Perth Part 2: The trees, oh the beautiful trees!

What's a road trip without a well-planned itinerary? Well, our fantastic guide had everything mapped out for us, including estimated times of arrival and coffee breaks!

With a picnic lunch and hot drinks packed, we set out Thursday morning for our road trip heading south towards Pemberton, passing through Armadale, Pinjarra and Bunbury. The roads seem to stretch on as far as one can see and the rolling hills, farmlands and forests reminded me a lot of Canada.

We stopped in Bridgetown and found a perfect picnic place. See pic of Aunty B and Matt texting Anne, ah the high tech pair!

After a good frisbee throw-around in the park, we took a look into the fantastic jigsaw museum and then carried on, stopping at a local fruit market for fresh rhubarb and apples.

We arrived in Pemberton just before sunset and after settling into our cozy Treenbrook Cottages (see pic of the vineyards taken from the step of our cottage) we went back into town in search for the local speciality for dinner: trout.

We settled on Cafe Mezz, the restaurant attached to the Pemberton Motel, and we were not disappointed. We each polished off a full-size trout, potatoes and side salad - and I was the lucky one who got 3 fish heads for the price of 1!

Not only was the food delicious, the restaurant was tastefully decorated and had quite a homey feeling to it. My favourite bit was the big tree pillar in the middle of the room, painted and sculpted to look like a woman holding up the roof. Gorgeous!

That night we played a few rounds of CHEAT around the woodfire while enjoying some red Auzzie wine and Timtams (addictive chocolate biscuits). After a soothing bubble bath, it was off to bed.

The next morning after a cooked brekkie, we set off to conquer the

Gloucester Tree, named after the Duke of Gloucester who visited in 1946 and wanted to build a lookout cabin. At 61 metres high, you basically have to climb these spikes (153 to be exact!) which have been drilled into the tree that wind its way above the tree top. See pic of Matt on his way up.

Just as i was wondering how much further i had to climb before my fingers froze from the cold and wind, I made it - and was awarded with a magnificent view of the entire valley. See pic.

We carried on towards the Karri Forest Explorer Drive. The Karri tree has a long, straight trunk with smooth bark that is shed each year.

It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Imagine: immensely tall and straight trees which can grow to 90m high, making them some of the tallest in the world, and just driving alongside them for miles, no one else in sight. Very peaceful. What makes this drive even more special is that at designated stops along the way, you can tune into 100FM and listen to the commentary about that particular area of the forest. What a terrific idea!

But we had to press on. Our next stop was at the famous

Tree Top Walk in Walpole. A 600-m long ramp rises from the floor of the valley, allowing you to get above the tree canopy. The highest point is at 40m and the views across the horizon and down below are just stunning, if not a bit frightening.

Not a moment too soon, it started to down pour just as we were leaving. We drove into Albany and into the warm home of Anne (Aunty B's daughter) and David's.

We had a wonderful roast dinner with them and their boys, Jake and Darcy (see pic). They showed us their pet rat and their 'war toys', they told us stories about school plays and their 'most annoying friends', they gave us the gory details of what it's like working in an abattoir and how it's the cold early mornings which is the worst bit of all. What terrific energy teenagers have!

After rhubarb crumble, vanilla ice cream and golden syrup dumplings (absolutely divine!!!!), Dave proudly showed us pictures of his tractors and his magazines while Anne showed us her photos of her classroom and kids. In short, a great night of getting to know more of our extended family in Western Australia!