Day 168 Manjimup, (Great Forest Trees Drive),Western Australia

 It was the perfect day to go driving as it was, once again, a showery day.  We have made up our minds to not be dictated by the weather as it is so unpredictable here in the South West of Western Australia.  Although the BOM forecast showers for today they were only intermittent light showers. Hardly enough to wet you.

We were given a fairly handy map at the check-in office of our caravan park that shows lots of tourist drives and the one we chose today was the Great Forest Trees Drive.   We headed south east along the South Western Highway and although it was Number 1 highway it left a lot to be desired.  It was quite narrow and neglected that is quite out of the ordinary for Western Australia roads.  Almost all of the roads we have travelled on have been exceptionally good. 

We called into the little forestry town of Quinninup that consists of a Tavern, a Caravan Park behind the Tavern, and not much more.  We drove as far as the Karri Lake Walk and had thoughts of doing the lap but then it started to drizzle rain and the path was very muddy from last nights rain, so we only stopped for a photo.

Quinninup is the halfway mark before we turn off the highway and head down Middleton Road that is the start of the Great Forest Trees Drive.  The drive is around 40 kilometres long if you do the whole length but we decided to only do the southern side of the drive.  

This drive is magnificent and I still have not tired of straining my neck to look through the windscreen at the amazing height of these trees.  Our first stop along the drive is Snake Gully Lookout.  No snakes here just the sound of birds high up in the tops of the giant Kari Trees.  It is just a short walk along a well maintained boardwalk for you to find yourself in the middle of the towering Kari Trees.

Back in the car we make our way to Big Tree Grove that is very well named.  There are some huge trees here.  It was raining at this stop so I didn't leave the car but Philip got out and read the information board.  What it said in a nutshell was that the Kari lives to around 300 years of age but then it starts the dieback process.  The first thing that happens is the "lumps" that appear up and down the trunk and then algae starts attacking the tree from the bottom and it is at that stage that the tree will completely die.  This process could take many decades.  I took a photograph of an old stump and was intrigued the way Mother Nature simply recycles the old tree.

The drive along the Great Forest Trees Drive continually changed.  For a few kilometres we are in Kari Forests and then we are in open swampland where Callistemon are the only tree.  A bit further along and we are in timbered country with an abundance of a purple flowering bush that look very much like the bush that I would call a Geisha Girl.  It is quite a wonderful drive.

The drive ended for us at the Shannon Dam and Campground.  I forgot to get photographs but what a lovely place to stay if you enjoy camping.  We chose to travel home via Deeside Coast Road that is around 30 kilometres of fairly well maintained gravel.  Both the forest drive and this road are used by timber logging trucks and around every corner we expected to run into one of the trucks but fortunately didn't. Deeside Coast Road ends at the Muir Highway where we turn left and head back towards Manjimup.  

We were home by 1.00 pm for us to cook up the Abalone from Augusta for our lunch today.  I also added some Chicken Thighs and once both were cooked they went into a sauce made up of Cream, Lemon Juice, Chicken Stock and Parmesan Cheese.  It was a delicious sauce that I will certainly make again.  The Abalone was interesting.  It has the texture of Squid and certainly rolls itself up like squid as it is flash fried, but it has a different taste entirely and one that I could eat again and again if not for the exorbitant price tag.  Philip made us a tossed salad to go with the Chicken/Abalone and it was a match made in heaven.

Tomorrow we head to Pemberton for a Beach and Forest Discovery Tour that runs for four hours.  We can expect more Kari Forests and Sand Dunes as we head to a different area of the D'Entrecasteaux National Park.