7 March 2012

Today we drove to Walpole and did the Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk...... Twice!! Magnificent, wonderful, scary, beautiful, oh wow etc. So glad we did this trip. I found the intitial walk a bit scary with the bounce and sway and being 40 mts off the ground spooked me a bit, but it was so interesting and so special I was happy to line up and go a second time and this time it was great. I was over my fears and could just look in wonder at all the massive trees around us that we could see the tops of.

The walk is 600mts along a suspended walkway that is 40mts above the ground. So much to see. What a wonderful thing to see the tops of trees in a natural forest without having to climb the tree or  a very very big ladder. This is really a must do and we will be passing the information to other nomads we meet along the way. Mind you we will be making sure to tell them it is in Walpole. We did not know this and came to Manjimup from Albany and because of a bushfire we took the inland route instead of the road that would have taken us automatically past this brilliant tourist attraction. Oh well, you live and learn.

When you finish walking over the tree tops you can take another walk called the Ancients. This walk is at ground level and takes you through and around the natural bush near the treetop walk. It too runs for about 600mts and you can touch and see and hug lots of Red Tingle trees which are the ones that usually end up with a cavity at the bottom sometimes big enough for a man to walk into. Other trees in this area are the Karri trees which grow as straight as a ruler, truely wonderful trees the Karris

When you return to the Tree Discovery Centre you can watch videos and read some of  the informative notice boards they have. I particulary liked the display of the creepy crawlies.

To see this wonder we had to travel 119kms to Walpole from Manjimup. We did this along the National Highway #1. Himself says it was ok. I say it was a goat track! 119kms and for at least 85% of that distance it was double white lines with a 90kms speedlimit and no overtaking lanes for the entire trip,  and the road was not very wide. We had to share that road with logging trucks etc. Not impressed with the road one little bit but loved the day out.