Further south

South of Northcliffe is the coastal D’Entrecasteaux National Park.  We had a great time down around the Windy Harbour area with some stunning views.  There are several cliff top walks and we enjoyed seeing the coastline from different perspectives.

We had to return through Northcliffe and there we did a forest walk known as “Understory Art” – as you walk through the forest admiring the trees and wildflowers, you come across a variety of sculptures at intervals along the way.  They’re all meant to reflect our relationship with the forest and there were some fabulous pieces.  We loved it!

Sculpture climbing a tree

About 8 of these hidden in the forest

A little further east is the beautiful Shannon National Park with its grove of giant karris and the “Great Forests Tree Drive”.  The campground in here was fantastic – most national parks are, but this one actually had a hot shower and after a week of ‘bird-baths’ it was much appreciated.

A highlight of this area was seeing a bright blue fairy wren.  The ones at home have blue on them, but these ones are completely blue.  They’re fairly common around this area apparently and are absolutely beautiful. 

We took some back roads and went via the Mt Frankland wilderness area, full of gorgeous wildflowers, eventually making our way south to Walpole.  Again we were pleasantly surprised by the beauty and diversity of the area.  It’s only a small place, not far from the sea but set on two inlets and surrounded by forest.  Just out of Walpole is a forest walk among the giant red tingle trees – a tree found only in this region.  What a fantastic walk this was.

The base of a giant red tingle tree

Bush camp among the karris

We decided to try one of the 4WD tracks down to the coast to find a bush camp for the night and when we stopped to camp there was the biggest red kangaroo we’ve ever seen standing nearby – huge – megafauna!  He hung around in the scrub chewing on bushes, then bounded heavily up the hill.  Did I say, he was huge!