Up, packed and out, leaving Margaret River and heading east. Our first stop was Kondil Wildflower Park. We knew we had a day of driving ahead and knew the circuit walk was just a bit long, so decided to walk in for about 1/2 an hour, then return. As it turned out this gave us a window to fine a bunch of new wildflowers not yet encountered and some favs, including Cowslip and Greenhood orchids, probably the best specimens encountered so far.
We then headed to Nannup on what was becoming a warm sunny day (such a nice change from the cold winds of the west coast). We stopped for a bathroom break then headed to a cafe, Jo had an iced coffee and I had a really good cup of tea, nice to see some places can do it. We were a bit parched having made the mistake of not bringing enough water with us – lesson learned.
We headed to Bridgetown Jarrah Park, and began the process of learning the differences between the “big 3” tree types of the area – Jarrah, Marri and Karri. They grow them BIG, straight and tall down this way and we were keen to see good examples of each. We took the Shield Tree trail, spotting Marri and Jarrah quite expertly, – the shield tree was a scarred Marri tree where a past indigenous person removed a shield-sized chunk from the trunk – all very interesting.
We then headed to The Four Aces, an odd occurrence of 4 huge Karri trees, all the same age, all growing in a row. It is conjectured they all sprung up in the ashes of an older Karri tree after a bushfire, being enriched by the ashy soil. The mighty Karri trees are just so elegant, Eucalyptus diversicolour- the stems are grey with patches of other colours, the foliage is also multicoloured. They grow straight and so tall, very distinctive.
We drove to One Tree Bridge … well, rather the remains of it, an ingenious solution to the “we need a bridge here” problem where a farmer felled a huge Marri tree across the river and then built a vehicular platform on the trunk. There have been 3 generations of bridges since and the original one tree bridge is still recognisable, although dragged to a reserve beside the new bridge.
We then headed on towards “King Jarrah” near Manjimup, a monster super old Jarrah tree that has seen some shit, with a bunch of new crowns, some gnarly looking burls and the scars on it’s main trunk would tell a tale or two I think. These big trees are 500+ years old, but a lot of the forest was stripped of valuable timbers in the 1920s, so most of the big trees we are seeing are just over 100 due to regrowth after logging. Thankfully large swathes of land are now set aside as state forests and reserves – the area would have been quite a sight back when it was pristine.
We then headed to Manjimup to do some provisioning before heading to our new digs for the next 2 nights outside of Pemberton. We rehydrated and settled in after a long but fabulous day that would turn out to be our introduction to WA’s big trees. The weather was really mild, nice to be comfortable without the need for heating in our comfy mud brick cottage.
Up bright and rested, we headed into state forests to follow the Karri Forest Explorer route – a loop that took us through some towering Karri stands, along roads in various states from full highway through to narrow but fairly well graded dirt tracks. Our first stop was a giant Karri tree called “The Gloucester Tree”. Once used as a fire lookout point when it was the tallest tree around, the forest around it has subsequently grown up and it is now a challenge for tourists to climb the steel bar ladder to the viewing platform 37m up in the canopy. I am pleased to say I made it up and back, being surprised my legs did not complain too much (foreshadowing) – the view from the top is now obscured by surrounding canopy, but nonetheless spectacular.
We did a short loop walk after I had descended, to regain my land legs, then set off again exploring the road loop. We stopped at Big Brook Dam, Pemberton’s main water supply, walked to a grove of Cedars at Warren River, walked to the Cascades and did the loop to view the waterfall. We then had a picnic lunch in the shade of the surrounding Marri forest. The quality of facilities continues to impress us, and the road circuit certainly took us through some lush and diverse habitats.
We finished the day with a visit to another giant Karri called “The Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree”, another lookout post but only accessible to the 20m platform, it is being restored and will eventually go much higher. Foolishly I decided to climb it also, more because it was there. The spiked ladder was more distantly spaced making the climb down particularly more awkward. It was our last stop before home base, a terrific day out among the big trees.
After a good night’s sleep, we were up and ready to explore some more. First up we headed south towards the coast, keen to see the Southern (Antarctic) Ocean. We drove to Tookalup and took in some of the lookouts there. The coastline seems to consist of sheltered beach coves flanked by towering ragged cliffs. Rocks and reefs extend into the ocean, presumably making navigation treacherous.
The big empty roads in this region make for interesting driving, with soaring trees, low scrub and everything in between – still all distinctly Australian. I say big and empty because, outside of the major cities we have experienced almost no traffic. We cannot work out if it is because it is the off season, not yet school holidays or what is up, but cruising while having the road largely to ourselves has been a nice thing. We have generally been very impressed with the National Parks and public facilities in WA, the lookouts and walking paths in this area were particularly well kept. We did a number of short walks out to viewing platforms perched on cliff edges, through thick diverse hedges they must clip to keep tidy. The vegetation is windswept and wind-pruned, but lush and covered in flowers this time of year.
We then headed towards Point D’Entrecasteaux (I think that is French for castle entrance, which makes sense because the cliffs from the ocean would look like crenellations of a castle fortification. On the way we chanced upon a mother and joey brown kangaroo feeding in the side of the road. They were almost woolly, the youngster curious and unafraid – so cute.
