From Margaret River, we headed east to Denmark. We stayed in a lovely B&B on the Denmark River where we saw swans and kayakers and even a kangaroo stop by for a drink.
On our first morning, we headed out to the Tree Top Walk at Valley of the Giants. The walk gets as high as 40m off the ground and the red tingle trees get to 70m. Not quite as high as trees in the Pacific NW, but still very impressive. There are a few types of tingle trees in Australia, but the red tingle tree is only found in this area and are one of the tallest trees in Western Australia. They are a part of the eucalyptus family; it sure smelled good out there.
The trees have shallow roots, and can be hollowed out by insects, rot and/or fire.
We grabbed some delicious and local-caught fish and chips at the beach, then headed to Greens Pool. The off-shore rocks create a calm natural pool. I swam around for a while.
We then hiked just a few minutes east to see the Elephant Rocks,
The next day, we drove about five hours back to Perth for a final night before flying to Melbourne.
If you can’t tell, I absolutely LOVED Western Australia. We had some wonderful hosts (Neil and Richard in Perth, Simon and Melissa in Dunsborough, and Nadia and Cam in Margaret River), the scenery was amazing, the hiking was incredible, the wineries were lovely, and the food was delicious.