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Published: March 30th 2006
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The Tingle Tree Canopy Walk
This catwalk through the trees is 40 meters high and 600 meters long. It's like walking on a swinging bridge through the treetops. Africa seems long ago, but the events that I am about to share seem even more ancient. In reality they aren't, but we have covered so much of Australia in the past 3 weeks that it all seems like it happened long ago.
Our return to Perth from South Africa started a whole new adventure which included new locations along the west coast of Australia. The road trip that we had planned was to last for 7 days and was completed in 4 due to the hoardes and hoardes of blowflies. These are flies that are uber-thirsty and don't take no for an answer. They invade all openings of your face and defy to be brushed aside. More on that later as the first part of our trip was sans flies.
First, we headed south of Perth, to the town of Albany, to see the giant Tingle Trees. This is the only area in the world where these giant trees grow. They are similar to the standard Australian gum tree, only much bigger. In the park, there is a 600 meter catwalk that wanders through the top of the trees. At its highest point it is 40 meters high.
Walkin
These Tingle Trees only grown in the southwest corner of Australia. In fact, this is the only Tingle Tree forest in the world. It sways back and forth in the wind and is a wild walk through the canopy of the trees.
Back on the road we headed north to The Pinnacles National Park near the town of Cervantes. This park of big and little pointy rocks is a geological formation leftover from an ancient sea. The rocks are various shades of red sandstone and are good photo subjects at sunrise and sunset. The park is near the coast and has some magnificent sand dunes along with all the thousands of towering rocks.
While waiting for the prime Pinnacle photo time, we enjoyed the beach near our lodge in Cervantes. There was a beautiful beach within walking distance and the town had some of their famous giant crayfish for our lunch. Our evening drive through the Pinnacles was most excellent and included a visit from a family of emus.
The next morning we were up bright and early for our last leg of the drive. At this point in our trip, it was getting considerably hotter and the flies were just becoming a small nuisance. Little did we know what was ahead! Monkey Mia and the Shark Bay area was
Giant Tingle Tree
The trunk and the massive size of the Tingle Trees reminded us of the giant Redwoods. The leaves are totally different but they are very similar in size. a destination that both of us had been looking forward to for many years. As the drive continued north, into the desert environement, it became hotter and hotter. At every break along the way we noticed that the flies were becoming more and more of a problem. Still, the scenery was beautiful and we were getting closer and closer to famous Shark Bay.
Our plan was to arrive at Monkey Mia in time for the 8:00 a.m. dolphin feeding. This is the time of day when the greatest number of dolphins arrive to be handfed by the visitors. The moment that we stepped out of the car we were covered with flies. They try to crawl in your nose, ears, eyes, and mouth. It is totally gross, disgusting, and annoying. They fly quite slow and are very insistent on invading your "inner" space. They also cover any part of your body where they can drink your sweat!! Many people that we saw there were wearing the official Aussie bush hat. This consists of a large brimmed hat that has a veil of fine netting around the brim that falls down to your chest. This is the only way to
tolerate their invasion.
Hat or no hat, we were there to see the dolphins! So with arms waving in the air and screaming cries of disgust, we headed to the beach. It was an exercise in tolerance and acceptance to say the least.
After years of being fed at this cove, the dolphin females will come right up to the shore line and allow people to hand feed them. The rangers at the park have established a variety of rules regarding the way that this will be done. They also limit the amount of food to about 20 fish so the dolphins are still hungry and will continue to fish for themselves. We were not allowed to touch them or to feed the babies. The males are not usually there since they tend to be more solitary and do not show up too often. It was cool to see them so close and to have the opportunity to interact with them. Still, the flies were driving us CRAZY!!!
We had planned to stay in the Shark Bay area for a couple of days and enjoy the beautiful beaches. However, the flies and the extreme heat drove us
out. That night we drove all the way back to Perth and enjoyed the fly-free city. I think that we had more of a fly encounter than a dolphin encounter and it wasn't pretty!!
Before I close I want to tell you about the Australian tourist campaign that has been the main headliner in the news the past few weeks. The tourist department produced a slick TV ad with a beautiful beach scene and a lovely lady walking the beach. She turns around and says, "I'm here! Where the bloody hell are you?" Well, the Brits were very upset with the word "bloody" in the ad and were refusing to run it on British television unless they removed the offending word. The Aussies were not about to make another "special" ad for England. After much negotiation the ad was approved by the British as it was originally produced. Then the Canadians refused to run it because of the word "hell". So it was back to the negotiating table and it was finally accepted with its original wording. Meanwhile, the Aussies were loving all the free publicity that the ad was receiving. Also, it has become the current catch phrase
and is heard in other advertisements, on the streets, and even John Howard and Tony Blair used the phrase when they were addressing the Australian Congress the other day. It's become very funny and entertaining to watch.
Our time in Broome was very short and I will tell you more about that in the next blog. Long story short, it was "bloody hot and bloody humid" and we couldn't take it anymore. We flew back to the east coast and returned to Noosa. We had such a good time here in Jan. that we decided to return and enjoy it some more before heading to Sydney. The next blog will bring you up to date and I will try to get that out before we fly back to the States on Apr. 15.
G'Day for now, RPM
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Jody
non-member comment
Bloody Bad
Too bloody bad the stinkin flies chased you out of Shark Bay..what a gorgeous place! As always your photos amaze me, loved the one in the Pinnacles with the 2 shadows saying gday! LOL And it appears that new zoom lens is wayyy cool~ Cant wait to see the final installment and to see YOU! Hugs to both,Jody