18th April - Pemberton to Cheynes Beach
Early morning on 18th, I made a visit to Gloucester Tree. This is a reserve within the Karri Forest whose main attraction is a large Karri tree with 153 metal spikes fashioned to form an almost vertical spiral stairway leading to a small platform 58m above the forest floor. I didn’t fancy it! It was 'built' in 1947 and its original purpose was a fire lookout. Now its main purpose is to scare tourists. Apparently 20% of those who start the climb make it to the platform.
After breakfast we set off on the 290km drive further east to Cheynes Beach. We had one major stop planned along the way at Lake Muir. Here there is a board walk to a bird hide with a view over the lake, just off the road. It looked very promising – but when we got to the hide we found the lake to be completely dry and there were no birds to see.
We made a lunch stop on Route 1 just east of Albany - here I was able to photograph a couple of birds.