Denmark (Happy Valley Turnoff) 19 December 2006

In the morning we enjoyed the Tree Top Walk, which is a 600m steel bridge walk suspended about 40m above the ground. It gives you a fantastic view of the tree tops. The trees really look different up there! These Tingle trees are the biggest gum trees in Australia and occur in a very limited area. There were so many dead branches above the top which surprised us, however we found out these big dead branches are called stags and are a very important part of nature for big birds of prey to perch on. The bridge sways a lot and it was good too put your feet on solid ground. We then had a really interesting walk around the bases of these wondrous trees. They have gigantic bases up to 20mt girth to support the height up to 50mts and to counter balance the fact that many become hollow at the base. We could stand in the hollows feeling like a hobbit! Explored the coast and spent half a day at Peaceful Bay that was a lovely surprise as it was a tiny circle bay, very smooth, filled with smooth seal like rocks and poised between headlands. The sun was out and the wind dropped (a little!) We climbed over the sand dunes to find a very windy, rough, ocean beach and on the other side, a long sandy beach with a few four wheel drives in the distance. The little town had a number of 1950’s beach cottages and shacks and a caravan park all set low behind the sand dunes (probably good to keep out of the wind). So we moved on to another lovely quiet road side camp out side of Denmark with kangaroos, birds and cattle mooing again!