A Whale of a Time!

Orange tree

Day 6 had us wake up to a beautiful breakfast of muesli, fresh fruit salad and homemade bread. It’s a treat to get breakfast like that. Usually we are the ones serving it in our B & B. Gilgarra Retreat has its own grapefruit, lemon and orange trees. It rained a little bit last night, but this morning the sky was a brilliant blue. We almost wish for clouds when hiking because the sun gets just too hot.

Gilbarra Homestead

We hiked some 17 kilometers today. The trail started out as not too bad, although some sections were so narrow that we were scraping arms and legs on the bushes. Then we hit some steep boulder sections with no visible trail, just rocks to clamber down on along sheer cliffs with the ocean below.

The scenery is gorgeous

Gorgeous views but very treacherous clambering, not exactly hiking.

Trail? What trail?

The highlight for today came when we actually found... a bench! In the shade of a melaluca grove no less. We were just unwrapping a sandwich when, right in front of us and very close by, a huge whale breached! He came down with a thunderous roar. We watched whales on and off all day. Later on, several breached again but not so close. It was an awe inspiring moment.

I didn't catch the breaching, but here is some whale..

With sore toes and stiff limbs we are now in a lovely old hotel. Tomorrow will be our last day on this trail and we plan on touching the corner stone of Cape Naturaliste lighthouse.

The perfect end to a day of strenuous hiking!