David sensed that I was a little miffed at not being able to complete the tree climb yesterday and so we drove to another climbing tree in the Pemberton region to have another shot. The
Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree is even taller than the Glouchester Tree at 75m but it has 4 platforms, the first at 25m. I thought I might make it to that but I was shaking and sweating and even crying to get there but I did make it. David continued the climb and made it all the way up the 75m. I can't imagine how people do it - it looks so dangerous as there as no barriers or guides, just metal rungs sticking out of the tree and I kept imagining I'd slip between the rungs.
After our achievements we drove through the Great Forest Trees Drive, a 25km loop road with radio broadcast information about the trees that you hear by tuning into your car radio. From there it was less than an hour's drive to Walpole where we wanted to visit the Valley of the Giants Tree-Top Walk in the
Walpole-Nornalup National Park. It was too late to do it today so we found ourselves a
free camp in another part of the D'Entrecasteau National Park at Mandalay Beach,
Banksia Camp. Unfortunately, we met another vehicle leaving the National Park on the one-lane wide soft sandy track and got hopelessly bogged down trying to let him pass. David's ego suffered a terrible blow at having to accept a snatch out of the sand. The
campsite was just around the corner but we'd been beaten to it - someone else had set up in the prime position and we were left trying to find another position where we could get the trailer in yet still have a view of the fabulous coastline. We fiddled and fussed and unhooked and then rehooked the trailer a number of times - finally, we found a spot on a headland with magnificant
views of Chatham
Rock and
the beach below. We had to be careful not to break too many bushes or trees as this was a true "bush"
camp. We cooked some lovely marinated lamb steaks with wild rice and then sat out and watched a beautiful starlit night sky.