Go west.....

Albany colonial - Kim wanted to buy this place.."It needs love"

You leave Albany and the silicon beaches heading west into the timber country. Everything changes again. The open farming land gives way to forests and hills and in this part of the world  grows a version of eucalyptus trees call "tingle" trees. Huge. Apparently the aboriginal word 'tingle' means red wood. But these guys are the largest buttressing eucalyptus species, some measuring more then 24 metres in circumference at the base.

In Walpole - Nornalup National Park we did the tree tops walk up 60 metres into the canopy of the Tingle trees and the Karri Eucalypts which gives you a birds eye perspective on how huge these trees are.
The drive through this region really is amazing. And to think that much of it - especially the Karri forests are regrowth sections from around the 1930's. That makes the them fully grown at around 70+ years and 65 to 75 metres tall, but then every year after reaching their mature height they grow 3-4 cms in diameter. That makes some of these trees 400+ years old!!



Did Kim say she could imagine what the coast would be like if it were whipped up by some stormy weather? We went off the highway to Windy Harbour in the D'Entrecasteaux National Park. Something about the name of this place made me a little uneasy. May be it was the weather station above the office in the settlement with the mill that sounded like a helicopter that about to take off, or maybe it was the driving rain that squalled all around us all night that we packed up in the next morning. Not sure.
The coast has changed from the pure white sands and blue water to the open seas and rugged headlands. This would be our last day of driving west.

At Pemberton we went to the Gloucester tree, in the rain (oh, nice pies at the Pemberton Bakery by the way). This is a Karri Eucalypt tree that was used as fire look out and now is a somewhat dubious adventurous tourist attraction to remind us why as we have developed as human beings we have make some things better.


Sorry Will, that's as far as you go

Makes me look small - I like that

You can climb the 135 steel rungs that spiral around the Gloucester tree to the lookout station that has been built on the top - 65 metres up, just like they did in the old days to look for evidence of fire. Sophie and Will weren't allowed - it was wet, the rungs are about a foot apart and theres a bit of chicken wire on the outsides to stop you falling out. Sophie was dirty. Kim just said no. Lochie on the other hand was all good. Yep, come on dad lets go......... Crap. So, I followed him up. I had to make sure he didn't fall right?


Well, we made it to the most South West corner of Australia. No more driving West. Sophie in particular is very keen on us heading North now. I think she might be cold?

Cape Leeuwin light house is the tallest mainland light house in Australia. This day the wind was blowing around 28-30 knots which is apparently just a smidge above the average wind speed for this area. This was a relatively calm day. At the top of the lighthouse I could lean over into the wind without falling over. The walls at the base of the light house are a solid two meters thick sandstone. I guess that's partly why.

The light house has 172 steps to the top - on the same day as the Gloucester tree. My knees and my butt hurt for days. But who cares really. We have made to the West AND we are in the Margaret River wine country.