Following our early night, we were up and checked out reasonably early the next day! It was just as well as our itinerary for the day was packed full!
 
The first stop was just up the road: the Giant Tingle Tree! We were really keen to visit here for sentimental reasons as Matt's dad & stepmum had visited during their time in Australia and we had seen their photos! So after a short walk down to the famous tree we stopped and posed for our own photos! Tingle trees are impressive because they develop a hollow interior as they grow, sometimes due to disease or other times because of fires so it is baffling how something so big and heavy can continue to stand on what appears to be such a weakened frame?!
 
From here, we continued up the road to the Valley of the Giants, this is where a lot of the trees are up to 200 years old and are some of the highest in Australia . There is a tree top walk along a canopy boardwalk which is 40m above the forest floor. This was quite an eerie feeling especially when the bridges bounced, rocked or swayed as you walked along them, especially when I looked round to catch Matt bouncing it on purpose! The only disappointment was that we didn't see any wildlife but nevertheless it was a new experience to be walking among the treetops! As part of your entry ticket you can enter the Ancient Empire, which is a walk through a forest area containing lots more tingle trees as well as other plants and flowers. We also had a look around the discovery centre which taught you about the different animals that live in that area and explained how they keep themselves hidden so it was no wonder we hadn't spotted any! Our final stop here was the the gift shop, where Matt finally caved and bought himself a jumper realising that the temperature was slowly dropping the further south we went and that he was in for a few chilly nights without one! Matt then had some photos taken of him comparing himself to the tallest player in the Aussie rules A league as he was the guest who had opened the tree top walk when it was new .
 
The next couple of attractions on our tour were Greens Pool and Elephant Rocks which are beautiful natural rock formations on two lovely quiet beaches with some beautiful blue water. We spent quite a while taking photos and walking around the 'elephants' before finding a spot to sit and take in the view!
 
We had one last stop to make and that was Denmark - no we hadn't suddenly nipped back to Europe - where we stopped for an unexpectedly expensive lunch & a bit of food shopping! It was nice to have a little look about the town too and stretch our legs! The shops seemed to be mainly bakeries, cafes and book shops so I was quite happy!
 
While we were in Denmark, we phoned ahead to book a night's stay at the YHA in Albany, where we eventually arrived, checked in and, after having a bite to eat for dinner, headed to bed for an early night ready for an early start!
 
The next morning we had a big list of attractions to work our way through before heading on to Esperance, starting with Dog Rock. This is exactly as it sounds: a big rock that is shaped like a dog's head! Of course there is an aboriginal dreamtime story that goes along with it explaining how it came to be positioned there and now someone has painted a collar around its 'neck' to help it be even more recognisable as a dog!
 
Next we drove down to Middleton beach which is a lovely, quiet area with gorgeous white sand and blue sea . There is a boardwalk you can follow which takes you all the way along the coast but, with so many other sights to see, we decided not to do that.
 
Instead we decided to drive to Mount Clarence where there is an impressive ANZAC memorial. Unfortunately, the walk to the viewpoint was closed for refurbishment so we couldn't go up there but there were a couple of other lookouts nearby that we were able to enjoy and take photos from.

We passed our next sight, the Brig Amity replica, as we drove along the foreshore and away from the main part of Albany. The Brig Amity vessel brought the first settlers to Albany from Sydney in 1826. It was crazy to think that was how they would have travelled in those days, looking at it, it's a wonder anyone made it safely!!
 
Next we visited 3 different rock formations: Natural Bridge, The Gap & Blowholes. Natural Bridge is as its name suggests, a bridge which has formed naturally linking two large areas of rock face. We were quite intrigued to learn that this part of Australia is the area that millions of years ago used to be joined to the Antarctic, so the rock we were stood on is exactly the same as there! We also learnt that apparently Australia is still moving north at a rate of 5cm a year . Crazy! The Gap is again appropriately named as it is a 10-15 metre wide gap between two rock faces. The waves crash up between them with great force and it is believed that the erosion this causes will see The Gap eventually disappear completely! You have to time your visit to the Blowholes correctly as the greater the waves the more impressive their effect. When we visited, the waves were quite big but unfortunately not strong enough to cause big powerful blasts of air through them! Nevertheless, you have to be careful how close you get as little bits of shell and sand can get forced through which would be quite painful if it hit you!
 
After completing our tour of Albany, we were back on the road towards Esperance with about 5 hours of driving still to go!!!! This started off as quite a scenic drive as we had to pass through a nearby mountain range. The roads were extremely quiet as well so we only had a few lorries pass in the other direction for hours. It wasn't long before we realised we were running low on petrol and with the towns becoming less and less frequent we were quite concerned! Luckily as we were nearing the red line we came across a sign for a town that had a petrol station and so we pulled into Ongerup to fill up! It was obvious from the off this was another of the ghost towns we've been to as the streets were totally deserted . The lady who owns the service station came out to put the petrol in and quickly got chatting to Matt. Apparently the population of Ongerup is only 70 people so any visitors are quite a novelty! She even mentioned how 13 people had recently moved out, this was obviously quite a big thing for them! She was lovely and very helpful though and gave Matt a booklet which had information about Esperance and gave him some tips of places to visit.
 
The last part of our drive was very scenic as we passed through the Stirling Range which has some very tall trees indeed. I spent the last part of our journey researching what there was to see and do in Esperance with the help of our new booklet and by the time I had finished we were both very excited about the days ahead!