26TH APRIL 2013 – PEMBERTON, SOUTH WESTERN AUSTRALIA

On the road again for another day in paradise. Life is so hard! Left Windy Harbour in sun but misty rain & low cloud near Mt Chadulup. A large Wedgetail Eagle flew right in front of the car & so wish I had my camera at the ready. What a magnificent bird, so glad we didn’t hit it. The roads are very quiet especially initially, though to be honest they never seem to be very busy anywhere here. There are lots of glimpses of old railway lines as we go along – would make lots of good rail trails for cyclists. We reach Warren National Park to view ‘The Bicentennial Tree’, a 67m high Karri which used to be a treetop fire watch tower. It is now one of three huge trees in the surrounding areas which are a tourist attraction, not only to look at but to climb!!! There is a tower halfway up & another right on the top. Except for the canopy of the tree there were no branches left on so it is amazing to look straight up. There was only a young couple there when we arrived, the girl having just tried a few metres of the climb. It is just as it was, with strong steel rungs spiralling round the tree to climb on, with frail looking wire netting on the outside supposedly to stop your fall. We couldn’t believe that it was allowed, no supervision, no charge even except that it is in a National Park so you are expected to pay an entry fee. We had a pass so it wasn’t necessary for us, but we noted that the young people didn’t pay. Can you imagine OSH in NZ allowing such a thing? Stu climbed a good way up & I a short way, but as we left the young ones were intent on climbing to the top. We don’t know whether they made it or not.

Stu climbing the Bicentenial Tree

Who says its not green here

 

Driving on to the town of Pemberton we visited the second ‘climbing’ tree, the Gloucester Tree, this one only 60m. So called because the Duke of Gloucester visited once & their party picnicked nearby while watching the watchman climb up to his tower. This seemed to be the main tourist one as there was a coach load of people arrived just after us (lucky us), & lots of families visiting too being school holidays. This tree differed only that it still had a lot of branches on & only the top tower. We could hardly believe our eyes as there were people like a trail of ants climbing up & down & passing each other somehow, including quite young children who went right to the top!!! One young mother I spoke to said her children had been up about 3 times.

Next stop was Manjimup, a slightly bigger town only 45 minutes from Pemberton. It is the closest we have found two towns for a long time. Needing to replenish the larder we ambled around the town & stayed a little longer than intended, conscious of the fact that we had to get into a free camp early. The GPS directed us as usual but we felt we should have been on the main highway, but ended up on a minor road. Stu finally decided to stop & check the map to discover that yes, we were heading in the right direction, but certainly not the way he meant. One advantage was that there was no other traffic & luckily the road was not too bad though a bit narrow. Continuing on our journey we began to see lots of wineries, the vines looking so colourful in their leaves of yellow, orange & lime green. This is a major growing area with orchards & vegetable growers, especially cauliflower I believe. Didn’t seem to make them any cheaper in the supermarket though. In a Woolworths magazine I read an article about some apples called ‘Jazz’ which apparently were bred in NZ in 1980 by crossing Royal Gala & Braeburn. They are of course now growing them here & in Tasmania – no wonder they don’t want OUR apples. I don’t remember seeing them at home but I did buy some at a Farmers’ Market here & they were delicious. Finally we were back on the highway but the first rest area we found had been closed for camping, & the second was full. There was a lot of frustration from the driver ‘you know who’ who couldn’t turn around & we had to backtrack to find our 3rd & last choice. The only highlight was seeing a family of emus, strolling alongside the highway – the little ones were so cute. As it turned out we were so, so lucky as we ended up in a large picnic area in the forest, totally alone except for the birds for company & about 5kms from the highway. It was called ‘Willow Springs’ but we saw no sign of either willows or springs. Settled in, I lit the campfire provided & we laughed about the afternoon while nibbling cheese & crackers & some red stuff in a glass. Life is indeed wonderful & tomorrow we can do it all again.

Karri tree near Pemberton

 

Our own private camp spot at Willow Springs