Tuesday 31st May work gave me the day off. So I thought ‘I know, I’ll do a 42km hike’. It was a terrible idea. Terrible because of the aftermath. I like walking., but the day after, I couldn’t walk.
Anyway. I manage to moan at the beginning of ever blog post, which is weird, because I love these days out! So the Railway Heritage Trail, classed as a grade 1 trail – so easy enough for wheelchair users apparently, hopefully because of the difficulty rather than the distance. As is required the RHT is a loop of 42km, that follows the route of the old Eastern Railway. We decided to start and finish in Mundaring, but there really is no specific start or end. The trail goes through John Forest Park but we didn’t want to risk arriving to the car late and finding ourselves locked into the car park.
Got the fitbit to record the route, but there’s a bit missing. That’s the problem with GPS and walking through the Swan View Tunnel. Needless to say, we went clockwise, starting at 0615hrs! It was bloody cold!
We got breakfast over with nice and early, as we waited for the sun to rise. The first 22km were fairly straight forward to be honest! Then we entered the John Forest segment of the walk and walked into the Swan View Tunnel. There is a long way round…but that didn’t sound fun or dark.
We survived, but you definitely need a torch. Unsurprisingly it is pitch black in there. Coming out the other side a quick walk and we ended up at the John Forest car park where we enjoyed lunch! Half of the trail complete! There was an overly sociable (hungry) bird that was fascinated by my camera. So much so that it walked right up close, as I snapped away.
We walked out of the east exit of the park and honestly it became a little tiresome. I’m much more of a fan of the tight and windy trails. This part was wide and straight, almost like walking on a road. It got boring very quickly, and stayed like that for the next 10km.
Once we hit the southbound part of the trail it became much more interesting. Some narrow and steep bits…if it weren’t for my 6 rapidly developing blisters and my rapidly deteriorating calves I would have enjoyed it more.
Still. Totally Worth it.
(Would not do again)
