Along the way we
stopped in at Beedelup Falls, a fairly small cascade in height, but with a good
volume of water flowing down after the heavy rains we’d been suffering.
On arrival at the
caravan park, we were welcomed by a family of ducks who waddled around the
campsites as if they owned them.
Later that
afternoon we drove a couple of kilometres out of town to the Gloucester Tree, a
72 metre tall Giant Karri tree that was once used as a fire spotting platform.
153 steel spikes have been driven into the trunk as rungs and, much to my
amazement, the general public (for a small fee) may climb to the top,
completely unsupervised.
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| The view looking back down from the top |
Now if this was in
Victoria, there’d be barriers keeping everyone a safe distance from the tree so
that no-one was at risk of getting hurt by a falling leaf, perish the thought
of what might happen if you allowed
anyone to actually climb the tree! Western Australia is certainly no “Nanny
State”.
Laura
and I were the only two of the group who were both game enough and able bodied
enough to give it a go, so I strapped the GoPro to my forehead and headed on
up. I must say it was quite a workout and I was huffing and puffing by the time
I got to the top, but the view and the sense of accomplishment (I read that
only 20% of visitors make the climb) were worth it. Laura made it too. The
knees were a bit shaky by the time we got back down to the ground and I can’t
say for certain whether that was completely from the effort.
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Dave pretending to be one of the 20%
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