Mon 28 Oct 2013 - A Day In The Karri Forest

It was so beautiful to wake up deep in the forest, to hear the birds singing their morning songs and see the early sunlight slanting through the trees. We decided we'd love to go for a walk and see more and a good place to start would be the Beedelup Falls. The waterfall was very small, compared to the majestic ones we saw up North in the gorges, but it seems to be a landmark around here. 

There were lots of wild flowers down here, where there was a break in the trees.

After we'd walked to the falls, we continued along the trail and enjoyed walking among the lofty Karri trees. It was a lovely day for a walk and we were shaded all the way. It was soft underfoot because of the deep leaf litter and the only sounds were the birds calling each other and the buzzing of insects. Quite often there were trees fallen across our path and, rather than move them, because they are so big, the rangers had cut a piece out or steps into the trunk, so we could climb over them. We eventually came to a huge tree, 75m high that had a big hole through it's trunk, big enough to walk through. 

On the way back, we passed a big lake, made by a dam, where a resort had been built, but very unobtrusively, on the edge of the water.

After lunch we set off towards the South coast. The road was very pretty, with picturesque farmland, vineyards and avocado orchards. We were able to buy some from a box by a farm gate for 50 c each. We passed an organic cidery but, sadly, it was closed.

When we got close to Walpole, we decided to have another night camping in a National Park, this time in a grove of peppermint trees, but when we got there, we found there were 2 large groups of about 20 people each already there, so we chose to go further, down to Manderlay Beach. We arrived just in time to see the sun set over the rocks. This is our first sight of the Southern Ocean and the beach was very beautiful, especially in the evening light.