Walpole and the Tingle Trees

We spent 2 days at Walpole. The first day was cold and raining and the second was slightly better, although still jeans and jumper weather. After so long enjoying hot and sunny weather, from August through to the end of October, while all our friends back home were experiencing winter, we are now experiencing cold and wet weather while it is getting warmer and more summery back home. I didn't expect it to be quite as cool as it has been, given that we are mid November.

The first day at Walpole, after setting up and checking out the town, we decided to drive to the Giant Tingle Tree. Tingle trees are rough barked eucalypts and are impressive, not because of their height like the Karri trees are, but because of their girth. The Giant Tingle Tree has a girth of around 24m and is estimated to be around 400 years old. The Tingle Trees are very gnarled and many have quite a lot of burls, which produce very good wood. Tingle Trees are shallow rooted, so their base grows outward with buttress trunks to support their size. They are very susceptible to root damage due to the shallow nature of their roots and many of the older ones are hollowed out by fire that has gotten inside the tree to the heartwood. They continue to grow and survive as the essential part of the tree is located just underneath the outer bark. It results in trees with very big girths that are hollowed out by fire.

We also did a bit of a drive through the National Park to take in the scenery, and made our way to Circular Pool, which really wasn't very inspiring. It is dirty brown, due to tannin staining. That didn't bother me. It just didn't see particularly interesting, and in the cold and wet (we had been rained on when we did the walk to the Giant Tingle Tree) I wasn't overly inspired by it.

But I did find a very pretty spot for a picnic!

Circular Pool

The second day we went to the Valley of the Giants. This National Park encompasses a 6km drive through Tingle forest and ends at the Walpole Discovery Centre. There are 2 walks you can do there; the Ancient Empire Walk and the Tree Top Walk. The Ancient Empire walk is free and there are Ranger guided walks throughout the day. We went with the Ranger and found it very informative. Sometimes it's nice to do these walks alone and just absorb the surrounding forest and information plates, but if you get the right Ranger it is completely worth doing the walk with them. The lady who took us around held a wealth of knowledge and it was good to learn about the forest, the local Aboriginals and the plants and animals from her. They actually have quokkas that live there, although they are nocturnal, unlike the quokkaas of Rottnest Island. 

Grandma Tingle

This one's girth is only around 14m I think

The Tree Top walk cost us $52.50 which felt like quite a bit of money for what you got, in some ways, but it was really interesting to do as it lets you get right up into the canopy of the Tingle trees. Because the Tingle trees have very shallow surface roots, they can't have people walking among them as the roots are easily damaged and the trees killed. Years ago there was a giant Tingle tree people could drive their car into and loads of people did, and this killed the tree which fell down in 1990. So they have restricted access to most of the Tingle trees to try to protect and preserve them, as they only live in this part of WA. The Tree Top walk climbs up 40m into the canopy of the forest and is a really good perspective to see. If you're scared of heights, or don't have much faith in man made structures, then I'd avoid it as you are up pretty high and the walkway bounces and sways a lot. I thought it was quite fun but there were other people up there who really didn't.

Looking down from 40m up

You can see the highest section of the walk in this picture

Manjimup

We drove to Manjimup to shop at a non-IGA supermarket as the one in Pemberton was pretty small and didn't have all we needed. But the main reason for the trip to Manjimup was the Timber and Heritage Park. This is a very cool place to visit. The park is set up to showcase the timber heritage of the area. There are old trains and other equipment used in forestry and milling to explore. There is a small area of buildings set up that showcase a typical 1930s house and cottage garden, school and the old Manjimup Gaol. There are paths that weave their way through various parts of the site, and labelled trees identifying the different timber species.

But the best part of it (because it is possible to get history-d out) was the playground. Its best feature was the giant, and I mean giant, slide. It is a massive tunnel slide that you need to climb up 65 steps in a tower to get to. The tower goes a further 30 steps up to the top, to represent a fire lookout tower as there is an historical one nearby that has been closed to the public. The slide was AWESOME!!! It is the most fun I have had in ages in a playground. Even Rory went on it a couple of times, all by himself. He loved it until he got burnt on the bottom bit which was sitting in direct sun and getting very hot.

He crashed

View from the top

The other part of the playground I really liked was the play houses. These whimsical house fronts (and backs) contained a range of things for kids to climb up, over and through and then they could slide down again. There was something about their quirky design that really appealed to me and I'd love to build something like it at home.

There were other cool things for kid to play on too, like a bouncing things where you sat on bees, cute mice attached to colourfully painted poles, a log train to sit on, a flying fox and more.

Pemberton: Heritage Tram and mountain biking

We also did the Pemberton Historic Tramway tour. This was pretty cool, probably not as good as the puffer billy through the Dandenongs or the steam train from Port Augusta to Quorn (neither of which we did, but both looked pretty awesome), but this was a fair bit cheaper and took us to parts of the forest we wouldn't have otherwise seen. We got a very good commentary as the tram went along. It stopped at the Cascades which are quite pretty and crossed over a couple of rivers. It was a very enjoyable trip. And I finally found out what the pink, purple and white flowers I've been seeing everywhere are. It turns out they are Watsonia, and are an introduced species. I kinda guessed they must be as they grow like weeds along roadsides and the edges of train lines, anywhere where there is clearing.

Rory in train heaven

The view down the line

The Cascades

The cascades

One of the bridges

Some pretty cool topiary

Watsonia

We also tried mountain biking after the fun we all had at Margaret River. Unfortunately there was no easy track this time, so we played around on the down hill course that had jumps, turns and other things. It was fun but I could only do small parts of it as the jumps were way too high for me to even contemplate attempting. But they kids had fun and I think the biggest kid of all, Greg, did too.

