The Southern Forest Region
27th March - 14th April 2017Stunning forest drives, walks through majestic karri, marri and tingle tree forests. Beautiful coastlines and quaint towns that once thrived on timber cutting.
The first stop in this magnificent region, the small town of Nannup and our camp at Barrabup in the Karri forest. It feels so good to be back on the road exploring new areas after our huge stay in Moore River.
Nannup
(Barrabup Camp - National Park)
Welcome to Nannup!
Flowers everywhere and autumn trees with their golden leaves.
The main street of Nannup.
What a change! Camping among the tall trees instead of by the beach. No other campers while we were there. Ahhhhh the serenity. And our first camp fire in months.
Not the greatest weather. So this is how you keep the camp fire going during a shower of rain!
Lots of cheeky possums.
Where we were camped was once a thriving timber mill. So hard to imagine as there is nothing but forest now. There are two big swimming holes and a trail between them. So off for a walk.
Days gone by.
Boardwalk at the Barramup Pool.
Pity it is only 17 degrees. Would have been great for a swim.
Forest trail. So hard to imagine massive karri trees being transported along this trail.
The second pool. Workman's Pool. This, too, was once a thriving work camp.
Dez collecting dead trunk pieces of grass trees. We learned from an Abiriginal elder that they make very efficient fire lighters.
Bridgetown
From Nannup to Manjimup we stopped for lunch and a walk through Bridgetown. Absolutely beautiful little town.
So we did....great butcher shop.
(Fonty's Pool)
Manjimup also is full of timber cutting history. A reasonably large town at the centre of this amazing fruit, vegetable, wine, beef and sheep producing area. The countryside is so lush.
A visit to the Timber Heritage Museum set in a magnificent park.
The old school house. Bit draughty in winter.
Timber worker's cottages. So cute.
The Police Lock Up.
The fire tower look out.
Park grounds.
Acres of beautiful park and trees. Weeping willows are one of my favourites.
And an awesome playground.
Ummmmm??? I don't think so.
But the flying fox is always fun. I was having races with this little fella. He thought it was hilarious!
Being in the heart of fruit and vegie growing region I was excited to get to the Farmer's Market. However....not that great. Only 2 - 3 stalls of produce. Very disappointing. I bought three small capsicums and some tiny pumpkins! There was cooked food though, which was great!
Very yummy pizza.
Cute little pumpkins.
I love country walks. So I left Dezzi playing with the car, grabbed my trusty camera and off up the road. So peaceful.
The karri trees still amaze us. They are the third tallest tree in the world. And they grow so straight.
The serenity of the countryside. Karri trees and avocado trees. This is a major avocado growing region. Dez has avo for brekky every day, so we will be stocking up. And they are first class, creamy and delicious. And cheap! At the farm gate stalls only $1.00 each.
The other main produce is apples. Apple trees for acres, and acres, and acres.
Apples of all varieties. If you have bought pink lady apples or granny smiths, chances are they came from here.
Fresh and crunchy.....so good.
More avocado trees.
Walking, walking, walking and came by a farm cottage with crazy garden statues.
The Easter Bunny making an early stop.
Looks like Bill lost Ben!
Sheep everywhere too. This bloke looking after the ladies!
Part of his harem.
Another day exploring the countryside and a look at the Giant Jarrah Tree. Another well known Western Australian tree. This is a monster.
The King Jarrah tree is estimated to be 500 years old. 45 metres high.
These trees are so big, you only needed one to make a bridge.
Think it has seen better days, though.
More forest walking. Dezzi loves it?!?!?
These four karri trees are called the Four Aces. The reason for the 4 Aces growing in such a perfect straight line is likely to be that they grew up from seedlings in one huge karri log lying on the ground that burnt to ashes in a bush fire. A bed of ash provides the perfect conditions for young karri seedlings to germinate and begin their 100’s of years of growth into forest giants.
So, here is the lowdown on the Karri........
Over the swing bridge.
A stop off at a farm gate for some pumpkins and the most delicious, massive corn ever!
There was another farm gate stall just up the road from our caravan park. Amazing fresh produce of every kind. Even chestnuts to roast on the fire.
Now to our camp. Fonty's Pool Caravan Park is like camping in a botanical garden. Acres of lush green grass. Beautiful trees, with many leaves turning gold and red in autumn beauty. We planned on only three days here, but ended up staying a week. Fabulous. Our site was at the back of the park with a sheep paddock behind us. Very rural.
Not only are fires permitted, they deliver the wood to you! So a fire every night.
The sheep were so funny. They would graze from one end of the paddock to the other. Get to the end. Walk back up to the start, and graze to the end again. Over and over and over.
