Denmark and the Ancient Empire

The first night of our road trip was spent in Denmark, a quaint little town about a half hour west of Albany. A colleague of Greg's in Perth owns The Gum Grove Chalets just outside of the town, so we opted to stay there for night. These chalets are in a prime location, and I can see this area really booming in the near future.
In the morning we went down to Ocean Beach (only on video camera), and then slowly meandered westwards along a scenic inland drive which took us past many wineries, and hobby farms in the valley.

We drove down South again and ended up at Greens Pool, which is essentially this huge placid bay known for it's emerald green waters and ideal swimming. Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy, so the green was a bit subdued. We still got to see some interesting shells attached to the rocks, and a lizard living in the windswept cracks.




Along the highway we stopped at several artisan shops, one being Bartholomews Meadery, where we sampled honey and watched the bees. Despite it only being 10am, we had to sample the honey infused ice cream. YUM!







We picked up some fig shiraz and carmalized onion spread from these geese, who were happy to oblige...



Our main destination for the morning was the majestic Valley of the Giants and Tree Top Walk in the Walpole-Nornalup National Park, where suspension bridges have been built up among the ancient forest canopy and you can walk through the trunks of huge 400 year-old trees. Check out the size of the tingle tree to the left of Greg! This is the only place where the red tingle tree (Eucalyptus Jacksonii) is found. They have the largest base of all the eucalypts with a girth of up to 26 metres. Growing up to 75 metres tall this buttressed, rough barked tree can live to over 400 years old. Better not be afraid of heights; the walk goes up to 60meters and sort of sways and bounces when people are walking on it!
Me and the bubs at 4.5 months, in the tingle tree base...

We continued along our journey toward Margaret River, driving through Tuart, Karri and Jarrah forests. The highway was one lane for the most part, and sections of the national forest had these massive trees growing right out of the shoulder of the road. It was magical, but we had to constantly keep our eyes peeled for kangaroos jumping out at us. Thankfully they stayed in the bush...

Maybe I shouldn't keep eating so many monster veggie burgers; my belly just keeps getting bigger! haha

We stayed the night in Margaret River at the Margaret River Holiday Suites, a motel-style accomodation right downtown. The town in filled with novelty shops, and has a resort like feeling to it If you are able to find a Western Australian wine in North America, chances are it came from this massive wine producing region. I've had to forego the wine tasting on this trip (for obvious reasons), but there are all sorts of other artisans to visit. We left that for our last day on tour...