94.4 km / 58.7 miles
135,912 steps
Well, it was wonderful having a real bed last night! We slept pretty well and were up early to head into town and grab a coffee and breakfast from the Margaret River bakery. The bacon croissants were amazing and fuelled us for a big morning of steps! We were happy we had repacked last night so we didn’t have that to do this morning, and thankful that Nic from Surfpoint Resort had offered to drive us up the hill to pick up the trail where we left off. We left at 8.45 which was a little later than we anticipated but we also had to wait for the tours to check out of the resort so we could get a ride up the hill – so really we weren’t that mad about it. We were lucky enough to get some local knowledge and story telling from Nic on the short drive up to the trail too, informing us of the sacred land we were going to be walking down to this morning. Frustratingly, after all this time, we can’t remember the exact story however it was a sacred place for aboriginal women and their babies.
The hike started with us taking a 1km fire-break road to rejoin the trail and then it was short gradual walk up a sandy dirt trail before coming to the top of the Boodjidup valley. We were told about the hundreds of steps going down – and yep, that wasn’t an exaggeration. I noted it was 364, not sure where I got that exact number from but we will assume a semi-reliable source… the steps down were pretty hard on the knees and we were especially thankful for our poles and the bench that was perfectly situated about half way down. We passed a few crazy people running up the steps, looking like they were doing it for fun, and we weren’t excited for the steps the other end (little did we know they were a lot less and very gradual)
At the bottom of the valley lies the Boodjidup creek, where a bridge was installed to enable a dry crossing. The bridge itself was a project created by a local guy who with help carried all the parts down the 300+ steps to assemble. Lillies surrounded the creek, and it was a nice place to take a break, take photos, eat snacks and enjoy the natural and spiritual beauty of the area.
Thankfully the walk up was only around 35 steps, and less steep. It came alongside the creek where we walked over some small sand dunes and along the waters edge until we got to the beach. Entering Redgate beach we had a 2.3 km stretch of beach walking until we reached the car park. It was a mix of hard and soft sand (and some soft steep sections of sand from the tide going out), but also had plenty breaks of rock to walk and scramble over. We took a snack break just before the car park at Redgate beach, and enjoyed our scones that we had brought from the grocery store that morning, and I made myself a coffee – as we finished up the weather turned and it started to rain lightly.
The next part of the walk we had read was a “favourite section” for many – and we sure weren’t disappointed. The walk up from Redgate Beach car park was gradual and followed a nice trail with plenty of low shrubs, and an abundance of colourful wild flowers. We walked amongst burnt out low forest and wildflowers which actually created quite a beautiful contrast. This section wound along the cliff edges and into the forest and was really quite amazing. After 3km we hit the down hill towards “Bob Hollow”. Bob’s Hollow is a Limestone cliff band – as you head down to it via some sketchy steps and chains to help you on the downhill, you round the corner and head back up to this huge opening in the cliff. We stayed here a while to take photos, rest and enjoy the incredible view of the “hollow” and the view out to the ocean.
The steps up from Bob’s Hollow were uneven and washed out by sand making them not very fun to climb up! but once at the top, it was a pretty flat walk to Contos campground, meandering along the cliff tops again, and through burnt forest – we saw WILD EMUS! (Thankfully from a distance amongst the burnt forest.) It was an easy to finish to a long day, and before long we were at Contos. We had booked ahead, but the campground was pretty empty – we were in the shoulder season still, but I can imagine it to be hectic over summer here.
Side note: At the end of 2021 there was a huge bushfire that swept through the Boranup Forest and surrounding areas here and thankfully the Contos campground was saved – however much of the forest surrounding it had pretty much all burnt. It was fascinating to see the new plant life emerging but also sad to see how much was destroyed. See link here
Once at the entrance of Contos we were ready to get our backpacks off… however, we realized the site we can booked was actually the other side of the campground and the campground was HUGE. So we had to walk easily an extra km to get to the “Whalers” part of the campground, which thankfully looked nice and quiet…. (But unlucky for us didn’t end up being – more on that on tomorrow’s blog post). For future reference, the campground Whistlers and Hamelin are a much closer choice and right by the C2C track. Anyway we got to Whalers with other people we had hiked on and off with – Emma and baby Q (the duo we crossed Margaret River mouth with). We set up our tent, ate the rest of our snacks, and then decided to go catch the sunset. We walked back out of Contos and down to a a little trail where we could watch the sun set over the ocean – despite being freezing it was a perfect end to a really good day – our favourite day of the hike! Back at camp we had phone service, so we checked in with home, checked in on social media, and watched some trashy tv before hitting the hay. Now… about that “quiet” night we were anticipating…..
And… Today’s video:
“I don’t think that you’re human, you must be from Mars
Which explains how amazing you are.
Oh, can we build a rocket and take off
Past the sun and the stars, ’til we fall in love on Mars”