Day 3 - Trip for 3

Thursday 17th we arrived at the Valley of the Giants - Tree Top Walk and Ancient Empire Walk.   The tree top walk is a  600 metre long narrow bridge that takes you up to 40 metres above the ground up into the tops of the Tingle Trees.  If  that's not scary enough the bridge actually moves as you walk on it!!!!!   I said I would give it a go but didn't get very far before I freaked out - some of you may know that anything higher off the floor than a chair is enough to make my heart and head pound and my knees get very weak.  So I backed out and David and Annaleise went - (Annaleise needed someone to hold her hand!!!! as she wasn't too sure about it either) - but she did it and therefore proved a point!!!!  Good on ya Leisie - I'm sure Ben was very impressed with your bravery!!!!

The photos without a date on them are Annaleise's photos.

Looking down through the walkway!!!

     After the Tree Top Walk we all went on the Ancient Empire Walk.  
The next 7 photos are on the Ancient Empire Walk.

Meet Grandma Tingle!!!

As we continued on our travels we passed through Northcliffe then Pemberton.  We went looking for the Gloucester tree at Pemberton as David climbed it in 1974 (when he was young and silly)!!!  This is what is said about it  -

When you think of thrillseeker adventures, tree climbing isn't normally what first springs to mind. But this is a tree with a difference.

A million people can't be wrong. That's how many people have climbed the giant Gloucester Tree. In fact, hundreds of thousands of people travel to Pemberton every year to tackle this famous karri tree, and in 2002 it carried it's 1 millionth climber to the top.

Standing at 61 meters tall, the Gloucester Tree is from the Karri family, which is the third tallest tree species in the world. It was pegged in 1946 so that people could climb it and use it as a watchtower for bushfires. Today it has become a very popular tourist attraction in the south west - and it's definitely not for the faint hearted.

For those of you who haven't stood next to a towering karri tree amongst the cool surroundings of a beautiful karri forrest - what are you waiting for? There's only one place in the whole world where the karri tree grows. You guessed it, in the south west.

The Gloucester Tree

No one was attempting to climb it the day we were there as it was still raining.  It was the only rainy day of the 6 day trip which was very fortunate for us because a lot of the time it was actually raining was when we were driving.