Sounds like a computer game... but far from it. Thank goodness!
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| Lily and Jed high above the trees |
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| It's a long way down! |
Lily's account of the Treetop Walk:When we went to Walpole, after Pemberton, we went to the Valley of the Giants. We did the Tree Top Walk and the Ancient Empire guided walk. The Valley of the Giants area is located approx. 20km east of Walpole. It is in the forest of Tingle trees (with some Karri’s). The tree top walk was the first in the area; they planned the idea in 1994 and started building in 1995. The walk way was not built using any machines (E.g. helicopters or cranes) because the builders were not allowed to disrupt the growth of the trees, especially their shallow roots. Firstly, the pylons were erected by the builders/riggers using scaffolding. The spans were made in Freemantle and brought to the site using 4WD Utes and bolted together on the forest floor. They were then hoisted to their positions using winches and pullies. The spans were designed to sway slightly as you walked across it to give the effect of being in the forest canopy. The pylons were made of steel so it develops rust like colour to blend into the environment. The walk opened on the 6th of August 1996. The entire Valley of the Giants project cost $1.8 million. By March 2011 the tree top walk had attracted more than 2.6 million people.
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| The 'Coffee Pot' Tree |
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| Huge bases, gives their shallow root system some stability |
The tingle trees are a large tree. One was measured to 18 arms spans around the trunk. They only grow in the south west of all Australia, in-between Walpole and Bow River. There root system is only small and is only 0.5-2 metres deep, to hold up straight and have balance it has a hollow base (the lady told us that if we put our legs together and sway we would have much less balance than if our legs were apart). In the area there was a fire before the Valley of the Giants was constructed so they had to cut off some limbs so they didn’t fall.
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| base of another of the Giants |
Altogether we had a good experience and learnt a lot. If you are over west sometime I recommend that you go there.
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