The Bibbulmun Track :: How Difficult?

During the planning stage for our Bibbulmun Track walk I created our itinerary by assessing the track distance, elevation profile and the Guidebook's notes and calculating estimated walk times for each section.

After the walk we recorded our personal assessment of the section's difficulty, which was very much a subjective analysis of the day's walk as it was based on how we felt, which was affected by all sorts of odd things:

wet weather / wet clothes
illness
bad moods
thirst / hunger

The actual day's total was calculated as the sum of the average of Sandi and my rating. The colouring is a basic conditional gradient based solely on this walk, so reddest red is the hardest day we had on the Bibbulmun and the greenest green is the easiest day we had on this walk, with the in betweens grading from green→yellow→orange→red.

Some interesting take-outs:

The similarity between the estimate's colour and the actual's colour: this implies that our subjective assessment of the day's difficulty is directly related to the kilometres (of the section) and hours (walking time is affected by track difficulty / terrain).
The first five days we rated the actual difficulty harder than the estimates: this implies the initial days gaining our track fitness (despite all our training)
It's interesting to see the various bad days that Sandi and I had (different days thank goodness), which seem unrelated to the actual track.
Long lengths of days had a greater impact than the estimate's simple calculation allowed for.
The last 3 weeks we rated the actual difficulty invariably easier than the estimates.

	Day 1: Kalamunda Trackhead → Hewett's Hill
	Day 2: Hewett's Hill → Helena
	Day 3: Helena → Beraking
	Day 4: Beraking → Brookton
	Day 5: Brookton → Canning
	Day 6: Canning → Monadnocks
	Day 7: Monadnocks → Mt Cooke
	Day 8: Mt Cooke → Gringer Creek
	Day 9: Gringer Creek → White Horse
	Day 10: White Horse → Mt Wells
	Day 11: Mt Wells → Chadoora
	Day 12: Chadoora → Dwellingup
	Day 13: Dwellingup → Swamp Oak
	Day 14: Swamp Oak → Murray
	Day 15: Murray → Dookanelly
	Day 16: Dookanelly → Possum Springs
	Day 17: Possum Springs → Yourdamung
	Day 18: Yourdamung → Harris Dam
	Day 19: Harris Dam → Collie
	Day 21: Collie → Yabberup
	Day 22: Yabberup → Noggerup
	Day 23: Noggerup → Grimwade
	Day 24: Grimwade → Balingup
	Day 25: Balingup → Blackwood
	Day 26: Blackwood → Gregory Brook
	Day 27: Gregory Brook → Donnelly River Village
	Day 28 Donnelly River Village → Tom Road
	Day 29 Tom Road → Boarding House
	Day 30 Boarding House → Beavis
	Day 31 Beavis → Beedelup
	Day 32 Beedelup → Pemberton
	Day 33 Pemberton → Warren
	Day 34 Warren → Schafer
	Day 35 Schafer → Northcliffe
	Day 36 Northcliffe → Gardner
	Day 37 Gardner → Maringup
	Day 38 Maringup → Dog Pool
	Day 39 Dog Pool → Mt Chance
	Day 40 Mt Chance → Woolbales
	Day 41 Woolbales → Long Point
	Day 42 Long Point → Rest Point
	Day 43 Rest Point → Coalmine Beach
	Day 44 Coalmine Beach → Frankland
	Day 45 Frankland → Giants
	Day 46 Giants → Rame Head
	Day 47 Rame Head → Peaceful Bay
	Day 48 Peaceful Bay → Boat Harbour
	Day 49 Boat Harbour → William Bay
	Day 50 William Bay → Denmark
	Day 51 Denmark → West Cape Howe
	Day 52 West Cape Howe → Torbay
	Day 53 Torbay → Hidden Valley
	Day 54 Hidden Valley → Albany Trackhead