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Now we are going to look at trees, yes they are the giants in this edition of our tour of Western Australia. What can I say about trees you might ask, well not very much! Only that these particular Tingle trees grow in the Tingle Forest and when I went up on the tree walk my legs were tingling, along with a few other parts, when I was 40 metres up in the air! The really really big Tingle is 33 metres around the girth, but the centre is burnt out which Greg thought was a bit of a fruit tingle. But, as you can see it is a very very big Tingle. I am standing beside this particular one. Kauri, Jarrah and Tingles all grow together in this forest and it's pretty amazing that they are all growing here in this one area.
We walked around the Tingle Forest with our guide and eight other people from different parts of the world. She was very good, made several references to our Tasmanian trees, and made the tour very interesting. Showed us a tree called a soap bush, which the aborigines used, you rub the leaves together and it makes
a soapy lather. It was a wonderful tour and a wonderful forest, so I have put up the photos of the trees, imagine that they are all around you in all directions.
I can show you these trees as they are there in the Valley of the Giants, but how can I rattle on an on about trees all blog? Instead I will talk about the showers in some of the caravan parks we have been in!
The roadhouse on the Nullabor was great, hot water, never felt better, the trip over there made me realise just how precious water is. Washing each morning in a half filled two litre ice cream container, Greg kindly offers me the face washer first! That's what love is!
The shower at Le Grande National Park was a solar one, Greg went down and had his in the middle of the day, and had a lukewarm one, so I thought maybe I’ll go and try them out. Well it was pretty chilly, but all of a sudden the hot water kicked in, and I went, wow, better wash my hair while the goings good! It was beautiful.
Other showers you
have a job to get your elbows up with the towel to dry yourself it’s so narrow, and others there is just a trickle of water no matter how hard the taps are turned on. Some are scrubbed diligently with bleach, others are questionable to their cleaning, but believe me it’s wonderful to have a shower after spending all day on the road.
I was a bit worried about the old lady in the van next door to us in Albany though, she had her pink rubber gloves on and was washing down the floor in the ladies when I got in there one night. Next day she was tackling the basins, which were already nice and sparkly!
Now what about the women, that you meet in the laundry, a good place to meet people on your travels. I came across two at Kalgoorlie, if they weren’t trying to outdo each other. One had gone to London recently, and stayed in a one thousand dollars a night hotel for a week! The other was going on a tour of France, and taking a villa over there. It went on and on, what they hadn’t done, and where they
were still going to go. What was a bit weird though was the bloke who just stood there looking at the machines with a bag in his hand, no washing machine going, or dryer! Still don't know what he was doing there.
Well the very last one we went to you wouldn't want to shower in there even if you hadn't washed for a week. This was at a roadhouse. It rained all night while we were camped there behind the place, red clay mud, puddles of water, and trucks! You have never seen so many trucks carrying so much mining gear, and big big gear too. It’s unreal, and they go on and on all through the night. Never stopping.That shower was a nono.
The prize goes though, to the German lady, married to a Jewish man, she was in the shower one evening when she saw under the door of her cubicle, two feet clad in large working man boots! She called out and asked who was there. No answer. She quickly got dressed thinking, what am I going to do? There’s a man outside waiting to grab me! She opened up the door a crack
to find an old old lady, her hair was plaited in coils around her ears, and she just stood there and looked at her. Of course the German lady, realised that the old lady was lost and had dementia. Before she could go and find someone, another lady came in, a mirror image to the first one, they were twins! Took her sister by the hand and led her out.
Our fossickers are heading out of Kalgoorlie tomorrow, their car is fixed, they know all the bus drivers by their first names, and have seen everything in the town there is to see. So it will be for them, "On the road again"!
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