Pemberton

Wednesday 12^th October

Besides its gigantic Karri trees, Pemberton also advertises a 9km tram ride along an old railway track through the karri Forests.  We decided to give it a go, so after a lazy morning fronted up at the Railway station at 10.30 along with about 100 other tourists. The tram comprised three separate carriages and they were all soon full.

The driver was a real comedian and kept us all well entertained with an excellent commentary on the history of Pemberton, its milling history, and descriptions and names of the various trees that made up the forest as we trundled along the track.

This combined with his rather dry jokes about the rather sad state of disrepair of the old wooden trestle bridges as we approached them made the trip thoroughly enjoyable, if not a bit scary for some of the kids on board.

After a late lunch back at the caravan we headed off to explore Big Brook Dam which supplies Pemberton with its water.  The dam itself was surrounded by Karri Forest, and its setting reminded us very much of Lake Mangamahoe near New Plymouth. 

We did the 4 km walk around the lake and then headed back to town for a well earned beer at the Pemberton Hotel.

Back at the caravan we were joined by about 10 Port Lincoln Parrots, also known as 28’s, who were more than happy to help Cameron eat his sandwich.  A bit like the Crimson Rosellas we met at Tarra – Bulga National Park in our very first week in Australia.  Port Lincoln parrots are quite common in South Western Australia, but this was the first time we had ever been this close to them.

Tomorrow we will continue southeast to Walpole which is on the southern coast, where we hope to do another tree top walk.  From there we will carry on to Albany before heading to Esperance and then up to the Nullabor.