Our next stop on our sojourn through Western Australia’s tall timbers country was Walpole, a small town about 450 kms south east of Perth and 65 kms west of Denmark.
The Valley of the Giants and its famed Tree Top Walk can be found in the short distance between Walpole and Denmark. This region’s forests contain ancient karri trees and giant tingle trees.
We drove through spectacular forests to visit the Giant Tingle Tree, a huge fire-hollowed red tingle tree. Tingles are the largest girthed eucalypts known in the world. The Giant Tingle Tree’s girth is 24 metres (image below). These trees can grow up to 75 metres tall. Many of the larger trees in this forest are over 400 years old.
Years ago, visitors used to be able to park their vehicles inside trees like this for great photo opportunities.
These tingle forests rely on over 1,200 mm of rain each year to thrive.
Over many years of tourism in the region, the giant trees have been impacted by people walking and driving close to the trees. Tingle trees have shallow roots, and are very sensitive to the soil around them being compacted.
A tree top walk was first proposed in 1994 with the aim of providing visitors an enhanced experience while at the same time protecting the sensitive root systems of the trees. Construction commenced in 1995, and the Tree Top Walk opened the following year. The walk is nearly 400 metres long and 40 metres above the ground at the highest point. More than 3.5 million visitors have strolled through the treetops since the walk opened, enjoying the awesome experience.
After a fabulous day exploring the Valley of the Giants and the spectacular Tree Top Walk, we headed east to Denmark, still enjoying the forest-lined highway on the way.
Denmark was very chilly … with an apparent temperature of -1.3 Celsius! Too cold to swim at the town’s beautiful Ocean Beach.
We left Denmark for our next stop, the large regional centre of Albany – and couldn’t help noticing all the water by the side of the road. The recent wet weather had left its mark.
