9/10: I slept so good despite my blocked sinus. Had a sore throat since Northcliffe which has advanced to a horrible cough & runny nose, nothing new, my nose has been dripping constantly due to the cold weather. Yes, Ambles shared his bug with me🤔. Heard something rattling with our pots on the table, Ambles said it lifted the lid off the pot to see what was inside, only water for the morning cuppa s so scampered about trying to get into the plastic food box, couldn’t find anything as we were so paranoid we hid everything in our tents. The critter soon went off disappointed. Us & Daisyfish sounded super healthy this morning coughing, wheezing,hacking, spattering & sniffling away. Ambles regretted going into the river yesterday, he smelt of river water last night said it’s worse than his funk Body Odour. And his coughing started up again. Can we have a pharmacy vending machine like on the Camino?!😂

We were slow to leave, Took longer than usual to pack up. Today was a flat 19.5kms so, meh, no rush! Ray looked happy in his tent, good decision for him! He always props himself up on his left elbow lays like that for ages, reading or cooking. So Ambles has trail named him Elbow. 😆He goes, “Elbow is on the move!” We were the second last pair to leave after 7am, before Drew & Elbow, those two meander & take their time anyhow. A pleasant cool cloudy morning, birds singing, the river water cascading loudly, what a picturesque spot. Would love to return to this campsite 😊in Autumn before the rains flood the plains!

Today sees us walking through the start of the Pingerup Plains. Didn’t take long to see Kangaroos again, the first in weeks. The second kangaroo watched us approaching by the roadside for awhile before bounding off. We follow Tom Road again for many kilometres before veering onto another dirt road, mostly flat & easy walking. Wasn’t too far out when we came across a familiar face. Simone was yo-yoing back to Kalamunda in 19 days, hiking 50 to 60kms a day until 8.30pm & putting up her tent wherever she is on the track. And she has lost a lot of weight & looks good! Beaming, she was overjoyed to see us again telling us everyone knows about us, we are popular names on the track. Everyone in front told her to say hi to us. And a lot of people love how we are taking our time & enjoying the track. Deb & Mel are also very popular. All four of us have become celebrities 😆. We spent a good half hour catching up on trail news before continuing in different directions. She remembered the promise of having a vino from Ambles when we bumped into each other again, but took a rain check. Can’t believe Simone will have done a yo-yo end to end in the time it took us to do one end to end!😂

The Pingerup Plains ended up being nice, a whole different landscape & vegetation to see. The only problem was the blow flies, & so many of them that’s all you hear buzzing around you. The swamp parts of Track were easy to navigate around only Ambles plodded through them without a care. At least my boots didn’t get drenched but my feet were hurting so much. We took a break & the blowies buzzed around me – 50 odd of them. None went near Ambles! I think they are attracted to the colour blue….

Elbow & Drew leapfrogged with us along the way, Elbow’s backpack looked awkward as. It was super high above his head & was leaning over to the right. My shoulders ached looking at it. Reckon I spotted an Emu lurking in the distance before the shelter. But it took quick haste. Arrived in good time at 12.30pm for lunch. My poor feet were wrinkled white with another blister on the heel. My hankie covered in blood & nose snots needs a bleach soaking! Rank as! Don’t have much left in the food bag, looking forward to a resupply tomorrow! Us, Daisyfish & Deb put our tents up in the shelter while Mel, Drew & Elbow tented outside. Walked up to Mount Chance summit in front of the shelter for fantastic 360 degree views of the plains. Still overcast, still lots of flies. The toilet seems to have a resident snake living close by it. Ambles heard it. No snakes seen today by either of us. No campfires now, so dinner & off to bed to escape the bugs😁.

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