Today on our roadtrip around south Western Australia we temporarily said goodbye to the coast and made our way inland towards a forest filled with red tingles and karri trees. Our first stop was Walpole, home to the Giant Tingle Tree which had been hollowed out by fires, like many hardwood trees it’s adapted so that the outer sections remain standing to ensure survival. We did a short loop walk to see these giants which are said to be up to 400 years old and one of the biggest trees by circumference that’s still standing. It was interesting seeing the different types of trees in the forest, some had smooth bark with camouflage print while others had thick bark that twisted around the tree like a stripy candy cane. Apparently there used to be a tingle tree near the carpark which was big enough to drive through so that’s exactly what people did but tourism led to its downfall and the tree ended up collapsing due to the roots being damaged.

Our next stop was Pemberton, an old logging town which had the largest timber mill in Australia back in 1939. The village was filled with cute wooden houses that had verandas, America country vibes and views of rolling hills. Behind the village was the Pemberton Pool which was built in the 1920’s for the loggers families to swim in. The water was extremely murky so there was no chance I was going for a swim. It was a lovely area though as the pool was surrounded by ferns and giant trees that towered above us and lush green foliage which reflected in the calm waters.

Nearby was Big Brook Dam, a nice lake encircled by forest and a couple of man-made sandy beaches. There were some information panels by the carpark which showed letters from a lady who moved to Australia from England and farmed the land. She talked about the problems with loggers being banned from cutting down trees at some point and she couldn’t fathom why as the trees were ‘endless and infinite’ in her eyes – luckily someone thought they were worth protecting so we can see some of these giants today.

We searched for a place to camp before sunset, passing hundreds of kangaroos who grazed on all the lush green fields. In the end we found a little nook at the back of a large gravel pit to call home for the night. As the sun began to set it turned the sky orange and at the same time it started drizzling with rain, causing a big, vibrant rainbow to appear.

It was an early start for us the following day as we decided to go on a whale watching boat trip in Augusta. We’d already had some incredible encounters with whales from the coastline a few days before but we were hoping for some closer breaches and at $90 per person we thought it was fairly reasonable for the two hour trip. It’s the beginning of the humpback migration season where they travel from Antarctica to northern Australia so the boat was only at 1/4 capacity. We only decided to go on the trip an hour before it departed and we were pretty torn about it being worth the money – we were scanning the ocean and there were hardly any blows. But we decided to go for it and it turns out there were a lot of whales out there. The captain seemed to want to head for the action which was great so he was aiming for any whales which were breaching continuously. It was surprisingly rough out in the bay and trying to film or photograph them was almost impossible while holding onto the rail so I ended up standing on the seats at the front and leaning my body back onto the boat which kept me stabilised.

It seemed like whenever we got close enough to witness a breach close-up the whale went into chill mode and just rested on the surface for a while. There were groups of up to 4 whales together at times, some rolling around and showing their white bellies. We also witnessed a lot of pectoral fins being raised in the air and slapped down onto the water and some great tail slaps too. Two whales were particularly playful and kept raising their heads up and thrashing them back down causing a huge splash.

It was a rather moody day with storm clouds and rainbows but thankfully our two hour trip remained dry and it was lovely seeing the whales with a rainbow backdrop. As we made our way back to the port we spotted 5 whales swimming together at great speed. These guys were on a mission, effortlessly gliding through the water close to the surface. It was interesting seeing these whales behave in a different way to the others who were moving a lot slower.

So was it worth paying $90 for the tour when we’d already seen so many from the shoreline a few days before? For us it was worth it, we got a lot closer to the action. When we watched from the shoreline in Cheynes the whales were ridiculously close, just 5-10 meters away from us however they were all very chilled at this distance and just swimming past, most of the action like breaching and tail slapping happened further out to sea which is what we got a better look at today.

That night we camped in a less appealing campground set beside a river where pelicans and humans alike searched for fish. The location was nice but the pitches all backed onto one another without any bushes or trees in-between. We also read a review online that someone camped on pitch 18 and it was infested with rats who all ran into their car bonnet and there were so many they had to leave at 11pm out of fear that they’d chew the cables. So we felt rather vulnerable with our flimsy tent and rental car and did our best to camp as far away from pitch 18 as possible yet fully aware that they can roam wherever they please. Luckily all we came across were some friendly ducks and lots of toads.