On Monday we settled in Busselton for a couple of days, home to the 1 Mile Jetty (the longest in WA), which left us a little confused as we were sure Carnarvon was claiming the same when we went through?!? Although we didn't walk this one, the kids spent most of the afternoon on the fabulous, creative playground beside it. Busselton was also where we found the oldest stone church in WA and some gorgeous parkland. The town is very 'touristy' otherwise.
We did use it as a base though, and on Tuesday did some driving down to Dunsborough and the magnificent Margaret River region, with absolutely beautiful scenery made up of farmland, wineries and forestry with wildflowers, wild lillies and ferns. We even saw a deer farm with deer leaping across the field as we drove by. On the way back, we went through the town of Cowaramup, where statues of dairy cows lined the main street...very cute!
We left for more Jarrah Forestry filled with wildflowers on Wednesday, and stopped in Bridgetown-Jarrah Park for a few days before we head further south. Its a small, cosy spot with walking trails and not far from the town of Bridgetown where we will spend the next days exploring. We started a fire early though, as it got pretty chilly when the sun went down and roasted marshmellows under the stars for dessert.
On Thursday, armed with maps and plant identification charts, we spent the morning on a 4km bushwalk finding and identifying plants and trees in the Jarrah Forest. It was a great school morning. We drove into Bridgetown for lunch in the park...what a pretty town full of character built on the top of rolling green hills where the backs of all the buildings lead down the hills towards the river. Bridgetown is the home of Blues in WA, so has a great 'vibe' to it, and is also home to the Jigsaw Museum! Yes, walls filled with mounted jigsaws of all shapes and sizes, even ones to complete if you so desired! We thought it was fantastic (and a little bit quirky)!
We left Jarrah Park on Saturday and drove through to Manjimup for lunch and laundry, then continued on to Shannon National Park Campground for the weekend. A beautiful part of the Southern Forests, with more Karri country, one of the most magnificent forest trees growing to over 300 years old and over 80m tall! Another nice thing about Shannon NP is hot showers (run on wood boilers) and flushing loos! We don't usually have these until we stop in a van park!
We spend Sunday Morning driving through the 50km Great Forest Trees Drive through the park, with little radio broadcasts along the way explaining the history, plant and tree life of the National Park. Its a great little compliment to what we have been doing in school the last few days while travelling through the forests. An afternoon walk gave us some close up views of big grey kangaroos feasting on the green flats near the campground.
We decided to continue our forest theme for school on Monday and drove further south to the Valley of the Giants Tree Top walk in the Ancient Tingle Forests. The Tingle Trees are only found here, and remind me of the trees you see drawn in cartoons with bulgy foot like trunk bottoms and massive trunks. You cannot even capture the whole tree in a photo they are so huge! (The Grandma Tingle was the kids favourite in the photos below with her wrinkles and one eye.) The guided walk taught us a lot about the Tingle Forest and the Walk took us 40m high to see some of it. Another great learning day that brings us to the end of the South West Forests and down to the Southern Coastline.
In the not too distant future we will cross another border and leave WA...wow, what a massive state! I don't think we really appreciated the size of this state until we drove from one end of it to the other and we still have more to go!
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