shop at Cosy Corner which is a short diversion from the track (didnt make it last time as it was at the beginning of the day and still closed!)
So... up early but it was 07:35 before I left camp. This was good timing for a sunrise, breakfast and first morning packup, not going be so good for the tides with high tide at the Torbay Inlet. Took an hour of hiking and marvelling at views to reach the Mutton Bird Lookout and another 20 minutes on beach sand to reach the Torbay Inlet. There were a few 4WD parked on the beach and some surfers in the water. Said hello to everyone I passed trying to look supremely confident, one of the guys assured me
it would be easy to cross- only thigh deep... Well... for about 30 mins I walked up and down that inlet trying to guage the depths, it is generally to cross close to the ocean but it looked deep and fast to me. The inlet near the sand dunes looked tantalisingly shallow in lots of sections but then there was always dark black patches of impending doom bang in the middle to get across. I repeated this trudge fully clothed two or three times, then less fully clothed without my pack but with my poles at the ocean end to give it a test run. That did not work for me. I bailed at waist high and getting deeper (clearly the surfer in the 4WD was 7 feet tall if it was thigh high for him!), I didnt think I could cross alone safely carrying my pack and remain alive. Dejectedly I backtracked and got dressed ready to do the extra million km detour, when the surfer (who clearly had been watching) pulled up next to me in his 4WD. The conversation went like this:
Me- Maybe not if youre a 7 foot surfer with advanced swimming skills and not hauling a 14kg back pack it isnt
Me- Oh, no really just the highway will be fine, I dont want to put you out (thinking please say its no problem and insist I take the lift the whole way round)
Me- Oh... are you really sure? (lets 2 seconds elapse) .... thanks, thatd be so awesome (Gets in the car very quickly...)
the Elleker Servo to buy a coffee, before depositing me on the beach 60m from where we had the initial coversation. Legend.
Buoyed by this kind deed the beach walking was pretty easy. After the headland which was easily passed I had to detour up off the beach to avoid a fast flowing creek- well marked diversion requiring some bush bashing to avoid massive puddles and then some bashing along eroded dunes. Finally up a set of wooden steps to reach the Cosy Corner Picnic Area. Good place for a quick break, however, I ended up spending about 20 minutes here picking up rubbish and binning it- how hard is it??? No idea what I was thinking (not thinking) at this stage because despite my carefully mapped out detour to the road that would get me to the coffee shop I didnt take the right path. By the time I traversed the gigantically huge steps and walked through a nice little shaded area I was a couple of km past where I should have turned. Somewhat peed off as I had REALLY been looking forward to a Cosy Corner roll, a Cosy Corner coffee and a big fat Cosy
Got into Torbay hut at 12:05 and had a sulky lunch. Contemplated keeping on going for the 16.5km to West Cape Howe but that would mess my schedule up too much- basically Geoff was going to meet me at Wilson Inlet on Day 4 and drive me around to Denmark where wed stay at the Rivermouth Caravan Park for the night. He had headed into the uncontactable south of Albany after saying good bye to me at the southern terminus so the plan was set in stone. So... it was to be a cruisy afternoon at Torbay- the picnic table 50m up the hill from the shelter was where I spent my afternoon. Sensational spot.
