Pemberton and Peaceful Bay (trees, beaches, and weather)

Posted by efloow on November 30, 2015 in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

November 24-30

 

 

The southwest corner of Australia is unique for its massive forests of Karri, Marri and Tingle Trees. It has the right combination of climate and a deep granite based soil to allow these trees to grow to over 70m tall and live up to 500 years. It also has a spectacular coastline where the granite forms massive cliffs that back onto the white beaches with the crystal clear water of the southern ocean. It is here that we spent the last week of November, initially in the timber town of Pemberton and then onto the seaside campsite of Peaceful Bay.

 

 

For the first time in five months the weather has become a real issue for us. It is cold. The ubiquitous, and cold, wind coming of the southern ocean, gets through everything. The late spring sunshine and the shade of trees make the day times pleasant, but the nights are cold. Sleeping bags, and warm wardrobes are back and we have come to appreciate a good fire! Beach activities are definitely out (much to the protestation of a seven year old grommet) and museums, bush walks and school are back in!

 

 

Much of this part of Australia is gazetted as National Parks to highlight the spectacular and diverse landscape. There are stunning drives through the inland forests of Warren and Shannon National Parks, with walks to lookouts on and over the massive granite outcrops. Along the coast in the D’Entrecasteaux National Park there are exhilarating views of the southern ocean and barren clifftops. On the way you pass lush faming land, with vine clad hillsides, and fields full of avocado trees. There have been loads of really pretty wildflowers everywhere with an amazing range of bird life.

 

 

A few of the massive trees have been have made into lookouts for fire spotting. This is achieved by a series of posts driven into the trunk like a precarious spiral staircase. It is not for the faint hearted, only 20% of people that start the climbs finish them! Falling through the posts feels like a real possibility and 70m up a tree swaying a couple of meters in the wind feels very wrong! I made it to the top of Gloucester Tree, but bottled out half way up the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree. The kids got about 20m up and being remarkably sensible they gave up…..Sarah remained firmly rooted to the ground!

 

 

We ended up taking the tram on the old logging railway line between Pemberton and Northcliffe with informative commentary and insights into the area and its logging history. Another interesting take on the forest walks was the art walk at Northcliffe, where a range of interesting sculptures are placed along the track through the forest. Pemberton was also “bustling” with a film crew making a movie, Jasper Jones. It was interesting to see the props around the town… whole facades of shops, old cars and firetrucks, but none of the movie stars when we where there!

 

 

The Red Tingle Tree, is an ancient type of Eucalyptus tree only found in this area and is cleverly highlighted in the Valley of the Giants. The swaying tree top walk takes you up 40m through the layers of the forest up to the canopy on a cleverly designed, pretty and minimally obtrusive gantry. Sarah, despite her fear of heights even braved it! We also did the ancient giants walk around the base with a really knowledgeable guide which helped to make sense of some of the things that we have been seeing.

 

 

The weather for the next few days is supposed to be abysmal, so we are going to divert inland, away from the wind (maybe) and hope that we can rejoin the coast when it warms up (fingers crossed!).

 

E