The Valley of the Giants

After a not particularly brilliant night (lots of wind and rain and very cold), today we set out for Walpole and the magnificent Valley of the Giants. This magnificent Valley is filled with giant tingle and karri trees. They have created a beautiful tree top walk which climbs to 40 metres above the ground. It is fun to walk on as the structure swings as you walk. We enjoyed a really good look around here - though it did pelt with rain a few times (not unusual here as they get rain approximately 185 days a year).

We went on to Walpole for lunch - a really delicious feed from the local bakery. Mum was pretty interested in this little town as it is the WA finalist in the Tidy Towns competition. Dorrigo is the NSW finalist and the winner will be announced in Tasmania tonight.

After lunch we went to look in a beautiful gallery - magnificent paintings and sculpture! Then on to Swarbrick - an interesting sculpture installation in the old growth forest. The sculptures were all interesting and all added to the beauty of the forest. The long stainless steel "mirror" with white leaves on it was my favourite - it reflected the beauty of the forest opposite.

Next we went on to have a look at the Walpole lookout and then the Giant Tingle tree. We had a lovely walk through the forrest and then took a heap of photos of this magnificent old giant of a tree. In years gone by, people backed their cars into the tree trunk for photos -though now they know that the root systems of these huge trees are actually quite fragile and they have built up boardwalks to protect them.

We drove on from here to the Circle Pools. These beautiful pools were peaceful and just the perfect place to sit or stand still for a while enjoying the quiet and beauty of the space. The bush is full of interesting plants and flowers and everything is fresh and bright after the rain.

On our way back to Denmark, we called into Peaceful Beach - a lovely little village with white sandy beachs on 3 sides. We drove down onto the beach for some photos, though didn't stay for long as it was quite cold.

Poor Mum, she has been working hard.... cooking and keeping the blokes in line. I think it has finally caught up with her!

And as for the men working..... well Uncle John cooked scrummy jaffles for us for dinner last night.... and here is the photographic evidence of them doing the dishes tonight. Now no-one can claim I am unfair in what I write! (Though everything I wrote about talking non-stop, imbibing in the odd drink or seven and tripping over my swag remains true).