Epic Round The World Trip Adventures! Stunning Photos & Articles - A fascinating gap year travel journal covering every stop of their journey.

Walpole - West Australia
Round The World Trip Journal

Text By Jo and Pix By Mike

(25th March) Walpole
Our main focus at Walpole was the Valley of the Giants about 17km out of town. This is the only place in Australia where the Tingle Trees grow. The red tingles are giant trees with buttresses at the bottom and can be up to 20 metres in girth. They are also really tall – we saw some 300 year old ones and they can grow up to 75 metres. We went to the Tall Trees Treetop Walk, a nicely graduated incline up a steel suspended walkway that gradually takes you up to 40 metres high – right up in the tree canopy. This sounds really lovely and really easy but we hadn’t banked on the fact that they had gone for the extra-sensory factor too. The walkway and the viewing platforms all sway in the wind and the walkways bounce under foot as you walk! Add to this the fact that you can see down through the lattice walkway and it was quite a moving experience! We both had Elvis legs by the end. Makes you appreciate just how high these trees actually are and we know for sure that we couldn’t have climbed those fire lookout trees now! We did the Walk of the Ancients next – a boardwalk which takes you through 300 year old forest and stood underneath a few hollowed out trees too. The other photos here show the area around Walpole. Nothing but trees around the whole estuary. You can see from the overhead shot (no we didn’t go up in a plane!) just how little is built on. We had a visit by some Kangaroos to the campsite on the look out for a free meal, Mike took loads of photos of them but no room left on this page unfortunately.

Highlights of our round the world trip:

Stop 1 - Capetown---> The City | Simonstown Penguins | Table Mountain Cable Car | The Waterfront Seals | Windsurf Action.
Stop 2 - West Australia---> Perth City | Perth Zoo | Cohunu Animal Park | Rottnest Island | Rockingham Penguins | Yanchep Park Koalas | Cervantes Pinnacles | Geraldton Windsurfing | Kalbarri Gorge | The Pink Lake | Coronation Beach Windsurfing | Gero Road to Cervantes | Carnarvon Jetty & Quobba Snorkel | Denham Lagoon | Monkey Mia Dolphins | Coral Bay Termite Hills | Coral Bay Quad Biking The Dunes | Exmouth Kangaroos | Mandurah Canals | Margaret River | Margaret River Wine Tour | Margs Windsurfing | Bunbury Windsurf | Bussleton Pier | Towns near Bussleton | Augusta Nature | Pemberton Camping | Pemberton Tall Trees | Cape D'Entrecasteaux | Walpole Tall Trees.
Stop 3 - East Australia---> Cairns Sky Rail Cable Car Over The Rainforest | Mossman Gorge | Cape Tribulation Rainforest | Port Douglas | Daintree Crocodiles | Captain Cook Highway | Beaches Near Cairns | Atherton Tablelands Fig Trees | Bowen Beaches | Airlie Beach | Whitsunday Islands Boat Tour | Great Barrier Reef Snorkel | Whitsunday Snorkelling | Town of 1770 History | Fraser Island Beach Driving | Tin Can Bay Dolphins | Noosa River | Australia Zoo Wombats | Sunshine Coast | Nanango Bush | Gold Coast Beaches | Byron Bay Beaches | Woolgoolga Beaches | Coffs Harbour | Port Macquarie Cafes | Forster Pelicans | Great Lakes | Nelson Bay Dolphins | Sydney By Day | Sydney By Night | Sydney's Manly Beach.
Stop 4 - New Zealand---> Auckland Revolving Restaurant | Rotorua Volcanic National Park | Lake Taupo & Waitomo Glow Worms.
Stop 5 - French Polynesia---> Tahiti Island Waterfalls | Moorea Island Water Bungalows | Moorea Shark Feeding | Bora Bora Island Buggying.
Stop 6 - Hawaii, Maui---> Maui Snorkel Videos | Maui Snorkel Photography | Maui Windsurfing | Maui East Coast Hana Highway | Maui North Beaches 1 | Maui North Beaches 2 | Maui West Coast Surfing | Maui South West Lava Fields | Haleakala Volcano.
Stop 7 - Hawaii, Oahu---> Kailua Beaches | Round Oahu Island Drive | Honolulu Pearl Harbour | Oahu Snorkel Videos.
Stop 8 - West USA---> Los Angeles City Tour | Venice Beach | Long Beach | Queen Mary Tour | San Onofre Surfing | Route 66 Drive | Las Vegas Casinos | Grand Canyon.
Stop 9 - East USA---> Miami Beach Art Deco.
Stop 10 - UK, HOME---> Back To Heathrow, Bringing To A Close Our Amazing Round The World Trip.