The Valley of the Giants

A very early start for our trip down to the south coast of WA. We got collected and dropped off in the city centre before boarding a bus and heading south down the highway out of Perth.

We were a fairly small group - a couple our age and then two middle-aged couple and a 30-something lady by herself.

We stopped briefly for something to eat at about eleven-ish and then arrived at our first destination at just after midday. This was called the Diamond Tree and was a tree that had a viewing platform right at the top for people to sit and watch for bush-fires. There was a whole range of them across southern WA. They were set up in the early 1940's and basically involved building a hide at the top of the tree and a ladder to get up the tree. Not an ordinary ladder but one where they hammered (hopefully quite hard) metal poles into the tree in a spiralling effect to create a staircase. Poles were also inserted about 2m above the first to create a kind of cage (I say kind of because if you fell off I'm pretty sure it wouldn't hold you).

The diamond tree was a type of Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus diversicolor). We stopped here for lunch and had the opportunity to climb it should we wish. Naturally I didn't want to miss the chance so climbed it. The stairs went half way up to a small platform about 25m above the ground and then a normal ladder went the rest of the way up to the hide at about 46m above the ground. The tree itself was 51m tall. All the tall trees in the surrounding area are felled or cut back and so the view was pretty spectacular.

The secret to the climb was obviously not to look down but that was fairly hard as the gaps between stairs were quite big. It was more a case of rock climbing! The girl (part of the couple ) made it to the small platform but then spent the entire time hugging the ground. I took a picture of her with her camera and I almost had to peel it of her because she wouldn't move. We eventually both got down (slowly).

From there it was another hour to the main attraction - the Valley of the Giants. This is the only place left in the world where the Red Tingle (another type of Eucalyptus) grows (due to climate change over thousands of years) and is the third largest tree species. They have built a boardwalk there now to protect the trees as their most famous attraction - a 250 year old tree - fell down after too many people walking and driving too close to it packed the soil down preventing it getting all the water and nutrients from the soil it needed. Another feature of the tree is that it often rots on the inside creating a hollow effect and the 250 year old tree was so big that you could drive a car into its hollow.

We were greeted by one of the guides who told us the history of the location and some information about the trees and also the walkway that had been erected taking us right up to the top of the canopy. The walk took about half an hour (walking fairly slowly) and it was very impressive being able to walk right up to the top of the trees.

They also had a section where you could walk through the trees on wooden boardwalks on the forest floor and several trees that you walked through or could have your picture taken in.

We had a small afternoon tea - the highlight of which was a tame crow that would eat out of our hands. He ended up with chocolate cake all over his beak.

We then headed east a small way to a bay overlooking the southern ocean called ___. It was mainly just to have a look but I got my shoes off for a paddle but then had a little disaster trying to change batteries on my camera. I dropped one and tried to grab it before it went into the water and not only failed to catch the battery I also slipt on the rock and cut my arm on the elbow. Didn't stop me having a paddle. The water was nice and warm! No-one agreed with me on this!

Had a small delay while I was bandaged up by the bus driver but thankfully I brought jeans so was able to change out of my wet shorts.

Our final stop of the day was an aboriginal culture centre at a town called __. This was also our dinner stop and I had a good dinner of lasagne, a piece of cake and a cup of tea. We were then given a quick tour round the centre by an aborigine guy called Jack. It was mostly about the region and how the cultures integrated and was pretty interesting although we were all pretty tired by this point.

We were finally dropped off at our hotel at about half ten and dog-tired!!