2 December - Pemberton and Southern Forests Sights, Karri Forest Explorer Drive

2 December 2016 – 197 220

Pemberton and Southern Forests Sights, Karri Forest Explorer Drive

Our day was focussed around the Karri Forest Explorer Drive.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/karri-forest-explorer#:~:text=The%20Karri%20Forest%20Explorer%20Drive,forest%20at%20your%20own%20pace.

The first stop was The Cascades in Gloucester National Park, followed by the Gloucester Tree.  Hayden climbed well up the Gloucester Tree and really enjoyed this and says fire tree climbing is his favourite thrill seeking activity!  

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

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/gloucester

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

Next up was Big Brook Dam – if the weather was warmer this would be a lovely spot for swimming as it is a large open lake with a beach area.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/big-brook-dam

We stopped for a picnic lunch at Giblett, where national parks appear to be very optimistic about the limbo capabilities of wheelchair users!  

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

After lunch, we continued on to Beedelup National Park to visit Beedelup Falls – the suspension bridge here looked very solid but was remarkably bouncy.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/greater-beedelup

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/beedelup-falls

This was again a section of the Bibbulmun Track, we are getting quite a collection of small sections of this track – I would love to walk more of it!  

https://www.bibbulmuntrack.org.au/

Next up was Yeagarup Lake in D’Entrecasteux National Park – this lake looks almost black from all the tanins in the water and across the other side of the lake can be seen the Yeagarup Dunes which have migrated inland from the beach covering sections of the forest.  

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

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/dentrecasteaux

We then drove to Warren National Park, where we drove the Heartbreak Trail and admired the massive grand trees.  

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/warren

https://trailswa.com.au/trails/warren-drive-trail

Last up for today was the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree – Hayden and Drew climbed up to the first viewing platform, about 30m up into the air.

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/dave-evans-bicentennial-tree

3 August - Litchfield National Park Exploring

3 August 2016 – 181 662

Litchfield National Park Exploring

https://nt.gov.au/leisure/parks-reserves/find-a-park-to-visit/litchfield-national-park
This morning we went to Walker Creek and had a short walk to the first campsite – these sites are quite small and not exactly flat but would definitely be peaceful.

The ranger, Wendy, did a talk regarding the history of the Bamboo Creek Tin Mine (on site) which operated from the 1900’s to the 1940’s.  It would have been a very hard and isolated life.  After this, we headed to the Cascades where we climbed up the creek to look at the great variety of waterholes.  We selected a small but deep hole with a small waterfall flowing into it as our own private pool.  The waterfall gave a lovely shoulder and back massage. 

We had our main meal in the heat of the day, so that we could stay out in the cool of the late afternoon.  After lunch we headed toward Lost City, but unfortunately the road was closed due to the wildfires burning.  The ranger this morning said they have now had about sixty percent of the park burn from the wildfires – that certainly explains the sheer amount of smoke. 

Due to this change of plans, we headed to Florence Falls.  It was nice, but nothing spectacular.  Apparently people regularly jump from the walls into the waterhole – I was not surprised to hear that there are fatalities most years, as the waterhole was difficult to swim around in due to the large sharp rocks beneath the surface.  Buley Rockhole was a series of rock holes with small cascades in between.  The top rock hole was at least ten foot deep, and it was quite pretty. 

Our last stop for the day was Tolmer Falls.  Due to construction, the direct walk to the lookout was closed and we did a 2.5km walk that wound through the forest.  The falls are very tall and the water looks extremely deep.  There is no access down into the base of the gorge – the terrain would make this very difficult and it is also home to two species of rare bats.  Another very full day.  My thoughts on Litchfield National Park are that the park is extremely dry and not particularly attractive.  It does have some beautiful water holes, however I much preferred the National Parks around Alice Springs for general scenery so far.  These evening we could see a large wildfire burning on the ridge beyond Wangi Falls that lit up the sky in an orange glow with large flames shooting high into the air.  This is the closest I have been to a large fire and I am happy for that to remain the case.