We are so use to waking up early, 5.15am I was awake & it was freezing outside down to 0 degrees the town covered in Mist. Staying in bed sounded a good idea. Funny on your day off, the bottom of the feet hurt! Ambles cooked up the eggs on toast. Yummy 😊.

I walked into town to get a lovely 15 minute neck, shoulder & back massage. Went into the Visitor Centre & met the lovely Raelean Bailey. She said come back with my husband so she can take a photo of us. She loves meeting the Bibbulmun hikers & putting their photos up on the Facebook page. Yes, Balingup is a lovely little town, people are so friendly & happy.  Ambles had me run some errands to get him something for his sore toe, newspaper & a takeaway cappuccino while he you tubed & tried to correct his backpack. I checked out Tinderbox- what an amazing store full of nice smells! A day of washing, organising & fixing things. We organised our accommodations in DRV & Pemberton especially as it will be the school holidays & long weekend.

Kerry, our amazing trail angel arrived midday with Food Box number 5. We sorted through what we needed over the next 4 days, then it was off to Balingup Tavern for lunch. Only there was a long wait for our food, which gave us lots of time to catch up while Kerry’s dog Stig, tried to discreetly crawl his way over to other tables containing food. We left close to 3pm with overfull bellies. Spotted Steve Sertis from the Bibbulmun Track Foundation returning his walkers back to Perth after a workshop weekend. We gave a quick hello then hurried to the Visitor Centre before Raelean closed the doors for a photo. She loved meeting Ambles as well & wanted a selfie with us!

We finished our super great rest day with going back to the Balingup Tavern for dinner. We were still full but we couldn’t get dinner anywhere else. Ambles wanted to order Uber eats, I said good luck with that! Lindsay had hogged the Ute car that cottage guests can use for both of the days. So again we had to walk down, meeting up with Daisyfish, her son Kirby & partner Tim. Then there was Wayne ordering his Jug of Beer. As promised, he gave his Kathmandu belt for Ambles to keep. Was spinning more stories over dinner. Believable stories or not, Wayne has been an interesting guy to meet over this last 10 odd days, tomorrow he gets on a bus for home. Said he wants to walk with us into Albany now so was asking Ambles what date is our last day on the track. Daisyfish corrected us that Wayne did not catch her napping on the last big hill in, rather she was laying on the log listening to her audiobook with her headphones. And yes she is continuing her walk with us tomorrow – yahhh! We had our meals & left first to walk back, have a ‘nightcap’ drink & get some shuteye. Back on the track tomorrow!