Wednesday 4^th April, 2012

The rain was the most faithful company we had today. At times weaker, at times stronger, sometimes a break and then of another time the full programme. Due to the bad weather we saw a few emus and kangaroos on the pastures at the side of the road. We wanted to visit a waterfall at Beedelup National Park. The path led over a suspension bridge from where we did not see any waterfall. Despite all the rain only a little water dropped over the rocks. After this short walk we drove to Gloucester National Park. Here we visited the Gloucester Tree, which is 72 m tall and the worlds tallest fire lookout tree. The platform was used until 1952 and in this area 8 other karri trees where also mounted like that. On a kind of spiral stairs with metal sticks we could have climbed up, but due to the rain it was too dangerous. Armed with rainproof clothes we dared out of the camper and walked a 800 m path to watch karri trees. The karris are a sort of eucalyptus which is only growing in western and south-western Australia. As there is a chain of National Parks in this region we were driving for hours through many karri forests. Our next destination was the Valley of the Giants. Here there are tingle trees, another kind of eucalyptus which can get up to 400 years old. The trees can get 60 m tall and may have a circumference of 16 m. In the trees there is a suspension bridge construction so we could watch the trees from above. The highest point was at 40 m. Then we walked a path leading to old and partially hollow trees. I was impressed how tall and wide the trees can get. As it got soon evening we drove to Denmark and stayed at the water. Next to our camper the Denmark River flows into the Wilson Inlet.