This weekend I went to Bunbury and then out to the Wellington Dam.

I picked up Michael at about 7:00am from his house in Perth and we got to Bunbury just about 9:00am stopping once for coffee about half-way.

When we got to Bunbury I dropped Michael off so he could have a pleasant morning catching up on email while I helped one of my customers pack up their shop as they were moving. Thousands of tools, all sorts, shapes and sizes had to be packed and sorted and transported to another store… it made me grateful that I am not in retail! Hard work …… and those guys really earn their money. They have my respect.

At noon, after quickly dropping in to see another customer and make a small delivery ……… finally…. Michael and I were off to the Wellington Dam area to go hiking and enjoy the weekend.

First we went to the Honeymoon Pool campsite…. There are probably hundreds of campsites there…..each in organized bays and all in a sprawling forest retreat around the river ……. but from what we could see they were pretty much all full. In the end we did find a couple of spots but we would have had to carry our gear for a few hundred yards to set up camp … not ideal after a long hike.To be honest I had forgotten that this coming Monday was Labour Day and a public holiday .....so of course all the campsites were pretty full…. it being a hot, long weekend.

We quickly decided to drive over to another campsite at Potters Gorge where we had camped before. This campsite is quite small but sits right on the Wellington Dam. Again it was pretty full but there was one spot that was open and just perfect for us. Two large trees and the space for a small pup tent!

We took it immediately.

There are lots of trails around the area and we did a slightly modified 'sika' trail that took us from our Potters Gorge campsite through the bush and back to the campsite again.

There are clean facilities and ablutions. Each person is supposed to pay $7.00 per night but actually there is no-one there to pay the money to and no-one comes to collect.

So after Michael had set up his tent to ‘mark the spot’ we simply walked from our campsite around the dam to the head of the trail. Part of the trail we had walked before… but the other half was quite new. Instead of going down to the river and then up again, it took us back up over the ridge line and back to our camp. For me it was perfect! After working all morning it was just a nice hike that was at times a little challenging but was overall just a good walk in the bush.

Of course there no really steep bits but there were long slopes and in the 37 (in the shade and 40++ heat)...... needless to say there was a total fire ban.

Australia generally has had one of the hottest summers ever… and Perth has been hotter still. In most parts of Australia there have been adequate rains for the time of year but this year the South West of Australia has missed out and it has been very dry.

We found this old burnt-out Ducati on part of the trail.

The Wellington Dam itself must have dropped about 3 meters from its level when I was there about three months ago and because water levels were so low people had driven their 4WD’s down and onto the “beach” and set up their temporary homes all around the dam.

When we are hiking here we usually average about 5K to 5.5K per hour…. So I think we covered about 10 to 12K … that means a lot of hydration is required especially considering the heat - 37c (in the shade) and 40++c in direct sunlight. Before we started the hike I had a 500ml can of water flavored with hops and barley and during the walk I consumed three 600ml bottles of pure water and then after the hike I had a few 500ml cans of flavored water again.

Her I am in the water back at the campsite enjoying one of those cans of flavored water!

Later we were able to walk along the edge of the dam almost like walking along the coast of an inland sea …….and enjoy the full moon as it rose above us…….such a beautiful place……..

More pictures here: http://www.nowfindme.com/pictures/bunburyfeb10/