My first multi-day hike pt.1

What good are wings without the courage to fly?

Atticus

I've had this dream for years. Probably almost around a decade. To pack my backpack, start walking, camp, walk again and wander through nature's incredible landscape. Ideally with a dog at my side.
The first inspiration for this that I can remember, were Dian Fossey hiking through the mountains every day to spend time with her gorilla groups and then later on the book 'Tracks' by Robyn Davidson, who walked across Australia with a group of camels and her dog.

In Europe it's quite easy to find trails for multi-day hikes, the Camino for example. But mostly for time and money reasons I never walked any of it.
Then when I came to Australia and ended up with my dog Sousa (who is a high energy and driven mix of a Kelpie and Border Collie, both working breeds) I saw my dream come into reach once more.
Only to discover that most trails around where I live are in national parks, where dogs are not allowed.
Then a few months back a good friend of mine and an enthusiastic hiker (he's walked over 15.000kms in Europe in the past years!!) told me about this trail which ticked all the boxes: dogs allowed and well developed with a town and camping possibility after every 20ish kilometers.

But I still didn't take action right away. I guess I was scared and overwhelmed by the logistics. Until another friend got me excited for a research volunteer program that would have lasted 2 weeks. Unfortunately the spots for this opportunity had filled by the time I applied but since my mind was already excited about going away and camping, I decided to simply, finally walk this trail. I had a deadline and that is what finally got me into action mode.

I considered school holiday times, when my next period would be due and then requested a 2 week leave from work in about a month's time, started looking up where exactly this trail actually was and where to start. Was there really water in every town? A camp site too, ideally free?

I soon came across the first pebbles on my way, realising that apparently there wasn't camping everywhere. At least not according to this map I had. Then some of the caravan parks were booked out.
So I started googling each town that I'd come through. What distance would be appropriate for us to walk.
I had dreamed of walking the whole trail, about 160km from top to bottom. My perfectionist brain looooved that idea. But the top section just seemed a lot easier in terms of organising compared to the second half.

I'm writing this now 6 days before departure. I have decided to only do about one third of the trail and walk back the same way I came (rather than having a shuttle service to/from my car). It feels less great than what I had originally planned but since I've never done anything like this before, it is going to be a great experience anyway and will hopefully set us up for many more adventures to come!

So far our plan will be:
- leave home on Monday 27th. The drive to the start of the trail is several hours away.
- My first camping spot on that Monday is already booked, the lady was exceptionally helpful and even assured me I could leave my car in their car park until my return! How awesome!
- We will then start walking our first 19 km on Tuesday.
- Wednesday is going to be a longer hike with about 22 km, although there is the possibility to camp in between. I'll see how we feel.
- Thursday is a 20 km hike, ending in a very small town which sounds like lots of lovely conversations with locals!
I can then either turn around and have an extra day that I could spend on the ocean on the way home (right now this idea sounds very enticing...) or I walk another 14km on Friday which would end in a town that apparently has a coin washing machine.
So I will either turn around on Friday or Saturday, which means starting to drive home on the 4th or 5th of April. We will see.

As for our luggage, both Sousa and I will carry a backpack. With mine I'm aiming for about 10-15kg (including 4l of water every day) and Sousa's will be between 2-4kg.
So far I've got almost all our gear, except my dehydrated food which I'll be preparing two days before departure.
I'm thinking of making an extra post either here or on Instagram about what exactly will be in our backpacks :)

I feel like my brain hasn't quite realised that we're actually doing this. But I'm also trying not to overthink everything.

'She'll be right', as they say.