Walpole – Denmark
124.5 km
2417 m
5 days
Walpole → Frankland River → Peaceful Bay → Boat Harbour → Denmark
Leaving Walpole, we were excited to enter the famous Tingle forests. In this section, we experienced a lot of rain and several hail storms. Fortunately, it was only drizzling when we arrived at the Giants Tree Tops walk, roughly 30km south of Walpole. With a coffee in hand, we walked the 600m long walkway amongst the Giants, amazed by the height of some of the trees. It is a worthwhile experience and we would recommend not passing it up.
Leaving the Tingles, we entered the coastal region of the trail, and experienced the first of many beach walks. Most of the beach walking was on firm sand and we savoured the ocean sunset views.
Shortly after leaving Rame Head shelter, we had to slow the pace because Maddie caught a stomach bug. She remained unwell for the rest of the trip, developing a fever at the height of her sickness. Because of this, we decided to have a rest day in Peaceful Bay, allowing Maddie to lie in bed for the day and sleep. There was a small store at the campsite where some items of food could be purchased. However, there would not be enough to fully resupply here. We bought some plain bread, Coca-Cola, a pack of Scotch Fingers and some Jatz to ensure that we would have enough calories to reach Denmark. We also bought some fish and chips, which were fantastic and well priced. Not a bad spot to have a rest day!
The next day, Maddie wasn’t feeling much better, so we initially planned on a second rest day. However, around midday, Maddie had improved enough and wanted to walk to the next shelter. After Maddie downed some chocolate and ibuprofen, we packed up the tent and continued walking. By mid afternoon we came across the Irwin inlet, which required canoes to pass. The inlet crossing was a fun and novel break from walking and we didn’t have any issues despite the strong cross winds. We both fit in one canoe with our packs and enjoyed the short paddle across the inlet. We returned two canoes to the other side, before finally paddling back to the southern bank. The whole process took around half an hour and was more work than we anticipated.
Before reaching Denmark, we came across our second inlet crossing, Parrys inlet. We initially planned to cross at low tide. However, due to the change in schedule from resting in Peaceful Bay, we ended up crossing at high tide. The water reached knee height and we enjoyed the refreshing walk across the inlet.
Arriving in Denmark, we opted to stay at the Blue Wren Backpackers for the night. After hearing high praise for Massimo’s pizza shop from other hikers, we were quietly devastated to see that it was closed for renovations! To quell our pizza cravings, we purchased some subpar frozen pizzas, garlic bread and ice cream from the well-stocked IGA, whilst resupplying.
