The Great Southern (Walpole & Trees)

Many people have told us that this area is their favourite in Australia. It is the land of big trees, beautiful forests and great ocean views.

Big Trees

The big trees here are all part of the Eucalyptus family – Jarrah, Karri and Marri trees. Some of the tall trees in the area (see the first two photos below) were used as fire lookouts. They nailed wooden or metal poles into the trees to act as a ladder and during the fire season, people would climb to the top of the trees and keep a look out for fires. You can still see the pegs in the trees and you can still climb the Gloucester Tree – we didn’t because we were too scared… it’s 58 metres (190 feet) and no netting! (The Diamond Tree and the Gloucester Tree below are both Karri trees.)

We took several walks through the forest and visited the Valley of the Giants which had large Jarrah trees.

These types of trees are hundreds of years old and are able to withstand fires and various other infestations that leave bulges in their trunks. The fire hollows out the trunk while the tree still lives.

The kids also learned to enjoy tree-hugging and we all felt the tranquillity of hugging these, big old trees. 🙂

Walpole Caravan Park

The park we stayed at in Walpole was possibly my favourite park so far on our trip. It was located in a national park and it felt like bush camping, but had nice clean, flushing toilets, good TV and internet reception, a playground and an indoor games room. It was also located on an inlet and had a nice beach with pelicans. Here are some photos from around the park:

Conspicuous Cliff

Conspicuous Cliff is a walk up to a cliff top with a gorgeous view over a beach on either side of the cliff:

Elephant Rocks

This was another beautiful walk around these huge boulders on the coast. The water streaming in through the rocks made for a peaceful place to swim and great scenery.

Circular Pool

Another walk we took was down to the circular pool. This was a nice river tumbling over the boulders into a pool below. The kids decided it was a peaceful place to meditate!

Next stop – Albany.