Bibbulmun Track Day 11 - Dwellingup to Swamp Oak Campsite

 Friday 4 September

https://www.bibbulmuntrack.org.au/

Dwellingup Section of Bibbulmun Track

A lovely sleep in until almost 7am followed by hot showers and breakfast. We packed up all our clean and almost dry clothes, then went to the post office to post our town satchel on to Collie. We then ran into the Ranger we had seen at Chadoora Campsite who was letting us know she was following up our concerns regarding a fellow hiker. She also spoke to another hiker who had been concerned about the same hiker. We got away from town around 9:30am.

The forest near town was not as pretty as our previous experiences on this hike but quickly improved as we moved away from town. The trail passed close to some private acreages and a vineyard as we moved away from town. Weather varied from light rain, to overcast, to sunny and everything in between. We had our first diversion today - it added 1km to the day. The diversion was largely on good gravel roads. One section was a long moderately steep ascent on slippery clay. There was also a small section of boardwalk over a swampy area. There was some pig damage within the last kilometre before the shelter. We could hear Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos on and off throughout today’s walk, as well as lots of smaller birds. I also saw a small robin sized bird with a red chest (possibly a Red-capped Robin). The forest understory had a lot more tree ferns today of varying sizes.

We arrived at Swamp Oak Campsite just before 1:30pm. This campsite had a lot of levelled areas, many with a seat, for tents, as well as two fire areas and multiple picnic tables. After lunch and a wash, we went exploring to try and find the swimming hole referred to in the guidebook, but it appears to have become overgrown. In the shelter overnight there were four, one other End to Ender and a section hiker. I needed to use the aeroguard due to mosquitoes at the shelter.