Chris n Shirley's 2025 WA Trip: Chapter 7

Day 32 – Sunday 29 June – Walpole

The tourism coordinator was not ready for a rest so it was another physical day - national parks and beaches and a lunch and a special historical first.

Our first stop was the "Valley of the Giants - Treetop Walk" where we walk around a high platform through some magnificent timber - found only in this part of the world.

As I gripped the platform rails 40 metres above the ground, with two white-knuckled wrists Shirley decided that she needed to take the photos - and she did - with her phone. In 15 years of me writing travel blogs today was the first day for a Shirley photo to be published.

The views were magnificent. The trees huge.

Above left - Chris hanging on with two hands
Above right - Photographer Shirley with iPhone
Below - More of Shirley's photos

My first selfie in years and it was 40 metres above the ground

After that ordeal we wandered around the "Ancient Empire Walk" to see up closer the magnificent trees and plants in the forest. Many of the huge trees were hollow.

Same examples of huge Tingle trees with hollows

I scored a few birds but unfortunately the blue wren is a poor photo.

We love our wood so we found a "Slab & Burl" place and invested in a piece of wood, to become 'something' when we return home. Shirley found a marron place so we stopped for some superb marron bisque for lunch. It was in the middle of nowhere - or close to it.

Marron Bisque

Next stop was a walk on the Conspicuous Cliff beach. More steps. Another beautiful stretch of sand.

Conspicuous Cliff beach [Beach 34, Walks 33]

Not done yet, Shirley had us off to the 'Giant Tingle' tree. It has a girth at the base of 22.3 metres and is around 75 metres high. You could park most of a car in its hollow base.

The 'Giant Tingle' tree

More was to come as a tree across the road 'forced' us to go the wrong way down a one-way road - for 2 km - to see the Frankland (Cappuccino) river. The (Cappuccino) froth is caused by a reaction of local foliage being bashed against the rocks in the river. It changes colour with the seasons.

There was more to the day but I am too tired to process it.

Day 33 – Monday 30 June – Walpole to Pemberton - 215 km

We are 128 km from where we slept last night, but we covered 215 km to get here. The drive took us through maybe 100 km of magnificent timber country.

Above & Below - Typical big timber scenery

Our first stop was Northcliff and a casual walk around the "Understory Art and Nature Trail" - a trail that was created after the wide-ranging 2015 bushfires. There are dozens of art/sculpture items, all of which tell a tale. It was both weird and fascinating.

Images not to scale. All have a message. The charcoal images (around 50) represent locals who were impacted by the 2015 bushfires.

Click here to see a wider range of art.

After a coffee we headed south to Windy Harbour. The beaches were too far away but we scored a few photos.

"The Window"

Tookulup Cliffs

On the way back to Northcliff we snapped a photo of Mt Chudalup, a big hunk of granite.

Mt Chudalup

Then it was off to Pemberton.

Pemberton Big Timber

We first visited the The Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree, a 75 m tall karri tree, that was pegged for climbing to celebrate Australia's bicentenary in 1988.

The Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree. Note the landings.

Next was the Cascades, thanks to the recent rains.

The "Cascades"

It was after 3pm so we called it a day at Pemberton.

Day 34 – Tuesday 1 July – Pemberton to Alexandra Bridge - 184 km

It was another day spent driving through magnificent big timber country. It rained overnight, mostly light, but stopped to let us break camp, then started again.

Our first stop was the Gloucester Tree, which we have not visited since early 1990’s. Raincoats were donned as we walked around the magnificent structure.

Left - Gloucester Tree
Right - The spikes used to climb the tree

Next was the Diamond Tree, a 52 metre high Karri. Many years ago there were eight trees selected as 'fire spotting' trees - over a wide region. Fire spotters at the top of the eight trees could triangulate to work out where a fire was located.

The King Jarrah Tree, and the 'room' at the top

We cruised around Jardee – a historic wood-workers town that still has the feel of a workers village, although the colours have been updated.

Mill Office and Post Office

At Manjimup we found scones (cream & jam) and coffee beckoning for attention. We obliged before visiting the Timber museum.

Just for a change we checked out the King Jarrah Tree (2.6 m diameter, 45 metres high) - our third of the fire spotting trees. our one km walk around the tree included Winged wattle in flower.

Lower section of the King Jarrah Tree

While on the theme of trees we stopped at 'One Tree Bridge' – where a bridge felled across a river with added slats made for for an easy bridge. Glenoran Pool was beside the bridge. By now the rain had gone and it was a lovely day.

Early/convenient form of bridge construction

We had a reminiscing walk around Nannup where we bought our Jarrah dining table over 30 years ago. There are 12 statues of the local Thylacine (Nannup Tiger) and plenty of butterflies.