Monday October 24, 40.5km/25.2mi

Dookanelly Campsite (248.0/240m) to Yourdamung Campsite (288.5/279m) (WA)

I laid in bed listening to raindrops falling on the roof of the shelter, but it turns out it was just dew falling from the trees! It was a nice sunny morning for hiking.

After 30 minutes, the trail crossed the Murray River, which I had been following for the last two days. It’s a brand new swingbridge!

The old railroad bridge had burned in a fire in 2015, and a new bridge was built 12 downstream of the old bridge. It’s 82m across, and 6m above the river.

The Murray River in the morning light.

Once across the bridge, the trail was on old 4wd roads all morning. Because it had rained yesterday, all the animals traveling thru it were leaving tracks. I think these are kangaroo tracks.

Every time there was a dip in the old road, it was flooded. If I skirted the puddle on the left or right to keep my feet dry, I got a little wet from the brush on the sides…

Finally I was leaving the road.

All morning I was hearing this low mechanical noise, and this conveyor belt was the cause of it.

The conveyor moves bauxite from a mine 100km away, to a refinery near Collie where it is turned into Alumina, and from there it is shipped by rail to a port on the coast. Neat!

The trail was nice the rest of the way to Possum Springs shelter.

Possum springs shelter is brand new and is built in the new style of concrete and metal frame, making it fireproof against the bushfires. It was a nice place to have lunch.

I left the shelter just before 1pm and almost immediately saw a dead Roo on the trail. Gross.

At 1pm, it rained heavily for 5 minutes so I put up my umbrella. This pattern continued for the rest of the afternoon, where it would rain on the top of the hour for 5 minutes. Weird. This was a neat little section of trail that was made into a tunnel by the overgrown bushes.

I definitely used my umbrella in that section because bumping into any bushes would make it rain. I emerged back into a more open forest, and saw kangaroos all afternoon. Most of them were too fast for the camera, but I was able to get a shot of one of them.

These new golden yellow wildflowers started appearing today, I’ll have to look up what they are.

It was a peaceful walk all afternoon and I saw no people. The sky was very moody.

I arrived to the Yourdamung shelter just *before* 5pm (it rains at the top of every hour!).

I was very excited for dinner, tonight’s meal was Mexican chili and some spicy tuna.

While waiting for dinner to cook, I reviewed my maps and realized I’m only a day away from the next town, Collie. So if I hike 32km tomorrow, I’ll be in town for dinner!