Even polka dot sheep!
Misty morning.
Sunset over the original home.
Spent plenty of time relaxing here with my book.
Autumn leaves...beautiful.
So time to be brave and go for a dip. Shall we say, refreshing. At least not freezing.
Testing the water.....
Not too bad after all....
But better this way!
Time to move on, however, we took a wrong turn down a country road and came across an old abandoned timber cutters village. Love little finds like this.
Single man's cottage.
Pemberton
(Big Brook Dam Aboretum - Warren National Park)
Big Brook is a young forest, regenerated after logging in the 1920s.In 1930, by which time about 2,000 hectares of karri had been clear-felled to produce logs for Pemberton Mill, a spark from a steam locomotive started a bushfire. The remaining karri dropped their seed on the ash bed from the fire and the seed germinated the following winter.
This was a great camp in the forest too. Only about 15 camp sites. A big picnic table at each. A communal fire pit. Made for peaceful days and social nights.
Plenty of room to stretch out.
Soaking up the sun.
Cheeky Kookaburra. He was a frequent visitor, and spent plenty of time on the arm rest of Dezziz chair!
How can you not love these iconic Auzzie birds.
Damn....a running man. I was only planning on walking!
Love a good walk.
This freshwater creek also ran behind the camp. Excellent for collecting washing water.
One of several sheltered stops along the way.
Very peaceful lookouts.
The Big Brook Dam.
Looking towards the swimming beach. I planned on coming back the next day for a swim, but sadly the weather turned cold and cloudy.
Pity, great spot.
The dam wall and spillway.
Several different kinds of fungi.
Love forest flora.
And moss.
So...funny thing happened along the way. I was thinking to myself how amazing it was that over one year on the road, and many, many kilometres of walking and hiking, I had never seen a snake. Well. Spoke too soon. No sooner had I taken this shot and looked down to see a Tiger snake scoot across my path. Fortunately not too big, but gave me a bit of a fright nonetheless. OK, so onwards we go. A bit more diligent. Far out, about 500 metres from camp and look down after taking a photo pointing skywards to see another Tiger about 1.5 metres in length and very chubby slither across right in front of me and head in my direction in the leaf litter. Nooooo! Don't go my way! Well, I stood there for about five minutes trying to see any movement in the leaves before making a very wide birth and heading off at a brisk pace. A bit scary with no-one else around. My only thought that I hoped my scream would have been loud enough for Dezzi to hear it back at the camp!
Clearly I didn't have the reflexes to get a good photo of the culprit. Got this one off the internet.
And as if that wasn't enough, I almost walked into this! It was till a great walk.
Next day into Pemberton township for a walk up and down the street, and a ride on the Pemberton Tram.
The thriving metropolis of Pemberton. Another quaint country town originally centred around timber milling.
So off for a Tram ride.
The old Pemberton Station.
The old steam train.
Our tram ride. This was a great little trip, and our guide Adam, was very informative with a great sense of humour.
The rail line travels behind the old timber cottages.
Only a handful of single men's cottages remain. There was originally 150 cottages. Guessing pay day would have been pretty rowdy!
Past the old timber mill.
And into the forest.
Our destination. The Cascades.
15 minutes to have a wander about, then back on the tram.
End of the line for us.
Adventure time! Off to hit the Karri Forest Explorer Trail. A great drive through the area with some fun points of interest.
The Gloucester Tree
(stole this info from the internet)
At 72 metres in height, it is the world's second tallest fire-lookout tree[1] (second only to the nearby Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree), and visitors can climb up to a platform in its upper branches for a spectacular view of the surrounding karri forest. It is owned by the Shire of Manjimup.
Built in 1947, the Gloucester Tree was one of eight karri trees that between 1937 and 1952 were made relatively easy to climb so that they could be used as fire lookout spots.[2] The suitability of the tree as a fire lookout was tested by forester Jack Watson, who climbed the tree using climbing boots and a belt.[2] It took Watson six hours to climb 58 metres, a difficult climb due to the 7.3 metre girth of the tree and the need to negotiate through limbs from 39.6 metres up.[2]
Another forester, George Reynolds, pegged the ladder and lopped branches to facilitate climbing the tree, and a wooden lookout cabin was built 58 metres above the ground.[2] The Governor-General of Australia, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, visited the site during construction, and the tree and national park are named in his honour.[2][3]
The wooden lookout cabin was demolished in 1973 for safety reasons, and was replaced with a steel and aluminium cabin and visitors' gallery.[2] Currently the climb is done by stepping on 153 spikes that spiral the tree.
