Wednesday November 2, 29.5km/18.3mi

Pemberton town (557.4/129m) to Ridge above Warren River (586.9/149m) (WA)

The sun rises at 5:15, but I didn’t notice today in my dark hotel room. I had a lazy morning and left the hotel at 10am, walking straight to the Wild at Heart cafe. Except…they were closed. Bummer.

Another cafe was open and I spent an hour enjoying my food and planning travel for the Tasmania portion of this trip.I left the cafe at 11:30 and had a nice walk out of town on the paved multi-use path.

After 30 minutes, I had arrived at the famous Gloucester tree. It was one of 8 Karri trees that used to be used as a fire lookout.

There were rebar rods installed into the tree, so they could be climbed as a ladder.Unfortunately the lookout platform was closed for maintenance this week. It is 58 meters up to the top. Eek.

I continued on into the forest, and saw this unusual bird sitting there in the trail. It moved just enough to get out of my way, but refused to move any further.After an hour, I arrived to the other local attraction called The Cascades. It’s a little waterfall on Lefroy Brook.I had a snack on a nearby picnic table, and departed the loud flume. The rest of the afternoon alternated between forest and fields.Sheep! The forest parts were nice, and I was in a green tunnel again.
I followed the Warren River upstream for hours, and occasionally crossing it. This sign was hilarious to see, I’m glad I can cross on the footbridge.Many of the bridges on this trail are re-purposed old train bridges.The river was flowing very slowly, but it looked deep.I arrived to the Warren campsite at 4:30pm, refilled my water bottles, and decided to keep hiking. Because the campsites are awkwardly spaced in this section, tomorrow was going to be a 48km day. But it was early and my legs felt good, so I decided to knock off some of that distance today. I hiked until 7pm, at which point it was just getting dark. This owl posed for a photo!I setup my tent in the dark, at a nice flat spot on an abandoned road, and up out of the cold river valley…. perfect!