5 December - Walpole Wild Areas

5 December 2016 – 197 761

Walpole Wild Areas

Our first destination today was Mt Frankland National Park.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/mount-frankland

We climbed to the summit of Mt Frankland, which is still used for fire spotting and weather reporting – the view from the top was amazing even with overcast weather and smoke haze!  The view must be truly magnificent on a clear day.  On the way down we were able to watch a group of people rock climbing on the granite slopes.  

https://trailswa.com.au/trails/mount-frankland-summit-trail/print

We then walked out on the Walpole Wilderness viewing platform.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/mount-frankland-wilderness-lookout

Next stop was the Swarbrick Art Loop – quite an interesting mirror arrangement. 

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/swarbrick

We then drove alongside the Nornalup Inlet, where the giant trees of the forest go right down to the water’s edge. 

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/walpole-and-nornalup-inlets

Next stop was Mt Clare, which involved walking another small section of the Bibbulmun Track. The view from here was relatively disappointing after Mt Frankland.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/mount-clare

https://trailswa.com.au/trails/mt-clare-summit-trail/print

Continuing along the Scenic Drive route, we stopped at the Hill Top Lookout, we could see out over the Frankland River to the ocean beyond.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/hilltop-lookout

As we travelled along the Scenic Drive we saw many many enormous trees, with various interesting effects on the bark from their lifetime of trials.  Next up was the Giant Tingle Tree – from the photos it appears dead, Tingle Trees can have the centre of the trunk burnt out and continue to live quite happily, so even though looking at the base it appears dead, there were green leaves high above.  It was massive!  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/giant-tingle-tree

Last stop for the day was Circular Pool, there is an area of rapids just below it which produced massive amounts of foam in the water, which was then blown around by the wind.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/circular-pool

All up, another busy day.