As part of my tour south of Perth last November we did some camping in areas known for large Karri Trees aka Eucalyptus Diversicolour. These are beautiful trees with peeling bark and soaring apexes . They are also survivors as they cope with bush fires frequently over their life span.
I have added some photos in a Gallery showing our trip through the area over the first couple of days camping. First night was a free camp at a stunning pool called Greenbushes. I think this was my favourite spot of all 10 days camping.
We then moved onto Pemberton (via Beedelup Falls), a logging town and home of one of the two Bush Fire lookout trees I climbed. The first one was called the Gloucester Tree 53 metres tall. These are trees that have rebar spikes hammered into them in a spiral to the top were a platform gives you a commanding view of the surrounding bush. They used to have Rangers at the top of these watching for fires. Helicopters have now taken over this role. I visited the museum in Pemberton and took a few snaps of the old photos of the tree being prepped for climbing and a few of the bigger ones being logged. It’s a scary climb and one my knees will never forget! But worth it to see out over the bush. I thought one was enough but my Aussie family thought other wise. The took me to the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree 75 m (246 ft) and I climbed that as well. Even taller and a scarier climb to boot. It’s a real pity that the biggest of them have been logged. Australia as a whole have logged the biggest and the best and we have lost some stunning trees. They say that Mountain Ash on the Eastern coast were taller even than the Coastal Redwoods in California, but the tallest ones up to 143 metres were felled. you can read more info about the Karri on the photos themselves.
Bonsai Eejit 