Leaving Margaret River I drove two hours south to Pemberton, my home for the next few days.  The drive was lovely, weaving through the numerous national parks that dot the southern part of Western Australia.   Pemberton is a very small town with a population just under 1000, but is a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts because of its location, basically the numerous parks. I had picked Pemberton as a destination exactly for that reason– a place to relax and unwind while being surrounded by amazing nature. Nestled in between the towering trees are farms, ranches and more vineyards making the area very picturesque, even in late summer when much of the vegetation was dried and brown.  The town library hosted an information center and I stopped there first to explore what resources were available on the parks and recommendations on what not to miss.  I was pleased to find several maps available showing hiking and driving routes through the various parks.  A short, five minute drive had me arriving at my motel which turned out to be less than two miles from one of the parks that was on the top of my list.  After settling in I surveyed the local restaurant situation and decided to visit the grocery store as well.

The next morning I walked to Gloucester National Park to see the famous Gloucester tree, a giant karri tree nearly 200 feet tall.  In the past it was possible to climb to the top to a viewing platform via a spiraling staircase embedded in its trunk.   That is no longer possible as the platform was closed in 2023 due to structural issues, but instead an “aerial adventure” company has set up extensive zip lines and elevated obstacle courses for people to try while hanging in the canopy.  My main goal of the morning was really to talk a long walk, so I hiked around the park and on my way out stopped at the tree and watched people try to negotiate some of the trickier balancing challenges.

The platforms that remain on the Gloucester Tree are for zip lines. I just fell in love with these tall majestic trees!

The next few days I spent touring through the nearby parks, sometimes just driving through and sometimes stopping to hike.  Most of the road through the parks were unpaved and I soon had a film of red dust coating my vehicle.  There are several other famous trees in the area, one of which you can still climb- the Bicentennial tree in Warren National Park.  It, too, is nearly 200 feet high and the pegs for climbing were added in 1988 in celebration of Australia’s bicentennial.  The “stairway” to climb this tree looked way more perilous than the relatively civilized ladder at Gloucester.  I climbed a few rungs, just to get a feel for the rhythm, but there was no way I was going to do the whole thing.  First, it would be extremely easy to slip between the rungs to fall to the ground and second, I am not a big fan of heights; even climbing 10 feet or so was a bit interesting.  I went on to do some hiking in the park and when I emerged an hour or two later, there was someone, a German from the sound of it, at the top platform.  Kudos to him!!!

I also visited area lakes, one of which was dammed up and was an excellent place for swimming and picnicking, and a small waterfall with a nice forest overlook.  I did not visit any wineries although originally that was in my plans because I was still wine-saturated and had several bottles from Margaret River to still drink.  Overall I just enjoyed roaming around in the parks and chilling out in the motel.

Me pretending to climb the Bicentennial Tree. Weirdly they had kind of a flimsy net on the edge of the pegs to avoid falls that way, but the pegs were far enough apart it would be easily to slip and fall down (as opposed to sideways). Very exposed!!

Picture for scale. The German guy is at the top platform on the Bicentennial Tree and his wife is at the bottom. These trees are TALL!

After several days I headed back to Perth, taking the four hour drive slowly winding around back roads in order to see more of the countryside.  I turned the car in and headed to the city center where I had booked a hotel for three nights.  The Perth train system is extensive it is very easy to get around the city so getting to my hotel was straightforward.  The Perth city center is very vibrant, no doubt to the presence of the University of Western Australia and the many young people who attend it.  Like Sydney, Perth is built around a large harbor, but unlike Sydney the harbor is not the major commercial port.  Freemantle sits at the entrance to the Perth’s harbor, a bit ways down the Swan River, and services the area (and is Western Australia’s largest and and busiest general cargo port).  Hence the Perth shoreline seems less crowded and developed despite being the fourth largest city in Australia.  It felt, to me, like a “big small city”.

I kept my exploration of Perth low-key, hanging in the city center and exploring on foot.  There is a large park and botanical garden (and I mean HUGE) northwest of the city center and I spent an afternoon wandering around, walking along the shoreline.  I also spent four hours in the museum of Western Australia soaking up the history and culture of the area.  An unexpected delight turned out to be the Perth Festival, which is an ongoing summer festival every year.  The festival is a celebration of the arts and events are hosted throughout the city.  The main city plaza, two blocks from my hotel, hosted a dance exhibition that was quite interesting to watch.  The theme was basically “take a bunch of people who volunteered and teach them to dance as a group in five lessons or so”.  The choreographer was from France (with a good sense of humor) and I discovered them on Thursday and went back to watch on Friday when they put the whole routine together.  There were 150 people, of which only two dozen or so were professionals, all out there dancing together.  The warm-up dancing, which was about 30 minutes, was open to the whole crowd.  It was fun to watch; a great community event and people really looked like they were having fun.  (The dance itself was a bit modern and looked at times chaotic…).  It was a great way to close out my visit to Perth – a city I really enjoyed.

Community dance project at the Perth Festival.