Diaries

 24th of June

Hi everyone,

At the start of the week, we visited the red tingle tree forest. The Tingle tree is a Eucalyptus Jacksonii. The tingle tree can be burn’t, hollowing out the base of the tree. There many big enough to fit a crowd. We also visited the Tingle tree that people used to drive a car through. After that, we went to a treetop walk. The walkway was very wobbly and when Dad was walking behind me, I almost fell over. Mum was a bit shaky but we encouraged her along with some jumping. After the long walk, we drove up to the Diamond Tree. The old tree used to be a fire lookout and since there were lots of these trees around, any fire could be pin pointed quickly. It was raining when we got there so we decided to leave it for later. We went into Pemberton and stayed the night at TreenBrook Cottages, where there was a nice warm fire.

The next morning, we left the cottages for the day and headed off to the Pemberton Tramways. There, we bought an historic railway ticket and hopped onto the tram. The tour guide started the tram and off we went. He told us the names of some plants and trees, like the Marri tree, the Karri tree, and the unusual-looking Snotty Gobble tree. About a quarter of the way through the trip, we stopped and got off to have a quick look at the Cascades River. There was a miniature waterfall about the height of a ruler. Then we went back onto the tram and it took us to the end of the track, we had a quick walk there too. When we had finished looking at the big Red Tingle trees, we went back to the the tram where the tour guide told us about the origin of the Pemberton Tramways. The guide said that lots of trees were cut down with axes and big saws to make room for the tracks. After we got back to the station, we went back to the Treenbrook Cottages. 

The next morning, we packed up and left the cottages. We went straight to the Diamond tree where Dad, Ali and I, climbed it. It was a hard and quite frightening climb. I thought that it the climb would have been safer, but really, if you made one mistake, it would be a long drop.

After our climb, went drove to Augusta. It is the most South-Westerly point in Australia. We went to the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse which is the tallest lighthouse on mainland Australia. It has withstood winds of 170 kilometres per hour, and is in it’s original condition. The old motor has been replaced by a new electric one but apart from that, the old lighthouse is working exactly the same way as it did over one hundred years ago. Back in the days, the lens would have to stop during the day, but this caused fires. If the sun focused on the lens long enough, and if the lens was facing the land, it would make it so hot on a small area in the bush that it would start a fire. But this problem was fixed simply by putting a tarp around the light house during the day.

After the lighthouse, we went to Margaret River and stayed at Taunton Farm. We booked in for week. The next day, we went to the Jewel Cave. The whole cave was named after a rock formation shaped like a jewelry box. James was put in the baby backpack and Dad had to duck a couple of times so that James wouldn’t get hit by overhanging rocks. After getting out of the cave, the sunlight was almost unbearable, but at the same time, comforting that we were at the surface. We went back to Taunton Farm and had a go on their jumping pillow. If Dad or Mum hopped on, I would be bounced around like a stuffed animal.

<< Week 5

Week 7 >>