Our Travel Adventures: Friday 23rd March Emu Beach, the Giants and on to Pemberton

Both up nice and early. Well awake about 6ish and up by 7am. Had brekkie, packed up tent and stuff and was all ready to go just after 9.30ish. We are travelling to The Valley of the Giants (A protected forest full of Tingle Trees) as John wants to do the tree walk, and I am going to have a go and see how far I get. Its about an hour and a half away. We make good time and after a couple of stops and some fast driving by John, we are at Walpole where the giant Tingle trees are. We decide to do the guided tour first, very interesting, not something we usually do, but the lady was lovely and really knew her stuff.

They are called tingle trees because the Aboriginals found them first and called them 'dingle dingle, dongle dongle' which later 'transcribed' to be 'cautious, cautious and careful careful' !. Well apparently we are told 'the white man heard that as 'Tingle tingle' and so thats how the tree was named. How we got tingle tingle out of dongle dongle beggars belief, but apparently we did !!!! They are very large knobbly trees that go up high so they can survive the fires and the droughts. Their roots are near the surface and they are hollow most of the way up. But look at the piccies and you will see, how big and interesting they are.

We do the tour then go up into the heavens for the tree walk. Now I am no celebrity, but I can shout get me out of here, when some numpty behind me is doing a bloody jig on the platforms that are suspended on nothing but metal wires 40 metres in the air !!!! The numpty being bloody 'Dundee Smith' himself, oh how he laughed!!! del he did till we got down when he got a good old clump from me! However, I did the whole walk and although it made my tummy go over, it was great as were the views... ( see the piccies for proof).

Once the walks were done, we had some lunch and started to make our way to our new camp in Pemberton which is some 150km away and will take a couple of hours or there a bouts to get to. So off we go. Boy did he go!!!. By the time we stop at Northcliff for a coffee and up to date directions, Dundee Smith is getting another clump. My dierre' is so bloody sore, because he was going so fast and over lots of bumps ( he says he was't but he fliipin well wuz), that actually I cud barely string two polite words together and could not walk at all when he stopped and I could get off.......

Anyway back on the bike and into Pemberton. We arrive only to find out that the camp we were going to is about another hours drive in Quanapantu, because its been marked on the map wrong in the camping book. However long story short. Pemberton has a caravan and camping site, anyway so off we trot there. What a result. Its lovely, the site is great, our pitch was chosen by me !!!!, its all well kept, and we now have a table chairs outside our tent!! RESULT..

So we book in and its the usual game, tent out, tent up and off into town to get some groceries. You would never believe how expensive it is out here (sorry to keep going on) and how much prices change from town to town, but what can we do??? we have to bite the bullet and pay the money.... We treat ourselves to a bottle of cheap plonk to have with our meal and go back to camp to make beef chilli and rice. Its pitch black by 6.30pm, so we sit outside the tent in the complete dark, lol, and eat the chilli ( John cooked it and very nice it is too).

So blog done, borrowed camp chairs in tent (luxury) Johns on his kindle nicely chilled, and SAT (lol) in a chair.

So once again its nite from me and nite from him.

To the kids, we love you and to our mates we love you to xxxxx
Here come the piccies...

On the way to the Valley of the Giants at Walpole.

Through Denmark..
Nearly there..

Some local views..

More blue skies, fields and cows ...

Grandma Tingle tree (yes thats what its called). She's is the oldest known Tingle tree at 495 years old...

The roots and base of another Tingle tree

I walk into the root of another one. ''Need to be careful,( the lady said) cuz a lot of bats live inside and they are quite messy!'' Now she tells Us!!!

Me and him, xx ahhhhhh

Another Tingle..

The tree top walk way..

and some more, and yes I did walk this, even though I clung on to the hand rail all the way along and shouted at John every time he 'acted about'.. fair to say he got quite few clumps when we got down.

This is the walkway at its highest 40 metres up. Its not on legs or attached to the ground, it just sprung on thick wires across the forest canopy !!!.

See heres the proof..

Me in the middle, hahaha

John on a tingle, what can I say ?????? lol xx

Me on the walkway...

John in the car that they used to park in a Tingle tree.

The exit and entrance to the Giants...

Me and him again xxx

Northcliffe, where we stopped off, but they had a power cut, so no petrol, no coffee, just a few bloody good clumps round the earole for Dundee Smith...(once I got off the bike that is, which I might add was very,very painful.)