The Pupalong walking loop around the point led off to a number of viewing platforms, one facing out to sea we spotted what we think was a Southern Right Whale, basking in the water offshore. We figured it was not a humpback because it had no white patches, and did not flap its tail fluke or front flippers like all the other humpbacks we have seen.
Such a beautiful sunny warm day, we were in as few layers as possible, quite a change from lots of this trip. We headed inland to Northcliffe for morning tea – anywhere that serves loose leaf tea in a pot wins my vote.
We had a fabulous morning tea then headed over to the Visitors Centre and bought entry to “Understory Art and Nature Trail”
We wandered the 1.5km meandering path though bushland, noticing artworks-some permanent, some designed to be ephemeral.
This is well worth the visit, such a wonderful collection of artworks, all styles.
Suitably topped up with Kulture, we headed back to 10boop (the automatic winging Kia) and drove via some beautiful tree-lined roads to Walpole, our next home base. We unpacked, made a cup of tea and then walked down to find the jetty our booked eco cruise was going to leave from tomorrow (foreshadowing), then returned to walk the Main Street of Walpole (which did not take very long). Overnight a huge cold front moved over us, with wind gusts 70+kph and torrential driving rain. The eco tour company contacted us to say they had to cancel because of even stronger winds expected- full refund, no space to rebook later, all good. We rescheduled and had a comfy day in as a rest day a day early, with the promise of better weather the day after. My legs thank the weather for the chance to recover from the laddered tree climbs.
Our rest day also gave us a chance to catch up on washing, have a movie date in (thanks to “Chantal”s HBO login still being active) and generally lounge about to allow us to recharge. The weather outside was wild and windy with torrential rain well into late afternoon. We did venture out for dinner, found the cafe we planned to go to closed unexpectedly, so headed to the local pub for food that was fuel, nothing to write about. 6 weeks on the go takes it out of us, having longer stay home bases helps, but we are realising we are not as young as we used to be, and the slower pace suits us better.
Day 3 in Walpole saw us sleep in, waking to calm cooler weather with patches of blue punctuating the overcast skies. We had a leisurely cooked brunch and then head out with cheese and crackers for a continental lunch towards Walpole-Nornalup National Park. This side roads and forest trails were littered with debris, the storms yesterday must have torn through the forests, we had to dodge large bits of fallen logs and sticks and navigate some seriously potholed roads.
First we headed to one of the few stands of Tingle Trees anywhere in the world. These giant twisted eucalypts are remnants of an ancient rainforest, with a couple of the giant ones growing here thought to be so old they predate colonisation and much of western civilisation. I find that sort of age incomprehensible.
We wandered among the ancient trees, walked through a couple of them – amazingly the biggest ones have burnt out centres but are growing happily as thin shields of buttress trunks. Their greatest threat is people walking around them, damaging their shallow root system.
We then headed to Circular Pool, and walked out onto the rocks and sat to eat our cheese and crackers among the boiling rapids of the Frankland River. Interestingly this river has coffee coloured water from the tannins of the rotting vegetation that surrounds it, and the rapids whip this brown water into mounds of white froth. Circular Pool is so named because the currents cause the froth to circulate in curiously round ways.
From here, we carefully motored the Coalmine Beach and Knoll Drive scenic loop. We walked down to Coalmine beach, a thin sandy strip beside what looks like a brown lake, but is an inlet that is part of the Frankland River. Locals and holiday makers alike use it for fishing and various water sports, and I am sure it is popular in the warmer months. It was bleak, blowy and cold when we visited it.
The drive oversaw a bit of the area the eco cruise would have taken us yesterday, so it was good to see some of that landscape, the deep forested areas and brown water were striking indeed.
Next morning we left Walpole, pointing 13boop (we found another annoying auto steering setting we could turn off on the winging hire car because it was dangerously oversteering) towards our last “big tree” experience in Valley of the Giants. Just outside of Walpole is a Tingle Tree sanctuary containing some particularly enormous specimens. To better appreciate (and protect) them, they have created a treetop elevated walkway that gently takes you from ground level right to the top of the canopy 40m in the air. The flexible structure is kept in place by tensioned columns and sprung cables – this means it moves a bit when you do, but is nothing short of an engineering miracle.
You get a true sense of the size and majesty of these Tingle trees when you see them from their canopy down, and an appreciation for how few are left. Back at ground level, there is a circuit path that weaves through some ancient partially burned out specimens happily growing new crowns on seemingly dead Timbers. Many trees you can walk through, massive precious things. They require a meter of rain annually at least to survive, meaning climate change is likely to be their final frontier. All along the circuit there were little hollow logs with doors on them, inside sculptures of local wildlife. Enchanting.
It has felt like an enormous privilege to have been able to spend time in the forests, among the tall trees of WA. We have grown an appreciation for the Marri, Karri, Jarrah and Tingle trees, and have seen tall trees here like nowhere else on the planet.
Next stop – Albany, before we wend our way back to Perth and home.