Only 20 percent of visitors climb to the top of the tree; most make it only part of the way before turning back.[
So let's give it a crack! That's me at the top of the photo.
Don't look down! I got about 1/3 of the way up. I am somewhere up in those branches.
Some of the local birds at the bottom of the tree.
After my warm up on the Gloucester Tree, time to tackle the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree climb.
Dez is not good with heights to say the least. This shot looks very adventurous. He is about six pegs up. And that was it!
Backing down. He's had enough.
My turn.
Up, up, up.
Not so bad.
Yeah! Made it to the first platform. That was high enough for me. Fantastic view.
The Warren River swimming hole on the Heartbreak Trail. Not very appealing today.
The Karri Valley Resort. Lovely now, but not always. For those of my vintage I'm sure you will remember this - and the infamous "Tough Titties" lady on 60 Minutes.
A news-clipping display at the site is a reminder that the controversial Rajneeshee cult, or sannyasins, had once owned the Karri Valley Resort, a 30-minute bushwalk away from Beedelup Falls.
"Known colloquially as Orange People due to their attire, they had integrated well into Fremantle but the group's public relations began to go pear-shaped around the mid-1980s.
The cult's free-love mantra was a big worry to the local population of just 1000 while expansion of the resort fuelled fears the group planned to take over many of Pemberton's properties and much of the economy.
There was even talk of the group's leader, the Indian Bhagwan Rajneesh, moving the global headquarters from Oregon to Pemberton. Reflecting the mood was the local Warren-Blackwood Times May 8, 1985 lead story: MHR calls for anti-cult laws.
What really blew it for the Rajneeshees locally was the four-month visit to WA of Ma Sheela, the power-seeking secretary to the Bhagwan, who gave a clinic in how not to do PR.
Appearing on 60 Minutes in 1985, she enraged many Pemberton people by responding to their concerns with the reply: "Tough titties." She also favoured giving the finger to photographers."
Interesting. Now the walk to the Beedelup Falls.
Up all the stairs.
Across the swing bridge.
Looking towards the swing bridge.
And the dense forest.
The Falls.
A fabulous day exploring the karri forest area.
As luck would have it, the region is also lush with wineries and the odd brewery. This one just happened to be down the road from our camp. Time for some tastings and lunch!
Jarrah Jacks Brewery.
Beautiful view while having ad very yummy lunch, and glass or two.
This is Philis, our German backpacker neighbour. Philis has been in Australia for almost 12 months, working her way around from Cairns. She was currently working at the avocado farm nearby. An absolutely amazing young, confident, resilient girl. We had plenty of laughs with her every afternoon. It turned out she had not as yet had an Aussie meat pie. How could that be. Dinner that night was pie, mashed potato, peas and gravy. She was suitably impressed!
Don't let the tea cup fool you! That's her wine cask on the bench ha ha!
Walpole
(Coalmine Beach)
Friendly visitors most afternoons.
More great camp fires.
There are so many four wheel drive tracks to the various beaches. Lots of fun.
Super soft sand so airing down.
So many forest areas to explore. Today was the Knoll Drive to Hilltop Lookout, the Giant Tingle Tree and Circular Pool in the National Park.
Hilltop Lookout. The view over to Coalmine Beach and the Nornalup Inlet.
Massive.
Further on to the circular pool. This is park of the Frankland River.
So beautiful and peaceful. We sat and soaked up the sun for a quite a while.
However.....excitement plus when we got back to camp. Friends from home. Yeah!!!
Ray and Mandy dropped in for a night on their driving holiday to Perth. This was a couple of days before Dezziz birthday, so there were celebrations. Being on the road for so long it was fabulous to have friends from the Sunshine Coast with us. So many laughs. A heart warming good time.
Group photo. Trying to find the best spot. This was a bit bright!
This is better.
We headed off to Peaceful Bay, nearby, for the morning. Stunning beach. Sadly the authorities were doing controlled burning off and the smoke was horrible.
Good to get the Paj on the sand.
Peaceful Bay jetty.
Ray showing his moves.
Couple holiday shot.
Ditto.
Nice easy boardwalk down to the beach.
The Conspicuous Cliff.
And of course, a lovely, long beach walk.
Put me on the beach and I'm a happy girl.
Even a lackey to carry the chairs and bag! Brilliant day.
Another dreary day so off to do more forest exploring. This time the Swarbrick Art Trail in the forest. Well...expecting quite a long walk and all sorts of interesting artworks. There were five, and the walk took 10 minutes - ha ha ha! Oh well, it was still interesting.
The entry - so to speak.
This was the main piece of art, and clearly the winner. Sheets of polished stainless steel effectively making a mirror. Really cool.
