Another Cool Day

[Kyle]We slept again until we were too sore to do it anymore and we were sure morning had arrived. The birds tipped us off. There is one bird, which I have never been able to see, which starts off its morning with a call that sounds just like a chimpanzee. It only does it once or twice and then it’s up. I call it the Monkey Bird because it rolls off the tongue easier than Ape Bird. After the Monkey bird calls, all the other birds in the forest start their twittering and singing. It really is a nice way to get up. We don’t need to set an alarm. When the Monkey Bird goes off, sunrise will be in half an hour.


Fernhook Falls
We had a quick stop at Fernhook Falls (also on the Frankland) then headed generally west. I saw a sign that said: Great Forest Tree Drive. We just had to turn. At one of the lookout points, we found out about The Bicentennial tree and decided we just had to go.

The Forest Service, in an attempt to solve the problem of putting fire spotting towers throughout the forest, decided to put platforms in the tops of selected Karri trees in the area. The Bicentennial Tree had the highest tower. Not only was it the highest tower in the karri forest, The Bicentennial Tree is the highest treetop lookout tower in the world. The platform at the top is 75 meters (250 feet) above ground level.

That’s pretty cool. The really cool thing, though, is that you can climb it. We expected to find a long queue of tourists waiting to pay a fee at a booth. When we arrived, we had (again) the whole place to ourselves. There was no ticket office or padlock, just a sign at the bottom advising against climbing if you were in poor health or afraid of heights or were not wearing sensible shoes. The climb is accomplished by pulling yourself up on a series of posts drilled into the tree in a spiral, like a circular staircase.



Maryanne and I both Climb to the top - notice the crime scene like body outline some friendly comic has drawn on the deck below - this was a clear reminder of the consequences of a fall
The view from the top was magnificent. From the highest tree house in the world we could see vast stretches of the forest. Equally cool was being able to be right up in the canopy watching parrots (in this case Lorikeets) go about their morning routine just a few feet away.


Beedlup Falls Swinging Bridge
Our drive then took us to Beedelup Falls, whose main attraction (apart from the beautiful views) is a swaying footbridge across the river. We figure it more than made up for missing the overcrowded Carrick-a-rede Bridge in Northern Ireland.

Just as driving back to San Francisco from the redwood forest passes through wine country, driving back from the karri forest to Perth also passes through wine country. We both were eager to stop at some point. We found a place that was a vineyard, winery, distillery and chocolatier. Perfect! Uh, not really. It turned out to be a rather gruff guy who barked at us to buy something. No tour for you! No, thanks.

I keep a running calculation in my head of the time of daylight remaining and the distance to our planned camp and it was starting not to look good with all of our side trips. We would have to give the rest of the wineries a pass if we wanted to get in our last side trip: The lighthouse at Cape Leeuwin.

Non-sailors may not get it, But Cape Leeuwin has a very special place in the world of sailing. For sailors who do the crazy non-stop around the world races via the great Southern Ocean, Cape Leeuwin is one of the five great capes that must be passed. The others are Cape Horn in South America, The Cape of Good Hope in Africa, South West Cape in New Zealand and the South West Cape in Tasmania. Cape Leeuwin on the South-West corner of Australia separates the Southern Ocean from the Indian Ocean. Neither Maryanne nor I have any intention of rounding this cape at sea, since passing to the north of Australia seems more sensible, but we figured we should at least see it. We got to go to the top, too.



Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, and the adjacent now petrified water wheel built to supply the builders of the lighthouse with fresh water
That stop took longer than planned so we were a little behind schedule. Our situation got worse when we couldn’t find our camp ground. We took a few roads that looked like the right one only to find ourselves at a dead end or a private property sign, losing even more time. The next campground was closed. We ran low on gas and lost time refuelling.

In the end, we pulled into Leschenault Peninsular Conservation Park well after dark. We were greeted with a plethora of warning signs about the doom awaiting anyone who was foolish enough to camp here. One said the water had rip tides so do not swim, one said there was a poison risk from fox traps, one said the mosquitos carried the Ross River virus, One said it was a Double Gee infected area. Eeek! No wonder the place was empty on a Friday night. We set up our tent in the light of the car headlamps and beat a hasty retreat inside.