Pemberton

We had a nice bike ride in the forest around Shannon yesterday, met some Queenslanders travelling in a Ute with a tent loath to go home and with only a couple of weeks left of their holiday, and saw part of where the old town of Shannon used to be. I think it might have been a logging town, that’s the only explanation I could think of as to why it’s not around anymore. There’s no sign of any buildings left, but we saw the cricket pitch on the oval and some of the old golf course holes, and there’s some photos of signs saying the hall was relocated to Walpole. Kind of strange. Anyway it then started raining so we had an afternoon in the tent writing journals and doing some schoolwork type activity books (not very popular) and then the skies opened up and it just bucketed on us for what seemed like hours. Nick still got a fire going (with firelighters) to cook dinner on, in between digging trenches around the tent to try and redirect the water, he was absolutely soaked by the time we got to eat. There was a bit of a drip on my pillow so we had to move our bed along a bit but on the whole we were dry – note to self, if in any doubt, put the tarp up over the tent to try and protect the seams…. I have a feeling I have written that before.

Anyway our pile of washing now even larger, we packed up a sodden tent and drove into Pemberton this morning – we would have made it in time to go on the tourist tram ride to Warren Forest and back but missed it by 10 mins since we started driving towards the coast instead by mistake. It wasn’t such a bad thing since we could check into the one caravan park early and have free rein at the washing machines and dryers, so our three loads were done quite quickly. As it’s a small town and a bit of a dinky park, I was expecting it to be on the cheaper side, but unfortunately as it’s the only caravan park in town it’s the most expensive we’ve stayed in yet! Oh well, only one night, and I’ve had a hot shower, washed my hair, and we’ll all be in clean sheets tonight which will make a nice change. The weather for the weekend is supposed to improve too, so after a few more showers tonight, hopefully our tent will get to dry out properly.

We still got to go on the tram ride this afternoon which we were a bit dubious about but which ended up being good (although also gold plated). It goes for nearly 2 hours down through the Karri, Marri and Peppermint Tree forests and the driver provides a really good commentary about the trees, the building of the train line and the timber mill we went past which is still working – the Karri is the third tallest tree in Australia, the second tallest hardwood, and as such each tree they fell is worth literally thousands of dollars in timber, I can’t remember now whether it was $2-3,000 or $5-6,000, a lot anyway. It’s raining again tonight, although nowhere near as much, so we might be skipping D’entrecasteaux NP and heading for Margaret River. We have the car booked in for a regular service next Thursday in Perth so have until then to get up there, and there seems to be quite a bit to do like a bush tucker canoeing trip, a maze and an archery place in Bunbury etc.

1^st June

Valley of the Giants tree top walk

Red Tingle tree

Yesterday we headed off from Albany via Denmark, where we stopped for morning tea from a great (‘award winning’) bakery on the main street, visited the library briefly for internet use and decided to do a bit of their tourist route. This took us to Madfish winery since we hadn’t done any wine tasting yet this trip. The lady there was very nice, the wines even better, they had a wood stove and some kids books so it was a pleasant experience all ‘round. Then there was a cheese factory which was a bit more touristy but we still bought some nice cheeses to have with lunch – which unfortunately was made and eaten sitting in the car while the rain finished, although it’s the first time we’ve had to do this so can’t really complain. When we were finished the rain had finished and we did the Valley of the Giants tree top walk and ground walk amongst the huge Tingle and Karri trees which are native to such a small area of the world. They were really cool – the tingle trees are the ones that spread out at the bottom and are then hollowed out by fire or fungus so that you can stand inside them, while the tree keeps growing up above. Pretty amazing. The tree top walk wasn’t as good as the one at Otway National Park we agreed, but still nice to be 40m up amongst the tops of the trees. Daniel’s not that keen on these tree top walks where the walkways bounce up and down, so his method is to walk really fast along them, stop suddenly holding onto the sides so that he can look down down down and freak himself out, then keep walking even faster to the platform. Conor on the other hand loves it and freaked ME out by running along, trying to slide on the wet walkways.

By the time we’d finished that it was getting quite late so we drove on to our campsite in Shannon National Park which we made just as it was becoming dusk. Hardly anyone else here but it’s quite a nice one in amongst all of these tall trees, almost looking like European woods, flush toilets, wood provided, and I didn’t realise but another couple pointed out that there is a woodchip hot water heater, which they had cranked up for their showers, so we all got one too which was great (since it’s been nearly a week). The loos don’t have lights though so it was shower by lantern light J Today depending on the weather we’re hoping we might get the kids on our bikes and go for a bit of a ride again (might have to bribe with the leftover fudge bought from the cheese factory yesterday) and stay here again another night.