G'day All,
Today we are off to see some tree's these Tingle trees are up to 4-500yrs old and are up to 65metres (215 feet) tall in some cases and they are some of the straightest timbers in the world, the blurb for the tour said we will be picked up at 7 .10am so again an early start up at 5am showers etc and a quick continental breakfast of cereal toast and a quick coffee.

The Bus arrives and off we go picking up other passengers from other inner city hotels, we get dropped off at a central meeting place and get told that the front coach is ours so off we go and get on board the driver then says he is not our driver but will take us to where the driver will be, there are 7 of us on the bus so we are waiting when the driver hops on starts the bus and off we go he then says this is it people there are only 7 of you today and we are on a big 34 seater bus, we get to the bus depot at Jandakat and pick up Mike our driver for the day, he organised the lunches and handed every one a bottle of water and said if we want more yell now that was a good idea as it was going to be a warm day around the 30C mark down where were were going Perth its self was expecting 35C.

Mike informed us that due to the long drive ahead of us and the transport rules regarding the time a bus driver can be behind the wheel was the reason for his late pick up and that we would be traveling over 1000 kilometres ( 625 miles) today so sit back let me do the stressing and you relax, he then explained that due to the length of the day we would be on tight schedule with stops so if we could all stick to them we will get back to Perth before midnight and the first stop will be in the Apple growing region of Donnybrook and this is where they produced the first pink Lady variety of apple .

Smoko over we were off again as Mike explained the Jarrah tree as being one of the straightest and solidest trees in the world and how this area where we were going was the tree growing region a lot of plantain timbers as well as old growth forests that are now protected, we made out lunch stop at a tall forest tree called the diamond tree and it was used as a fire look out right up the top 52mts (172 FT ) above the ground was the fire shack the reason this particular tree was chosen was because it was the tallest in the area and the foresters would climb it and see if there were any bush fires in the area, bush fires were one of the many dangers these old timber getter's faced apart from injury there were snakes and other bush related injuries.

We had Lunch at this tree and as we were enjoying it a car pulled up and a family got out the kids shot straight to the tree and before you could say boo they were up that tree like a couple of monkeys with the parents at the bottom saying be careful, the kids were about 8 and 10 and they went up and came back down the girl about 8 said that was great fun the boy of about 10 said yeah was a bit scarier than the last one we climbed and off they went a whistle stop tour to let the kids wear themselves out i think .

Back on the road again we headed to the main point of this trip the tree top walk at the Valley of the giants, this is where we will do a tree top walk get our feet off the ground an walk around the canopy of this forest, after we did the tree top we went for a walk into the ancient forest to see the older trees and walk thru some of them it is amazing how these Tingle trees survive even with 90% of the base burnt out the thin shell of the tree keep a tree 60 mts tall alive, we then had to leave this magnificent place i could spend a day here alone pity we only spent just on an hour and a quarter here so still was worth the long drive.

We stopped at a place called William Bay and it is on the very bottom of Western Australia and looks out on the Southern Ocean if you looked straight ahead and could see 4000klms you would see Antarctica but alas my eyes were not in good form so all i saw was a couple of rocky out crops in the ocean, we then had afternoon tea there and some people wandered the stony beach others like us just too pictures and had a nice cuppa and a biscuit soon we were on our way and we passed thru the town of Denmark no we did not teleport to there it is just a name :) we then headed north and started the long journey home we are roughly 450 klms (280 miles) away, when we travel any distance here we usually don't talk about it in mileage but rather time as we have a top speed of 110 KPH (70mph ) so we usually say it will take us x hrs to cover the distance . We then headed to our dinner stop at a town called Kojonup had Dinner there and the place was called Kodja after dinner we had a quick tour around the museum and was given a talk about the relationship between the local Aboriginals and the white man was an how the town grew from there.

Back on the bus and home we went after dropping everybody else off at there respective hotels we were last out of the bus and into bed at 11pm at night, so good night all and tomorrow is a quieter day just in Perth on the hop on hop off tram to see the sights of Perth so sleep well when you go.

Hoo roo
Stewart and Nancy.


Hello All,

This is one tired worn out Reporter,the idiot has done it again he said oh oh lets go look at some trees and here i am thinking why why does it have to be trees i was born and raised in the damn smelly damp things and here he is going looking for them, they are nothing special they are a fibrous material they live and die like all things but when they die they make a hell of a noise when they crash down to the ground .

