The Road Trip begins

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Day 228 (09.11.07)

Packing early we had breakfast before putting our bags in the car and settling our bills. Then we were off - the start of our Anglo German road trip!

Heading south we stopped off at the Hamlyn beach. Sabine had three things she wanted to do - 1. find the perfect beach, 2. find the perfect red wine and 3. see some snakes - sounded good to us.

The beach was great and after taking a walk along the white sands and climbing some of the rock formations along the coast we went back to the car to carry on our trip.

From here we made the short trip to the most South Western point in Australia where the Indian Ocean and Southern (Pacific) Ocean meet. Here we took a walk through to the lighthouse at the end of the peninsular and - following the necessary photo with the sign printing to the two oceans - we went right down to the water's edge, truly at the furthest point possible!

Back in the car we popped around the corner where there stands the old water wheel which used to pump fresh spring water out to the lighthouse - after years of spring water falling onto the wheel it has now deposited minerals so that not only has the wheel clogged and stopped but it is covered and half buried in rock.

Having finished with the peninsula we were back in the car and destined for the Karri Forrest on the way to Pemberton where we were to stay for the night. Before we got there we took a detour to Nannup for lunch. It was a really nice little town, not much to see there but we found a great picnic site and tucked into some butties.

Finding our way towards Pemberton, we used a map we had picked up showing a series of scenic drives and walks in the area to find our way to the Beedelup falls. Once again ditching the car for a walk we did the short loop around to see the waterfalls and decided that we would continue on the 45 min walk to the 'walk through tree'. Not quite sure what we would find we arrived at a huge tree with (as the name suggests) a hole going through the trunk big enough to walk through.

By the time we got back to the car it was abut 4 o'clock - so we drove to one of the regions scenic driving routes. These were really fun 'unsealed' roads (gravel and dirt roads). Mark and Conrad however found the view even better by sitting out of the window as we pottered through the woods. Check out the pic!

After a couple of scenic spot stops along the drive we once again reached the tarmac-ed road and drove to the Dave Evans Bicentennial tree. This is a 75m tall Karri tree which has had pegs placed into it to allow you to climb to the top where there are a series of viewing platforms where you can see the forest form above. After climbing a little way Chrissie and Sabina decided not to go to the top, however Mark and Conrad couldn't pass up such an opportunity! It was an amazing view and the fellas took in the view before making the climb back to terra firma.

We had a final stop at the cascades - a rapid style waterfall - and a small walk to finish off our tour of the forest.

With the day getting on we then made our way to Pemberton and a youth hostel that would be home for the night. Cobbling together a fairly uninteresting meal we had dinner, with Conrad and Sabine kindly supplying some wine.

We finished the evening with a bit more of the leftover Goon and a film sat under our duvets in our small lounge.

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Photos

Cape Leeuwin
where the seas meet.

The view from the top
Amazing!