Nglang Boodja
I was surrounded
12/10/2020
Nglang Boodja Hut
Two nights in Collie was enough; my clothes were washed, my food resupplied and my body well rested. The Colliefields Backpackers includes a very decent continental breakfast, with excellent brewed coffee. So it was coffee, muesli and all the trimmings including a good dollop of my honey. I had already decided not to retrace my steps the 15 km to rejoin the track from where I had left it two days before. Instead, I took the shortcut down the Collie to Bunbury hiway straight to the Wellington National Park turnoff and Munda Biddi cross over point. It's a very busy and fast paced hiway, but it was upgraded a few years ago and now has a 1.5 metre paved shoulder with a functional rumble strip to warn the cars when they are wandering off the road and into the shoulder. It was a quick and painless 20 km to the turnoff into the Park.
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The Munda Biddi runs parallel to the main paved access road into the Park. A sign at the entrance said all the campsites in the park were full. But they had forgotten to take the sign down as school holidays were over and the Park was now empty and void of traffic. So, yes, in keeping with my previous behaviour I decided eschew the track and ride the road instead. I think I encountered perhaps two or three cars once I got off the busy hiway. We were all travelling at about the same slow speed up and down the twisty narrow Park access road. They were conducting another controlled burn (this was about the third so far on this trip) in the Park and surrounding forest, so a good portion of the track was rerouted onto the paved road anyhow. I stopped off for a quiet brunch break at Honeymoon Pool, a camping and swimming hole on the Collie River. There was only one car camping there that morning, two days ago this campsite would have been full with holidaying families - timing is everything.
The Water
When I lived down here near Balingup in the early 1980s, my farmer landlord told me his biggest problem was water salinity. His land looked very productive - he did some cropping, but mostly ran sheep and cattle for market. He had several small irrigation dams on the property, but his stock wouldn't drink the dam water - it was too salty. The salt levels in the water table across the entire Blackwood River catchment were slowly rising and in turn, contaminating the soil. And he had to save his rapidly degrading bore water to feed his stock and irrigate crops. The soils in Australia are ancient and prior to western settlement this area was covered in trees and scrub. The native vegetation was cleared for farming and immediately the delicate balance between fresh water, soil and vegetation was overturned and salt levels in the subterranean water began to rise. So much native vegetation was cleared, so quickly, that now the damage is most likely irreversible. Farmers are walking off the land and the rivers and dams can no longer be used for drinking, crop irrigation or stock watering.
Wellington National Park includes a large water reservoir within its boundaries. Wellington dam was built in the 1930s and expanded in the following decades. It was supposed to supply drinking and irrigation water for the southwest of WA. When I left in the early 1980s, it was still potable, just. But due to a century of land clearing and poor land management, the reservoir's catchment is now so salt polluted that the dam water has been declared dangerously salt contaminated and unfit for human/animal consumption, crop production or even most industrial use.
It's difficult for me to reconcile. Looking at the very beautiful Jarrah forest, rivers and streams, the lake, the wildlife... it looks idyllic. It is said that in ancient times, as punishment, conquerors would "salt the earth" of their vanquished enemies to ensure they would never again be a threat. Seems to me that we ourselves are truly our own worst enemy.
The Frogs
After rereading that above section, I realise that you, the reader, might form the opinion that I am a bitter pessimist and that the environment of SW Western Australia is doomed. But there is a lot of good work being done out here, too. Many of the farmers are replanting trees as fast as they can and the government tries to restrict the clearing of land (land not under the control of the FPC). And there are many conservation groups out there doing their best to turn things around.
And even though the bigger picture may look quite gloomy, there are pockets of bush that are fairing much better. And this bit of the Park is one of those pockets of splendour.
From Honeymoon Pool, it was only a short gently uphill single track ride to the Ngland Boodja hut. Just upstream of the Honeymoon Pool, there is a curious bit of track where you cross the bridge over the river. If you follow the track signs after the bridge, you are directed straight up a steep narrow paved road for about 300 metres and then literally dive off the side of it and go careering down a very twisty switchback single track almost back to where you started at the bridge. It's completely unnecessary, but the park management has made a one-way loop at the far end of the bridge and don't want riders going the wrong way on their way to the hut, even though that bit of loop road is seldom used and even though there is plenty of room to accommodate both cars and bikes. Most of the Munda Bidddi riders just ignore the small bypass and carry on for the 200 metres in the wrong direction up the one-way road before veering off on the single track to the hut. I pushed my bike up the hill, dove off the side and thoroughly enjoyed the crazy downhill switchbacks back to the start... It's a funny little quirk of a deviation, especially considering that on any given holiday there are dozens of kids out there buzzing around having fun and completely oblivious of any and every road rule.
My hearing is shot and without hearing aids I can't hear any of the sounds at the upper range (yes... it is part of the penance I am paying for those years spent logging!!). Those little hearing aids are very expensive and I don't want to ride with them in my ear, for fear of flicking one off while riding, never to be found again. So I usually engage them once I get to the hut and have settled in for the afternoon. This hut is in a great location nestled in the trees at the edge of a steep little gully that has a running stream at the bottom. I had the entire place to myself that morning, but knew there would probably be others arriving later in the afternoon so I was going to make the most of it while I could. It was soo quiet and soo serenely peaceful. I thought "damn, it couldn't get any better than this." Then I popped in my hearing aids. The place came alive with bird song and most wonderfully, tree frogs. I love frogs and frog song and especially tree frogs! You couldn't see them, but it sounded like many thousands of happy little chirping tree frogs were up there in the canopy singing just for me.
I was completely surrounded by thousands of tree frogs.
And although I did have to share the hut with a couple of riders later in the afternoon, those frogs were singing that morning just for me. And they kept up their joyous song throughout the night and until I rode off the next morning. I'd like to think they are still out there right now, singing joyously.
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