This one a representation of snakes in the bush - mmmm.
This one representing ants!
Not sure what this was supposed to be, the information plaque was missing. Oh well, maybe Dezziz halo????
Another mystery piece. And that was it!
Dezziz birthday celebrating in style. Gosh I spoil him. Just look at that cake. It was actually very, very yummy. A Nutcake from New Norcia. Very rich and delicious. Complete with candle and singing. Happy Birthday my love.
As most people would be aware, we brought a portable dental lab with us in the hope of earning some pocket money. Dream on. Two denture repairs in 12 months! And this one on his birthday. What a treat being back in the lab on his birthday!
Amazing what can be achieved on the road. And true to form, a glass of wine by his side.
The best part of birthdays - calls from our family. The smiles say it all talking to the boys and the grandies.
The Great South Forest Region is spectacular. We have loved it all, even the cold!
Next along the way - The Great Southern Region. Time to pack up.
Up all the stairs.
Across the swing bridge.
Looking towards the swing bridge.
The Falls.
A fabulous day exploring the karri forest area.
As luck would have it, the region is also lush with wineries and the odd brewery. This one just happened to be down the road from our camp. Time for some tastings and lunch!
Jarrah Jacks Brewery.
Beautiful view while having ad very yummy lunch, and glass or two.
Don't let the tea cup fool you! That's her wine cask on the bench ha ha!
Walpole
(Coalmine Beach)
Walpole is surrounded by the Walpole-Nornalup National Park and set on the Nornalup Inlet. The caravan park is on Coalmine Beach. Miles of walking track. Lots of trees. Really great. The weather was a mixture of sun, rain, warm and very cold.
Friendly visitors most afternoons.
More great camp fires.
There are so many four wheel drive tracks to the various beaches. Lots of fun.
Super soft sand so airing down.
So many forest areas to explore. Today was the Knoll Drive to Hilltop Lookout, the Giant Tingle Tree and Circular Pool in the National Park.
Hilltop Lookout. The view over to Coalmine Beach and the Nornalup Inlet.
Tingle trees are amazing. There are so many that have been hollowed out by fire and still remain standing.
Massive.
Further on to the circular pool. This is park of the Frankland River.
So beautiful and peaceful. We sat and soaked up the sun for a quite a while.
However.....excitement plus when we got back to camp. Friends from home. Yeah!!!
Ray and Mandy dropped in for a night on their driving holiday to Perth. This was a couple of days before Dezziz birthday, so there were celebrations. Being on the road for so long it was fabulous to have friends from the Sunshine Coast with us. So many laughs. A heart warming good time.
Group photo. Trying to find the best spot. This was a bit bright!
This is better.
We headed off to Peaceful Bay, nearby, for the morning. Stunning beach. Sadly the authorities were doing controlled burning off and the smoke was horrible.
Good to get the Paj on the sand.
Peaceful Bay jetty.
Ray showing his moves.
Couple holiday shot.
Ditto.
Gotta love pelicans.
Ray and Mandy headed off on their way west after a coffee stop. We headed to the next bay around - Conspicuous Cliff since it was such a stunner of a day.
Nice easy boardwalk down to the beach.
The Conspicuous Cliff.
And of course, a lovely, long beach walk.
Put me on the beach and I'm a happy girl.
Even a lackey to carry the chairs and bag! Brilliant day.
Another dreary day so off to do more forest exploring. This time the Swarbrick Art Trail in the forest. Well...expecting quite a long walk and all sorts of interesting artworks. There were five, and the walk took 10 minutes - ha ha ha! Oh well, it was still interesting.
The entry - so to speak.
This was the main piece of art, and clearly the winner. Sheets of polished stainless steel effectively making a mirror. Really cool.
This one a representation of snakes in the bush - mmmm.
This one representing ants!
Not sure what this was supposed to be, the information plaque was missing. Oh well, maybe Dezziz halo????
Another mystery piece. And that was it!
Dezziz birthday celebrating in style. Gosh I spoil him. Just look at that cake. It was actually very, very yummy. A Nutcake from New Norcia. Very rich and delicious. Complete with candle and singing. Happy Birthday my love.
As most people would be aware, we brought a portable dental lab with us in the hope of earning some pocket money. Dream on. Two denture repairs in 12 months! And this one on his birthday. What a treat being back in the lab on his birthday!
Amazing what can be achieved on the road. And true to form, a glass of wine by his side.
The best part of birthdays - calls from our family. The smiles say it all talking to the boys and the grandies.
The Great South Forest Region is spectacular. We have loved it all, even the cold!
Next along the way - The Great Southern Region. Time to pack up.
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