We Survived The Australian Road Trip!

The Improbable Chariot carried us home safely to Perth!

My view for the past three weeks. Isn't he cute?

We spent the last few days of our road trip exploring more of the tall forests in the south-western corner of the continent. From Pemberton, we zipped down to Walpole for a few nights, using that township as our base to go to the Tree Top Walk in the giant tingle forests and explore the coastline along the Indian Ocean.

The Tree Top Walk is one of Western Australia's most popular attractions. The idea is as follows. The tingle tree, the gigantic reddish Eucalyptus jacksonii, is a major eco-tourist attraction here; it grows only in a narrow strip of land in this corner of the world, and the locals say that they make you "tingle all over," and folks thus rightly come from far and wide to see them. But the tingle, despite being huge, is actually quite delicate. In order to let folks walk around them without impacting their temperamental root systems, the Department of Conservation and Land Management has built a gigantic suspended swaying walkway that is 40 meters high at its tippy-top point. The tourists pay ten bucks to walk among the tree tops of the tingles. It's really something.

40 meters is far to the ground!

The walkway feels very stable, but it is see-through.

Cool, huh?

Justin is taller than me, so he can actually reach the tree tops.

After doing the walk, we explored the Ancient Empire, a boardwalk that allows you to walk around the tingle trees' large buttresses, again being as low-impact as possible.

Don't they kind of look like ents?

Tingles are distinguished by their spreading, and often hollow, buttresses. There are a startling number of living trees growing out of totally empty, destroyed trunks.

After wandering through the base layer -- and doing the Tree Top Walk a second time -- we zipped on down to Pleasant Bay for lunch, so that Justin could dip his toe in the Indian Ocean.

Literally. [Justin: Hey it was cold!  There be Antarctica.]

We decided we had the time and inclination to take a little road trip down to Denmark, a hippie farming town that also happened to house the most beautiful, granite-lined, protected beach that either of us had ever seen.

Those are the Elephant Rocks, which supposedly look like a herd of elephants. I sort of think they look like a herd of granite, but they do make you want to swim, don't they?

The rocks provide a natural surf break. If it had been hot, we'd have jumped in for sure. As it was a bit chilly, we continued through the southwest towards Denmark, stopping off at a scenic drive or two. The scenic drives were, of course, peppered with hilariously detailed signage instructing us on which way to go for various tourist attractions.

Pottery! Tea rooms! SENSATIONAL heights! [Justin: Another sign listed the Puzzle Shop. I was intrigued.]

It was getting late, so we drove back towards Walpole for one last sunset hike around the beaches.

The following morning, we scampered up Mt Frankland, a granite dome overlooking the forest, before heading on our way back to Perth.

Blond hair attacks again.

 We saw more gigantic karri trees.

Treehugger.

We camped in a caravan park that was conveniently next door to a brewery on Lake Clifton, sampled their delicious Irish-style red ale, and cooked the last of our food before heading back to Perth today.

It has been a fantastic road trip. Campervanning is truly the only way to see the immense Western Australia; we could have spent a whole 'nother week exploring the Kimberly, up north; actually seeing more of the outback; checking out some more of the gold-mining towns; and of course spending much more time in the southwest, among those gigantic, gorgeous trees and beaches. And there has been so much I've not told you about.

There was the time we followed a whalewatching boat along Cape Naturaliste, and saw humpback whales from no more than a quarter mile.

There was the tallest Australian flagpole with the third-biggest Australian flag at a winery near Margaret River. (The owner actually got into a tiff with the Australian government about the relative sizes of their flags.)

There was the farmland among the forest.

There was the crazy red sap of the giant trees.

There was the time Justin did a little dance on a rocking bridge.

There was the Walk-Through Tree.

And all that is just from the southwest. Up north, there was so much more -- the folks we chatted with living on sheep stations, and the many emus with little emu babies, and of course the endless corrugated dusty back roads, which prompted us to write a little song about the Improbable Chariot.

[Sing to the tune of "Swimming, swimming, in a swimming pool:"]

Rental, Rental. We like to beat you up.
Before we take you back to Perth, we will clean you up.
Dirt road, dirt road, we never drove on you.
Insofar as they will know, that was always true!

(NB: we got our full deposit back on the campervan.)

Tonight we fly to Cairns to start a whole new side of this adventure. We're as excited for the next three weeks as we are grateful to have had such an excellent time these last three weeks. Hope everyone is well at home -- sayonara, Western Australia!

Meredith & Justin