Saturday October 22, 12.2km/7.6mi

Dwellingup Town (199.8/266m) to Swamp Oak Campsite (212.0/192m) (WA)

I slept in and had a relaxed morning in the caravan park, enjoying a warm shower and a late breakfast at 10am. Angeli, Sam, Tessa, Kat, and I went food shopping at the IGA after breakfast. Since we are all camping together tonight, we decided to make s’mores, so each of us picked up an ingredient. The four of us (Tessa was coming an hour later) left town and started down the track at noon.

It was an uneventful afternoon on easy terrain, and this is the first day that I *didn’t* see any kangaroos. Kat and I had some fun conversations as we worked up and down the short hills.

We arrived to the campsite rather early, before 4pm, and there were already 12 people there! I forgot it was a weekend and we are close to a town, so this campsite is easy access to the weekend campers. We claimed spots in the shelter upper bunks, and met some of our new neighbors. And then a group of 4 showed up, and soon after another group of 3. I think there were now 25 people including our group of 5…it felt a bit claustrophobic. I did enjoy dinner with our fun group, with many entertaining and interesting topics. The s’mores were excellent, much less sugar than the American version.

We all went to our bunks just after 8pm (sunset is at 6:45pm), planning for an early day tomorrow. I’m kinda sad I probably will not see my new friends again, as they are mostly hiking “single hut” days, which is generally 15-20km between huts. I’m “double-hutting”, so 30-35km per day. This trail has its own vocabulary and culture, I love it.