2015/10 Australia trip - Walpole - Nornalup |
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We finished the loop back to Walpole to buy a holiday pass to Western Australian parks, mainly to avoid the hassle of needing change every day for entry permits. We filled 
up with diesel but had trouble with the water; we’d had no water from our tap that morning but had no luck filling the tank even though we had a friendly tap this time.
It 
was getting late but we thought we’d have enough time to visit the Tree Top Walk in Nornalup. The highest spot on the metal walkway is 40 metres (130 feet) above the ground, so not Sandie’s favourite, but we really felt we were in the canopy. The trees are mainly red tingles, a few growing to almost twice the height of the walkway.
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Tree Top Walk (1.37) |
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The light was fading and we had trouble identifying the few birds we saw. I think that the walk was worth the time and the admission cost, but the walkway would have been better with some interpretive signs and information about the trees.
There was a museum marquee at the base but it closed before we came down.
There was no explanation of why the tree in the picture had been cut down. Sandie says she didn’t do it.
Back at Crystal Spring we had the place entirely to ourselves.
Friday October 23rd
There were little showers all through the night and they continued into the morning. The plan for the day was to head for the Stirling Ranges national park to the northeast of Albany. We’d be stopping off at other parks along the way, though, and might choose to
camp at one of those if it looked inviting.
We stopped in the tingle forest just outside of Walpole to see the giant red tingle tree. There were plenty of big trees, most with their bases badly damaged by fires. Even so they’ll 
live for hundreds of years as long as the layer below the bark survives.
I’d read all this but confess that while I was walking around inside the trunk I was wondering how many tons of solid wood were resting on those towers of bark.
We had been walking around in fine drizzle but as we left the tree heavy rain swept in from the west and we had to jog back to the camper.