Diamond Tree (Manjimup) 14 December 2006

Drove through the trees toward Manjimup and we noticed that lots of the towns here end in … “up” which is Aboriginal word for “place of”. It is a bit like a foreign language trying to remember all the names of towns and trying to pronounce them. We saw very few cars until we came up behind an identical green Winnebago towing a yellow car. We had met them before near Katherine and we mused about this coincidence. As we travelled behind they overtook two bike riders who we instantly recognised as Moema and Alamo with the Swiss flag. We laughed at the thought that they would think it was us until they saw the yellow car. We then overtook waving! Imagine their surprise, however we could not stop and wait, as the road never had a pull-over spot.
On to Beedelup Falls in amongst really tall trees. The water was a real fizzer but the actual forest is impressive. The rainfall is mostly in winter and so it is pretty dry. We parked in Pemberton and had a lunch under the trees followed by a walk around the country town. Visited the tourist centre and enjoyed the old photos of the timber industry. Took the car off and went up into the National Park to experience the intensity of the virgin forest. The trees were amazing and really make you feel small. There is a very nice river winding along the area we explored where we stopped frequently to sit and listen to the sound of the bush. We saw a beautiful tree that was painted by Marion North over 100 years ago and shows little change in all those years - it must have been such a remote place then. We stood at the base of the Bicentennial Tree which is 50 metres high and has steel rods driven into the trunk right up to the top where there are platforms to look out. Amazingly it is open to the public to climb up with minimal warnings: this would not be on in “OHS” NSW. Peter climbed about half way, though we both were not in the right shoes. Heather climbed about 10 metres just to get the feel but no chance of going any higher as the rods seem so far apart and have no side support. Peter went to the first platform and came back with wobbly legs. One of the young fellows who came down from the top said the tree really sways with the wind!
We called into the only caravan park to find Moema and Alamo just arriving late in the afternoon. They laughed at the passing of the two green Winnies! They thought the first one was us and had a feeling we were going to turn up, but not so soon?
We moved out of town to the Diamond Lookout which is very similar to the Bicentennial Tree and stayed in the carpark overnight in the middle of monster trees!