From Small Vines to Big Trees

---

Bye bye Margaret River and hello Pemberton, home of the karri tree. This hardwood tree dominates the area and is the sole reason for the survival of this quaint town, oh and perhaps a tourist or two. Things to do in Pemberton; take a ride on a tram down to the Warren River (and hope you get a better day for it than we did) and drive the unmade roads through the forest (we enjoyed this, the roads were in good condition despite the recent rain and were also one way only, the complete lack of other traffic made it a breeze).

From the tall karri tree we drove to Walpole, the home of the even bigger tingle tree towering over 70m into the sky. Now we must warn you, if you want to do the touristy thing here, bring a head for heights. Let us explain. Many years ago several of the tallest tingle trees were used as fire lookouts, and where better to look out? Yep, THE TOP! So giant nails (the only way to describe them) were hammered into the trunk and a small observation deck built at the top. Every day somebody would climb to the top looking out for fires. You to today can climb to the top of three of these trees for a great view of the tops of other trees. no thank you,10m up was enough for us!!!! So where to next? Well, the Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk. This is an elevated walkway that climbs to 40m above ground, is 400m long and when the wind howls it sways like mad, “a breeze”!!! (No Howls) Very impressive, and a snip at $10 per head. Take a look at the photos of the base of the Tingle tree, this is not a one off, most end up this way.
We should also mention that Walpole is a great little place to stop and it is where we met a friendly little roo, plus again did several forest drives, one that led to a great little ‘Art Walk’ (see pic) then onto Mt Frankland, a bloody hard slog to the top.

We left Margaret River just 5 days ago and have already started with the DTs so we are pushing eastward at a steady pace, leaving nothing to chance for our xmas in the Barossa Valley, the van park is already booked, along with a car service at Albany which just happens to be our next stop.

Besides a car service we seemed to keep ourselves amused whilst here. An audio tour of the “Brig Amity”, the ship that bought the first settlers to the area, was great. A day out in the Torndirrup National Park where we spotted lots of leather jackets (fish), pity they were all dead and in a fisherman’s bucket, luckily the pod of dolphins were alive and kicking, and we think helping themselves to a leather jacket or two. The Gap and Natural Bridge were also on our list to see, along with a group of noisy Japanese tourists.

Our last day was spent visiting the local lookout, a military museum (great, you can play with some of the big guns), the Sandalwood factory, and to round the day off, a winery!!

Hey sorry this is getting a tad too long and maybe boring by now, so we will sign off and come back soon with the crossing of the Nullarbor.

---