Day 131 01/08/2011 Shannon National Park – Albany via Walpole and Denmark

Day 131 01/08/2011 Shannon National Park – Albany via Walpole and Denmark

We were awoken this morning by the noisiest birds. I’m not sure what breed they were but they were having some sort of family fight in the trees about our caravan.



Giant Tree Top Walk!!



After we packed up with great excitement we headed to Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk.  This was a great experience for all of us, the Tree Top Walk took us through the tree tops of a tingle forest.  Western Australian tingle trees are some of the most enormous trees in the world and can only be seen in this area.  The Tree Top Walk soared 40m into the tingle canopy and gave us an amazing view over the trees and across the valley.  This was a great alternative to yesterday’s tree climbing experience!!

After the Tree Top Walk we completed the Ancient Empire Walk. The walk meanders through a grove of veteran trees at ground level and gave us another perspective of the magnificent giant trees that grow in this unique area!! The kids had great time comparing their height to the height of the trees and where possible they walked through the holes in the trees base and trunks!! It was a great way to spend the morning submerging ourselves in this amazing wilderness.

This tree trunk is almost as spacious as the caravan of
peace, love and happiness!!

For lunch we headed to Conspicuous Cliff Beach in Walpole-Nornalup NP.  Here we were able to gaze upon spectacular limestone cliffs and to once again marvel at the large surf as it pounded the pristine beach.  We headed up to the lookout aware that rain was heading our way, unfortunately we thought we had enough time to get up to the lookout, we were wrong.  Just as I arrived at the lookout the heavens opened up and we got rained on!! It would have been funny to watch us running back down the hill to the shelter below.  Again the rain didn’t last long and we were soon on our way.

Elephant Rocks!!



Off to Green Pool and Elephant Rocks we headed in William Bay NP.  Green Pool is described as a beautiful place to swim in turquoise waters and is popular for its beach views.  Today, given the fierce winds and the raging surf the pool didn’t look quite so inviting!! (although there was one very brave young man in the water whilst his girlfriend sat rugged up reading a book)

We then headed up over the hill looking for Elephant Rocks, these are a unique granite formation that looks uncannily like a herd of elephants.  Although we could see the swimming potential today was not one that invited us to get wet!! The kids had a great time climbing over the rocks and trying to turn themselves into human kites by holding their jumpers above their heads.  Thankfully they were not blown away.

We left Green Pool and Elephant Rocks hoping that next time we visited it would be warmer, the water would be calmer and we would be able to explore this fabulous part if the West Australian coastline from the water.

Given the bad, poor weather we decided to head to Albany for the night.  Another  great day.