As we passed through the massive Karri and Tinglewood forests we finally arrived in Walpole a small forestry town which is home of the giant tinglewood tree and the Valley of the Giants...Tristan was pretty excited! As we pulled up to Coalmine Bay, we figured it was a little early to check in so it was time to do a little bit of exploring but not too much... (Judy gets a bit nervous when we go off road!)

The knoll was a stunning outcrop of coastline protected by the Coalmine Bay inlet, home to some massive Karri trees and equally as big Kangaroos which were not too scared of Larry's loud exhaust as we passed them. After a bit of exploring and some cheeky fish and chips down at the jetty, it was time to check into our home for the next two nights, well it turned into 3 nights and then with the winter special stay 4 nights and pay for 3.... lets just say we stayed a little longer than we first thought, but it was worth it.

Aside from the pouring rain on one of the days/ nights we were treated to a spectacular walk through the ancient Tinglewood (Eucalyptus Jacksonii) for the tree nuts and then down to the giant Tinglewood Tree where back in the day they used to park a EH Holden inside the
rotted out base. From there it was more dirt tracks down to the circular pools, very pretty.

During our stay Tara had her first go at fishing, but being so competetive cracked when she didn't manage her first cast... but after many more casts she nailed it. She soon started to put Tristan to shame at her casting, until the massive front rolled in down the inlet... (Plenty of bites, but no fish) then it poured and poured and poured.

Lucky Tristan noticed that the park offered free TV aerial usage... TV for the first time! The rain didn't seem to bother us whilst we had TV... well Tristan anyway- he was hooked!

Whilst in Walpole, we also explored the Valley of the Giants treetop walk throughout the huge Karri and Tinglewood trees. The walk took us to height of up to 40 metres above the trees, Tara was constantly telling Tristan off for shaking the ajoining bridges and we were pretty sure the girl ahead of us wasn't impressed by the moving bridges either... judging by the glares we recieved. They said that the designer of the walk wanted to create the feeling of being in the trees, hence the swaying movement... But Tristan put it down to under engineering.

Walpole was a beautiful stay...even if there was bad weather!