Forests, Giants, and Angry Oceans

Until now we've been enjoying mostly beautiful sunny days, with temperatures usually in the 70's and 80's (with some 90's in the outback). That all changed today. We traded in our shorts and t-shirts for jeans and sweatshirts as we traveled to the cool southern forests of Western Australia. We left Perth and headed southeast toward Albany along, what else?, the Albany Highway. The scenery along the Albany Highway was very different from the dry desert scenery of the outback. Here we saw much more lush, greener environs: green rolling hills, and trees much taller and greener than those seen previously. We also saw wheat fields, fields with bales of hay, forests, lots of sheep farms, a few cattle farms, and a single Alpaca. Along the way, we passed through a few small towns that were always listed as "shires". For example, "Welcome to the Shire of Boddington." We also saw signs denoting this highway as a "Road Train" route. The truck trains I mentioned previously are actually called Road Trains. We even saw an area that was designated as a "Road Train Assembly" lot.

We still didn't see very many on the roads, though, or very much traffic at all - which is good, because what Australia calls a "highway" would be a poor excuse for a road in the US. When we neared the town of Albany, we headed west along the South Coast Highway, and stopped at the town of Denmark to do some "tourist shopping" along the main street of this quaint little town.

After, we continued west on the South Coast Highway and drove through many of Australia's National Forests. We stopped at the "Valley of the Giants", which is a forest of mostly red Tingle trees, which is a type of Eucalyptus tree. The red Tingles of the "Walpole Wilderness" are some of the largest and tallest trees in the world. We took a "Tree Top Walk", where we walked along an elevated walkway, with each span of the walkway climbing higher and higher,

(and swaying as we walked across them) until we reached a height near the tree tops from which we viewed the forest canopy below. Then we took the "Ancient Empire Walk" where we strolled through a grove of veteran trees at ground level.

Some of these trees were so old that the insides were hallowed out, and the trunks were so huge that you could stand inside the hollow trunk.

From the Walpole Wilderness we continued driving west through the forests and then finally to the west coast, and then south to the southwest point of Australia. At this point, the Southern Ocean (which borders Australia to the south) and the Indian Ocean come together. Along this drive we saw magnificent views of both oceans, rocky coasts, sandy shores, and white-capped waves that were roiling and colliding in a way very rarely seen. Joe described it as "The ocean was angry!"

It was a spectacular sight. We ended the day at Margaret River (a little further north), which is an internationally renowned wine region, with stunning beaches and breathtaking scenery. Because of the late hour we arrived (we drove over 500 miles today), the Margaret River region will have to wait until tomorrow to be explored.