So we were up at 5am would you believe even the birds threw rocks at his window when the alarm went off, all showered down to breakfast and out the door, waiting to be picked up (no not like that sheesh).
The big bus arrives and we set off only to be told this is just a pick up bus we will be taken to the terminal where we will join our tour, would you believe it we have only 7 people on this trip and as the driver explained a lot of people shy away from the long drive as well as the down turn in tourism since the Australian Dollar went strong against the American dollar making it not as cheap as it used to be, he then told us he won't be the driver for this trip but he is taking us to pick up the driver as he has a long day an rules won't let him drive for more then a certain amount of time.

We pick up the new driver and he says G'day i am Mike and i will be your tour guide and driver for the day so settle back into your seats as we have over 1000klms to travel today and it will be a long day, as we were driving down the road we passed Mandurah and i asked him why they called the towns with an UP at the end of their name like Kojonup and he said the UP meant place of so Kojonup means Place of water .

We arrived in a lovely little village called Donnybrook and had Morning tea there and took some pics then it was off to the lunch date with a tree called the Diamond Tree it is huge man my nose started to bleed just looking up in fact i fell over as i am so short i could not look up and the idiot had to pick me back up and hold me so I could look up up up, up up hm too many up's hey an this is a place of as well a bloody big tree with a house on the top of it now how silly is that do they expect to get flooded, Mike then told us that this is actually a fire spotting tree they climb up there in the fire season and look for fires, just as he told us that this car pulls up and two kids bolt past me like a bat out of hell and shinny (climb) up this tree as if it was a cubby house Mum and Dad are stilling at the bottom and saying now becareful children only go half way by the time it is out of his mouth the kids are 3/4 way up this tree that i discover is 52mts tall. they are up there for a few minutes and are down they all say it was great the 10 yr old boy is shaking and says it was a little scary and his 8yr old sister says can i do it again no they were told time to go so off they went again on the look out for a bigger tree to fall out of .

After lunch we went and saw the best part the whole trip was meant for this a magnificent tree top walk we got our tickets and away we went walking amongst the tall timbers these trees are called Tingles and no they don't go tingle when they fall they make a huge whoooopa sound when they hit but the walk it self is an engineering feat on its own, it has long spans which are only anchored at the corners so no supporting wires or poles just the meeting point, the main reason they had the walk way was it was discovered that these
trees are the only non tap rooted tree in Australia so when you walk
around them at the base you are in fact killing them as you are compacting
the soil so to preserve them they built this walk way that now is in use
world wide as a result of the design of it.and here we were right at the tree tops we could see for kilometres, after the walk we went and had a look at some really old trees some were as old as 500yrs old, so my manufacture date was 2007 so hm they are a lot older then me but then again in squirrel years i am now about 100 so still they leave me in the dust, as we walked around my nose suddenly smelt a disgusting smell and i said to the idiot check your shorts mate that smell is shocking, he looked at me and said i thought it was you so we both looked at Nancy and went yep that be right as she was in front of us, then the idiot looked at a plague that was describing the plants and we both went oops just as well we did not accuse her apparently there is a Wattle that smells that bad, so we kept our mouths shut just in case .

We were off to the ocean the Great southern ocean the one that meets the Indian ocean but we are further south so we can see Antarctica so they say, when we got to Williams bay i asked if we had permission to be here in his bay and the idiot said yes it is ok it is a National park and well the view was stunning after we had had afternoon tea there we headed back north to out evening meal stop at a place called Kojonup and the meal was in a place called the Kodja place or Story Place we had a beautiful meal and then this Aboriginal elder took us for a tour and a story of how the white man and Aboriginal managed to make this area what it is today.

We then hit the road for a 3hour drive home we finally got to bed at 11pm and man i can tell you after 18hrs i was bushed, so ever one hope you sleep well and see you in the morning.

Oh Oh before i forget it the idiot was the boy scout for the day we had a lovely elderly couple on the bus and he was a pure gentleman he helped her off the bus then waited till the old fella appeared and then assisted him off the bus at each stop, nearly made me cry it did till i remember how he never helps me he shoves me in his pocket with a dirty smelly handkerchief ewwwwwwwww had something on it the other day so i wiped it off on his shirt, any way am off.

Cheers Cedric one knacked squirrel