Saturday, 4 September
A heavy shower just before sunrise made sure that our awning was wet before we rolled it up this morning! Fortunately, the rain cleared quickly, which made packing up much more pleasurable.
Today we turned east and headed for Denmark, near Albany. After leaving the Margaret River region behind, we were quickly into plantation and bush country. With no blackberries and little bracken fern, the bush looked rather spectacular this morning, with tall trees and an understory of yellow wattles, purple tree hoveas and grass trees. As we neared Pemberton, we bush became karri forest, with the large karri trees growing right beside the bitumen in places. One wouldn’t really want to run into one of these trees – they wouldn’t budge an inch! It was in this area that the forecast isolated showers became more than isolated! The road all the way to Walpole was quite narrow, very windy and hilly – even rather bumpy in places.
We stopped at the information centre in Walpole for directions to the Valley of the Giants and the tree walk. It was strongly recommended that we take the scenic drive just east of the town – great views of the inlet!!! We duly took said road (one lane) and I’m sure the inlet would have been very scenic if we could have seen it through the trees. It was so cold and damp, even the road had moss growing down the middle of it.
We arrived at the Valley of the Giants (e. jacksonii) and ran into a couple we have been meeting on a regular occurrence since Geraldton, so we enjoyed the walk together. Similar to the Geeveston Airwalk in Tasmania, the pathway is elevated among the tree tops, giving a great view of these 60 metre tall trees. Unfortunately, the pathway did sway quite considerably with a very uncomfortable motion similar to a rough sea. We were all rather glad to get back on solid ground again for a walk through the ancient forest. This attraction was well worth the detour from the highway.
We arrived at Denmark shortly before 3.30 pm – a very long day on the road for us, having left at 8.00 am – after travelling about 375 kms. It wasn’t one of the most pleasant drives, motion wise. We are staying at the Ocean Beach Caravan Park, which is very new and VERY nice. We have a large grass site with concrete slab and the only downside is the HUGE amount of animal scats on the grass and pad. We may have to undertake a spot of spotlighting tonight! Afternoon tea very quickly turned into a free for all, with five magpies arriving and demanding their share.
A heavy shower just before sunrise made sure that our awning was wet before we rolled it up this morning! Fortunately, the rain cleared quickly, which made packing up much more pleasurable.
Today we turned east and headed for Denmark, near Albany. After leaving the Margaret River region behind, we were quickly into plantation and bush country. With no blackberries and little bracken fern, the bush looked rather spectacular this morning, with tall trees and an understory of yellow wattles, purple tree hoveas and grass trees. As we neared Pemberton, we bush became karri forest, with the large karri trees growing right beside the bitumen in places. One wouldn’t really want to run into one of these trees – they wouldn’t budge an inch! It was in this area that the forecast isolated showers became more than isolated! The road all the way to Walpole was quite narrow, very windy and hilly – even rather bumpy in places.
We stopped at the information centre in Walpole for directions to the Valley of the Giants and the tree walk. It was strongly recommended that we take the scenic drive just east of the town – great views of the inlet!!! We duly took said road (one lane) and I’m sure the inlet would have been very scenic if we could have seen it through the trees. It was so cold and damp, even the road had moss growing down the middle of it.
We arrived at the Valley of the Giants (e. jacksonii) and ran into a couple we have been meeting on a regular occurrence since Geraldton, so we enjoyed the walk together. Similar to the Geeveston Airwalk in Tasmania, the pathway is elevated among the tree tops, giving a great view of these 60 metre tall trees. Unfortunately, the pathway did sway quite considerably with a very uncomfortable motion similar to a rough sea. We were all rather glad to get back on solid ground again for a walk through the ancient forest. This attraction was well worth the detour from the highway.
We arrived at Denmark shortly before 3.30 pm – a very long day on the road for us, having left at 8.00 am – after travelling about 375 kms. It wasn’t one of the most pleasant drives, motion wise. We are staying at the Ocean Beach Caravan Park, which is very new and VERY nice. We have a large grass site with concrete slab and the only downside is the HUGE amount of animal scats on the grass and pad. We may have to undertake a spot of spotlighting tonight! Afternoon tea very quickly turned into a free for all, with five magpies arriving and demanding their share.
1 comment:
Is les having a chat to the maggies about attacking bike riders?
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