Pemberton: Karri trees and Karri forests

After leaving Margaret River we drove to Pemberton via Nannup. Nannup is a very pretty town, on par with Omeo in Victoria, which I still hold in my mind as one of the prettiest town we've seen on our journey. Nannup is quite an historic town, with many of the buildings in the main street built in the 1920s and 1930s. I think I could have stayed a day or two to explore. It's only a small town but there were a few cafes and galleries that I would have liked to look at, but we never do with the kids. The caravan park there looked quite pretty too. But we had it in our heads we were heading to Pemberton and I feel like Greg is in a bit of a rush to head east (probably to get to Kalgoorlie so he can go gold hunting!). It was a Sunday, so not everything was open. After a walk up the main street and back, we headed on.

Tightrope walking (about 110cm off the ground)

I love the stick to help him balance

The drive to Pemberton was so beautiful through the Karri forests. The Karri trees are amazing and oh so majestic. They grow so tall and straight, with smooth white and grey bark, and very few branches lower down. The road, which is a highway, is a narrow, two land road that winds between these awesome trees. Karri trees grow up until they reach 71 years, and then they start to thicken at the base. Some of the trees we drove past were estimated at 400 years old. Karri trees are the 3^rd largest in the world, with the Mountain Ash in Victoria and Tasmania coming in second and the Redwood trees in America being the tallest.

Pemberton is another very pretty town. There is a mill, which is the main function of the town (other than tourism), and a main street with a mix of shops. Most of the houses were all built in the 1920s and are heritage listed. They were built by the timber company and are all identical in shape and size. They timber company discovered they could build 2 of these houses for each good sized Karri tree they harvested! I thought that was pretty amazing and almost 100 years later these houses are still so quaint and cottage-y and so sturdy.

There are 3 giant Karri trees you can climb in the Pemberton region; the Gloucester, Diamond and Bicentennial trees. The Gloucester tree is probably the most famous, and the only one situated in a National Park where you have to pay an entry fee. The Gloucestor Tree stands 61m tall, the Diamond Tree, which is closer to Manjimup, stands 51m and the Bicentennial Tree, which stands 75m. The Gloucester and Diamoond Trees were spiked in the 1930s (I think) as fire watch towers. It was someone's job to climb them every day and keep watch for fires. Not to mention the poor people who originally climbed and pegged the tree, lopped the top off and built a tower at the top! The Bicentennial tree was pegged as part of bicentennial celebrations (but I didn't get to read the information about it at the time). I was pretty keen to climb the Gloucester Tree as it seemed like the thing to do, but when we got there and I looked up at this giant, towering tree with just spikes driven into the trunk, my never wavered. When I started to climb, my nerve failed me completely. The first time I tried to climb I got 5 rungs and felt like I was miles off the ground. It didn't feel very safe, so I climbed back down. After a short while I decided I couldn't be that much of a wuss and to try again. Tilda climbed ahead of me (although the signs do say they don't recommend kids climb). Watching my daughter climb up this tree, with nothing but the rungs and her hands and feet to hold her on, my heart was in my throat and I just couldn't let her climb. I had climbed 10 rungs, while she had climbed 23, but I made her come back down. I did read that over 44,000 people climb it every year, so it must be OK, but it just didn't feel safe. Greg climbed around 20 rungs up but then remembered that he had been having vertigo attacks and wisely decided to come back down.

The base of the tree (Greg stands about 4 rungs high)

The next day as we headed into Manjimup we drove passed the Diamond tree. I was determined to climb this tree. I mean, if others can do it, I should be able to. There were 2 older couples at the bottom and young guy making his way down. We chatted to him at the bottom. It turns out he had been cycling Australia for the past 100 days and has 3 years of acrobatic high wire training, so of course he could do it! Greg climbed a bit. I don't think he counted how many but I think he'd done about 35+ before he decided to come back down. I decided to take my turn. There is no way to pass someone on these rungs, so you have to hope no one is coming down while you go up, or vice versa. I began my climb but I just couldn't silence the voice of reason and fear in my mind. It's funny, I can climb a ladder and have done since I was a kid. I've climbed down the fire ladders at Narrowneck, and it never bothered me, but there is something about climbing up the outside of a massive tree, with just metal poles stuck into the side of the trunk and no form of safety net, rope, cage etc, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

This is what you climb up

The next day we did a drive through the Warren National Park. Gosh it was stunning, filled with Karri forest. This National Park houses the Bicentennial tree. I figured I may as well at least climb 10 rungs on this one, as I had climbed 10 on the other two. It was quite a windy day and as we approached the tree, we could see the tower at the top, all 78m up, swaying and moving quite a long way in the wind. As we got to the bottom of the tree we could hear the wind rushing through the forest, sounding like a train approaching, and as it hit, branches began falling down from the forest around us. Needless to say, we didn't even climb any of the rungs on this one, but hastily made our way back to the car and safety.

There's a platform part way up this tree

Rory climbed 1 rung

We drove the Heartbreak Trail, which is a 4WD track through the Warren NP and takes you to some campgrounds which are suitable for tents and campers only, and are in some of the most stunning bushland I have ever seen. The Warren River runs through the NP and is tannin coloured but so very pretty. I would have loved to camp there and I did think about leaving the van for a night and camping in the tent, but with the strong 40kmh wind gusts, and a forecast for rain the following day, I decided it wasn't worth the effort. Part of me wishes we had have taken the opportunity, but it wouldn't have been pleasant with branches falling from trees and rain.