Great Southern Forests

Dense forests of giant trees are not the first thing which you think of when you think of Australia, but large areas of these stretch across the area between Margaret's River and Albany, becoming the beautiful coastal strip called the "Great Southern". There are a lot of microclimates in SW Australia, and driving through it every half an hour it looks as though the landscape has re-invented itself.

One of the highlights of the trip so far was the "treetop walk" through the Tingle Tingle forests. When I read about it, it sounded like a cheap tourist trap: a walk around the forest canopy of of the "Valley of the Giants" near the town of Walpole. But it turned out to be something of a work of engineering: a series of aluminium walkways which look like upside down bridges supported on thick metal poles, taking you on a walk 40 metres above the ground. And, because the structure was swaying continuously, you really felt the 40 meters. Parrots were feeding in the trees (this kind is called '28s' - because of the sound they make, I read, or because of the poison used to kill them in the vineyards, as told by a woman in Margaret River). I saw a pair of chunky quokka scurrying through the undergrowth, which from above looked like oversized rabbits with rats' tails.