South WA, Home of the Giant Trees (23-26th October)

West of Esperance we soon started hitting some beautiful forests. The driving was spectacular. So different to further East; green and winding, hilly, interesting and constantly lined with trees.
We were heading to the 'town' of Pemberton at my request, not only because it shares it's name with a Welsh chocolate company, but also because of an interesting entry in the book, but more on that later. I put town in inverted commas because even if a place is big enough to make it onto the map out here, it's barely big enough to be counted as a village in the UK.

Heading to Pemberton was a more indirect route to Perth, where we had at some point decided we were going, but it took a more interesting route, following more of the coast line. Unfortunately though it wasn't long before we had car trouble... again. One of the biggest problems out there is that if you make it to the next town, you're lucky. If they have the part you need you are very very lucky, and in Walpole they had every type of fuel pump except the one we needed! And so we had another stop while we waited for it to come!
Fortunately the towns around there are beautiful and interesting. They made me think of Scandinavian chalet towns (not that I've actually been to any) but they had pretty, wooden houses set in the middle of forests in a hilly area. Beautiful.

Walpole was home to the Forest of Giants: absolutely huge gum trees; Karri gums and Red gums mainly, over 70m tall.




And when we finally reached Pemberton, we set out on my quest to find the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree:

"A total of 130 steel bars (your rungs) and an eyrie of four ladders give you a view above the canopy to die for... or so it feels."

Somehow that description wasn't enough to prepare me. So obsessed with health and safety procedures are we in the UK that the lack of them there was almost unsettling.
This tree is in the middle of nowhere, in a National Park but not a manned park. No rangers. We were completely alone. The metal bars were just that, protruding from the tree trunk, sometimes wobbling.

Sometimes the height between them were as high as my knees, with gaps big enough for me to slip through, and nothing to stop me doing so... all the way to the floor.



A mesh fence, like that which you'd put around a field ran around the outside of the rungs to stop you toppling off sideways, but that is all the safety you get. That and a small wooden platform halfway up.



Thankfully the eyrie at the top, over 100m up, is completely enclosed so you're safe there at least,once you've finally got your breath back from the completely vertical climb. Terrifying and completely exhilarating, especially swaying in the canopy of such a huge tree, looking over a sea of green in every direction about 75m up.

We camped in the forest outside of Pemberton that night. It was one of the few places in WA where parking up and camping is actually allowed. We did a lot of illegal camping in WA. South Australia allows roadside camping a lot more, as does Queensland.

Anyway. it was the last night before the summer fire ban so we set up our little tent (purchased in Esperance), built our little fire and settled down for a couple of beers.

There was another climbable tree in the centre of Pemberton, but our explorations took us out for a walk in Beedleup National Park, where I had heard of another tree, this one with an arch through it. We did have a beautiful walk through the forest but I was quite disappointed. When I heard archway through a tree, I imagined the Californian Redwoods, which you can literally drive cars through. This is what I got, fun but not quite the same.


And thus ended our South West corner adventures. We were on our way north for a brief stop in Perth.

 (Denmark, Western Australia)