Gloucester Tree to Albany Saturday 3rd September

 
Once again it is a cold, misty and dreary morning. regardless, we head out to Gloucester National Park which has several walks however it is the boy's intention to scale the Gloucester Tree. This tree along with 2 others - The Bicentennial Tree and the Diamond Tree were originally constructed in the 1930's & 1940's as fire lookouts in the top of Karri trees. These lookouts in the treetops were an ingenious way of spotting fires in such tall forest. The Gloucester Tree towers 61m above the forest and has a series of reo bars that spiral upward and act as footpegs. The boys make it up halfway before it starts pouring rain and very slippery and thus disappointingly but safely descend to the forest floor.
We continue on through these forests to the township of Walpole an this area is famous for it's Red Tingle trees (Eucalyptus Jacksonii). The Giant Tingle Tree is over 450 years old & measures 24min girth at it's base. We move on to visit Valley of the Giants and the Wilderness Discovery Centre. We take the Tree Top Walk which is a 600m walkway rising 40m above the forest floor and provides a breathtaking experience a birds eye view of the forest. With the rain and winds picking up, it almost provided a little extra along the way also.... A meandering boardwalk also takes us through a grove of veteran Tingle trees called the Ancient Empire. This walk lets us experience at close hand some of the unique shapes of some of the giant trees. We walk through the hollowed out base of one. Along this path, we encounter the story of these ancient trees. We pass more wildflowers, this time native slipper orchids and tassel flowers interspersed with native grasses, moss, lichen and fungi.
We taste more samples of fudge, condiments and honey at Denmark before travelling once more through sweeping pastoral vistas and ocean scenery and into Albany.