I just hiked the Northern Prom . circuit at Wilson's Prom. N.P. I have never been to this part of the Prom before.
The weather was rather good , the whole time. That was quite surprising for the Prom. . There was Just a spot of rain overnight at Lower Barry Creek on the last night.
The track was hard to find at times and often insanely overgrown! :-0. I wished I had taken a machete! :-0
The leaders of the hike had a GPS each and I had the SV Prom map and compass. We went off course a few times until a track marker was spotted.
Good Friday was an easy walk along Five Mile road to Five mile beach. We stopped for a snack at Barry Creek campsite.
There is water flowing from the spring there at 5 Mile Beach .
The 5 Mile beach campsite was at capacity for the long weekend. Swimming there in the surf at 5 Mile beach , I must say that the water was very cold.
Day two( Sat. ) Miranda creek was at low tide so crossing it was easy . The hill up over the head was very steep and it was slow going heading for Johnny Souey cove.
Once at the top , " The track" ;-P was often blocked by trees and vegetation, prickle bushes etc. that had fallen. This was just the start of a major insane bush bashing adventure.
The walk along the beach at Johnny Souey cove was easy but the most horrific section of impenetrable scrub was going from JS cove to 3 mile beach. No one could find the track and I think we went in a bit of circle. It was T O U G H. It was Chronically W R O N G . ;-p .Other hikers who I spoke with along the course of the Long Easter weekend also had trouble and grief and were swearing oaths at this point. The whole crossing over the head took at least an hour or more and felt like much longer and was really fricking exhausting.
By the time we hit the beach at 3 mile beach I was stuffed . I put on my swim suit and dived into the sea to cool off . After lunch we pressed on for The point where the route at 3 mile beach goes straight up the hill to the lighthouse. The tide was coming in so we legged it along 3 mile beach.
There is a rope there which is tied to a tree which one hauls oneself up the very steep hillside to the top of the point . I liked that , it was handy to have a rope there.
Then the long and often tough walk through some thick bush to Tin Mine Cove was the next stage. By the time I got to Tin Mine Cove via the Chinaman's Long beach and the link track through dense head high over grown bush I was very fatigued and dehydrated.
On the way , just heading to the campsite at Tin Mine cove an hour before sunset I met an English man with a Bristol kind of accent and his lady friend . He was walking in rubber thongs( flips flops) and shorts. That was crazy but more insanity in the guise of more extreme trekkers was to present itself subsequently.
I always hike in shorts but thank goodness I packed two pairs of zip off pants and water proof over pants too. I did not take any shorts at all. I was forewarned by the HIKING FIASCO report on this area. This was a leg massacre zone. Good boots and good gaiters were not optional either!
Swimming at Tin Mine Cove was pleasant and luckily the creek was flowing well .I took a spare 4 L. H2O bladder because I had heard of the water shortages in the North of the Prom. It came in very handy and at Tin Mine Cove campsite which is up the hill from the fresh water. The sunset over the inlet was very photogenic.That was the toughest day of the trek.
Day 3 ( Sun. ) was Tin Mine Cove to Lower Barry creek. Barry has a lot to answer for and so do the Chinamen . Luckily the swamp at Chinaman's swamp and China man's creek were both dry !. The idea of the already torturously slow progress through walls of thicket that could take your eyes out would have been hell on Earth if one had to wade for kilometres through knee high or waist high water that would have been leech and snake infested in the true Prom. tradition.
Instead we got off lightly which means If I do this trek again in April 2016 I will probably get to trek through swamps full of water and full of leeches and water snakes! :-0
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It said 6 kms on the map. It took about 4 -5 hours to get from the beach to Lower Barry Creek camp.. I fell over a number of times. On some occasions the scrub was so dense I just bounced sideways, or backwards or forwards because there was no place to physically fall. The scenery changed a number times from dead flat swamp with impenetrable wetland scrub of sharp sword grass etc. to open Banksia woodland and tree grass groves. I kept the sunglasses on for eye protection from branches and twigs etc.
The pestilent insect population was not too bad either which was a plus. The noonday sun was hot but in summer I could imagine hours of bashing through this area south West of Chinaman's knob with little or no shade and swarms of insects . That would make a man curse for sure.
Finally we arrived and located the campsite and water at Lower Barry creek. There I met Mr. Bare foot. He was making a coffee with his female companion. He was doing the Northern Prom. circuit in shorts and NO SHOES AT ALL. What A rare and extremely unusual unit!. His feet and legs were covered in lacerations. He did admit he wears shoes in snow and ice, otherwise all of his hiking and living is done barefoot!! This is what is called madness, insanity and natural selection has reduced their numbers via snake bites and other hiking injuries.
The creek is flowing well at both upper and Lower Barry creek.
The last day was Monday and we packed up at first light and hiked out to five mile road. The track was not too hard to follow along this stage and the trip to the junction with 5 Mile road took just over 2 hours. It was still slow going but quite scenic at times, esp. at the top of the big boulder. I slipped off it coming down but thankfully was not hurt .The Road walking was easy and we got back to 5 mile car park before 12 noon.
I would do this trek again in April as long as I had a GPS and a map and compass. I think April is the best bet for dry walking and less swamp wading but conditions change, not much work is done to maintain this area for hikers and sections of the tracks are not easy to navigate in good conditions. It is very wild and unspoiled and there are so few hikers out there compared with the Southern Prom. . Only the brave , insane , eccentric, intrepid , fit and tough seem to go there. It is a different world to Tidal River. Bear it in mind that I took my small travel guitar , as usual!, on this 60 KM plus hike, So the fit, hardy , eccentric and unusual category includes myself.
I think I will do this hike again in Autumn 2016 . People need to take whistles on such a trek. The scrub is often so high and dense you can lose your hiking companions in just a few steps. I will take a GPS , whistle , map and compass when I do this hike next time. I will upload some pictures soon.
