Tree-top walks, the Valley of the Giants, Giant Tingle trees, Circular Pool and an eco-tour. The highlights of the day. Running into Jo’s yoga teacher at breakfast was the bizarre coincidence of the day.
Definitely Easter-time, the tourist density increased markedly as we drove into the car-park at the Valley of the Giants. Queues to get in, then a constant stream of people around the walk itself. Bouncing and swaying gently, some find it very disconcerting, some try to make it bounce and sway more… If there hadn’t been so many people around I think I’d have taken longer and maybe walked around again, as it was, it was just too noisy and too crowded. A brilliant way of getting a different perspective on the forest though.
Jo inside the Giant Tingle tree
The Valley of the Giants — every time I say it I can’t help thinking of the Irwin Allen TV show from the 70’s — Land of the Giants. Shockingly bad TV SciFi, and I’m sure I used to hurry home from school so I could watch it.
We’d decided to try and have dinner somewhere other than the pub tonight and we’re just walking out the door when the thunder cracked and down came the storm. It didn’t seem likely to stop soon, so much easier to step inside the pub and eat there again. $12 a head, serve yourself, anything from the bistro. When we joked with the cook that there was no more of yesterday’s apple pie, he replied that there was only one large slice left, so he hadn’t got it out of the fridge. Four dollars more and we finished off the pie.
A beer and a meal had exhausted the night-life of Walpole, so we retired back to the motel room, plonked on the bed, and spent the rest of the night watching Ben Hur on TV! It seemed bizarre, here we were 4000km from home, on our honeymoon, on a Saturday night, sitting up in bed watching an epic 1950’s movie on a ten year old TV. Ad breaks and all, the epic turned into a major epic. I was glad when it finally ended, give me the cinema over regional West Australian advertising any time!
Walpole Touristy Links
- http://www.wowwilderness.com.au/: WOW Wilderness Cruises.
- http://www.naturebase.net/tourism/valley_of_the_giants.html: Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk.
- http://www.valleyofthegiantsbirdandreptilediscoverycentre.com/: Valley of the Giants Bird and Reptile Discovery Centre (and one of the longest and silliest domain names I’ve ever seen)
Where?
Walpole(-34.95,116.7333333)
