Day 21-22 May 12th-13th
Completed 5000 klm so far as we arrived in Albany, Days are mild around 18-20 deg C, and the second time we have had rain, both times during the night. But now to keep moving after a wonderful visit to the region around Albany.
First stop is in the Walpole-Nornalup National Park, fortunately, we purchased a annual pass for the car,WA ($75) senior concession of course , as we will be visiting many national parks in WA over the next few months.
Eucalyptus jacksonii, commonly known as the red tingle, is a species of tall tree endemic to the south west of Western Australia and is one of the tallest trees found in the state. They have a beautiful tree top walk through the canopy, at an elevation of 40mtr (200ft). They are unique to this part of WA, and have their origins when Gondwanaland one a single super continent before it broke up. They typically require about metre of rain a year, and this south west corner of WA provides this.
They have a very shallow root system, unlike many other gums which have a deetap root to extract moisture. The Tingle enjoys soft loamy soil and is sensitive if the area around the tree is compacted, so walking around the base is off limits.
Another feature is that they mostly develop a hollowed out base, which is caused by fungus, insects and fire, but still they hang to life and most of the giant Tingle in this forest are over 400 years old. Tiny 2″ bats live in these hollows and appear at night along with Quolls, and Possums.
Red Tingle
Have lunch in Walpole situated on an inlet out to the ocean, Great to have the van to cook something up quickly and sit at tables in the local park.
Quite a surprise for us was the extent of the forests in this corner, very large, and also how green everything. We could have been in UK, Ireland or Europe, green fields with cattle sharing the same paddocks as Emu’s and Kangaroos, then back into forests, lovely surprise.
Declan, the master of finding nice spots to free camp has selected Big Brook State Forest. This is about 10klm from Pemberton deep into the forest. Driving into it on forest trails is an interesting experience for me and Sarah, there were parts when I thought what if it is not suitable for van of our size, but eventually the Jedi Master was right, no problem.
The National Parks have a host, which is a voluntary position who stays in his van within the camp ground, and collects the small fee ($7ea) which provides order and area for camping. In National Parks, you must have Grey Water Tanks for waste water, as you must bring everything out with you, also no bins are provided. Neil & Annette were our hosts and they rotate every 4 weeks to the various places in the state.
A great night was had around the fire, with Lizzie, Kaye, Emma, Jake, and many more.
This part of the forest is also an Arboretum, better look that up, it is when multiple species of non native trees are planted within a forest. Not sure if this would happen today in a state forest, but it did here in 1934 in this section. Peter & Jim (Oregon USA) you would be interested to note that these Canadian Redwoods & Sequoia were behind our van. Worlds tallest trees, ahh, could be in Portland
Local mushrooms 
Redwood, Sequoia
My favourite Australian Bird, The Kookaburras, (laughing), wonderful sound always at dusk and dawn. Carnivorous, related to the Kingfisher Family, but these like snakes, mice and lizards. Some of the more social Kookas, will take meat from BBQ. Trish in fact has a story, when she cooked a nice steak (bbq), was bringing it inside and it swooped and took it off her plate, luckily it was too heavy so the kooka dropped it, Trish promptly picked off the ground, washed it, put it back on the BBQ for a fews mins and this time made it to the table.
Waiting beside the van 
Road Out 
Typical undergrowth
Heading towards the coast through Manjimup, Nannup, and every other UP, bite to eat in Margaret River, and base for the next few days….Prevelly. The Margaret River World Surfing Championship finished a this week and was held here on Prevelly Beach. For the interested the men’s was won by Filipe Toledo (Brazil) & women’s Tatiana Weston Webb.(Brazil) Took this late afternoon of some locals surfing. They are about 1 klm offshore here.Beautiful Indian Ocean
Modern art, Eurybia, the goddess of power over the wind and sea. A local lad has a novel way of attaching his board to his mountain bike. Yes I think that is where I will park my board!
