Blogs from Walpole, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 4

What better way to spend a sunny New Years Day here in Walpole than chilling out at the beach. Along the Denmark coastline there is a forest that literally meets the sea in spectacular fashion with karri growing right to the waters edge of some inlets. The park is a mix of forest, sheer headlands, sheltered bays and unusual flora. William Bay is located between Denmark and Walpole off the South Coast Highway. Like many areas on the South Coast there is no coastal plain, in its place are high coastal sand dunes, some of which are colonised by dense scrub and trees and the spectacular, tall hills of granite rocks which have a stonehenge-like appearance. The William Bay National Park is a popular destination for those in the area. While it is a relatively small ... read more

We drove down from Yalingup to Narnalop via a couple of vineyards (great lunch at the Xanadu winery) and the Lake Cave - a big hole in the ground that we took a tour around. Pretty impressive stalactites and straws and curtains and hanging tables - obviously all the photos we took make it look like we were in a dark hole in the ground. A couple of hours drive later and we were driving through the hamlet of Narnalop trying to remember what our accomadation was called. Finally decided to look it up in our notes, found the details, turned round and went back to it. A two room luxury cabin a little too close to the others, but all fine that aside. Today (Monday 11th Dec) we went to the beach at Greens Pool, ... read more

Escaping from Pemberton as quickly as I could, I made my way to the Gloucester Tree, another famous fire tree that's climbable by the public, and another famous fire tree that was to remain unclimbed by me. There was a short walking trail through the woods nearby, at the beginning of which were umpteen brightly coloured parakeets (?) pecking around on the forest floor, chuntering to themselves like guinea-pigs and behaving to all intents and purposes as if I wasn't there. The size of the karri trees is impressive, and you find yourself walking around with your head back, like on a first visit to downtown Manhattan. Karri is apparently a popular wood in the building industry because of its length and lack of knots. I'd picked up a leaflet describing the Karri Explorer scenic drive, ... read more

After leaving Albany this morning in Sheila (our new car) we travelled 200km west to Walpole where we were able to reach the Tree Top Walk, the Valley of the Giants and the Ancient empire, all set in stunning national park. The tree top walk is a suspended 300 metre walkway which rises from the entrance to a height of 40 metres so that you are able to get high and walk through the canopy of trees such as the karri and jarrah, pretty spectacular stuff, although quite nerve racking as the metal walk way tended to sway quite a bit when people walked around on it, not good if you have a fear of heights. The ancient empire was cool too with a ground level walk around the forest floor highlighing local species of tree ... read more

On the way from Margaret River to Albany, we stopped off near a place called Walpole where there is a superb forest full of amazing Tingle Tingle trees. These trees are MASSIVE, growing up to 60m in height, and 20m round the base. There’s a tree top walk that you can do there called ‘The Valley of the Giants’ which consists of a woodland walk (Ancient Empire Walk at ground level) and a suspended metal walkway taking you to 40 metres above the ground where you can admire the outstanding beauty of these wonderful trees from an excellent & unusual viewpoint. It was a lovely day - slightly cool, but with lots of sunlight filtering through the leaves and branches. There weren’t too many other peeps there at the same time as us, which was great ... read more