Day 58 – Margaret River to Albany

The rain had been steadily falling during the night, so it wasn’t much fun to pack up everything in the wet. Thankfully it doesn’t take us too long. Before long we were on the road again and heading south east through the pretty farming country and rolling green hills. We headed across country through the tiny town of Nannup (known for its beautiful displays of tulips), and down to the town of Manjimup (the birthplace of Pink Lady Apples). Did I mention before that everywhere we drive through these green hills for the last couple of days there are wild white aram lilies growing everywhere, on the waysides, and through the paddocks.

 

Manjimup is smack in the middle of timber country, lots of old growth forests of towering karri and jarrah trees. Before long we stopped at the King Jarrah tree – supposedly 500 years old. There is flowering purple sarsaparilla (hardenbergia) everywhere.

 

Back in the car again, and onto the southern ocean town of Walpole. We had lunch in a very nice bakery here, and then drove the few kilometres out the road to have a look at the Valley of the Giants treetop walk. It was still drizzling rain, and was quite pricey, so we decided instead to do the Ancient Empire walk (below the treetop walk). It was a beautiful walk among the giant red tingle trees. Many of them are hollow in the centre, due to fires or termites, but are stunning to look at. We really enjoyed the walk through the forest.

Back in the car again, and heading due east right across the bottom of West Australia, our next stop was at the Denmark Toffee Factory and Cidery. Here we sampled lots of lovely toffees (macadamia, treacle, etc) and tasted some toffee apple cider. Lots of yummy produce here. 

The drive of around 450kms to Albany today was a pretty one, through the forest, and various national parks. We booked into the Big 4 caravan park at Middleton Beach in Albany (glad we did, as it was booked out). Albany is quite a big city and we look forward to exploring it over the next few days.