2026.04 - Nyut's Wilderness - Walpole
Xander & Leanne return to a favourite playground after 10 years!
The Nyuts Wilderness is a spectacular pocket of granite coastline and old-growth forest within the broader Walpole Wilderness area, managed as walking-only wilderness for more than 50 years.
For both Leanne and me, the Nyuts Wilderness helped shape our love for adventurous places. We first came here as teenagers for holiday camps and kept returning throughout early adulthood.
Day 1 - Approach
Planning this trip involved balancing my long-term hiking injuries, the restrictions from my injured thumb (no mountain biking or kayaking!), and the challenge of returning to lighter hiking setups after years of more comfortable kayaking expeditions.
We chose a hiking trip to work around the thumb injury and adjusted pack weights to suit our abilities (Xander 16kg and Leanne 24kg). We also upgraded to new air mattresses and a more spacious hiking tent.
We set out in the early afternoon and crossed the Deep River Suspension Bridge.
Surrounded by old-growth marri and tingle forest, this landmark is part of both the Kapagup Nornalup Paddle Trail Network and the Bibbulmun Track. It has featured in many of our past adventures.
Continuing on, the Nyuts Track moves away from Mount Clare and the forest gives way to swampland which lights up with yellow kangaroo paws in summer.
The Nyuts Track splits from the Bibbulmun at a boot-cleaning station designed to help prevent the spread of phytophthora dieback into the wilderness area. Further south, Mount Hopkins comes into view.
Thompson’s Cove Campsite
Thompson’s Cove campsite has two parts; the shaded camping area, “Peppermints,” and the beach itself. Both are accessed via a spur trail to the clearing and there are no facilities other than stream water.
To manage my ongoing injuries and increase our comfort we set up camp at Thompson’s Cove for all four nights of our trip, and still had just enough time for a swim before dark.
We were impressed with our new tent, the Denali Guide II. This tent features a spacious, symmetrical design and weighs in at only 2.45kg. We found the design to be very functional; with room to sit up whichever way you set it up and loads of room for storage in the vestibules. It even comes in a dry bag!
Around camp Leanne maintained her tradition of quirky lounge-wear from years past:
Day 2 - Aldridge Cove
The Aldridge Cove lookout is the official end to the Nyut’s Track and only a kilometre from the turn-off to Thompson’s, which made it an ideal first day trip after hiking in with our heavy packs.
We gave ourselves a relaxed start to the day, beginning with hot drinks at camp, packing only our day-trip essentials before heading out.
We soon arrived at the lookout and took time to appreciate the view of the Cave across the water, but decided to leave this rugged feature out of the day’s journey.
From here we climbed over rocks and followed roo-trails down to the beach itself.
I climbed up the valley for a better view.
But not as far as years past:
We spent the rest of the day snorkelling and relaxing at the beach.
Then, back at camp the day ended with an innovative camp dessert from Leanne: apples stewed in herbal tea!
Day 3 - Lost Beach
The first real adventure of the trip, there is no formal trail to Lost Beach and getting there requires experience navigating through thick scrub, and dodging 100s of Golden Orb spiders.
We stopped for lunch at the top of ‘Paradise Hill’ a clearing with views to other major landmarks including Long Point and Chatham Island.
We were rewarded with panoramic ocean views and dazzling blue water below.
From here the route descends quickly with Lost Beach rapidly coming into view.
Lost Beach is a tiny sliver of sand on an otherwise very rugged section of coast and is not suitable for swimming.
But that didn’t stop us from wading in for a refresh!
Retracing our steps we were originally daunted by the steep climb, but were back on Paradise Hill in no time!
There we found this curious burrow, neither of us certain which animal the tracks belonged to.
Finally Mount Hopkins came back into view, guiding us back to camp.
Day 4 - Mount Hopkins
Rising to 205 metres above sea level with its distinctive rocky crown, Mount Hopkins is an ever present feature of the sandy Nyuts terrain.
We set out for Mount Hopkins directly from the campsite, following another familiar but overgrown off-track route.
We left our packs on the open slabs and boulder-climbed our way to the summit.
The summit provides panoramic views with Aldridge Cove and the Nyuts track visible to the west… and Bellanger Beach/Conspicuous Cliff to the east.
…and Bellanger Beach/Conspicuous Cliff to the east.
We completed our experience with a visit to some old growth tingle trees found on previous adventures.
Leanne kept up our tradition of posing as the tree we’re photographing.
We picked a better path on our way back to Thompson’s cove, making fast progress and only stopping to photograph some emerging wildflowers.
Arriving back at camp we had just enough sunshine left to really enjoy another snorkel at the best swimming spot of the trip, Thompson’s Cove itself.
Day 5 - Departure
On the final morning, with our food supplies largely gone, we used the extra space in our packs to carry out the rubbish we had gathered from the beaches throughout the trip.
With less to carry we made fast progress, returning to our car in less than two hours, and had our final swim at the deep river rope swing.
Ten years on, adventuring in the Nyuts Wilderness was as enjoyable as ever.
