Some time ago I saw an ad on the telly for Tourism Western Australia that really stuck with me. You may remember it…it was Elle Macpherson, amongst the canopy of a eucalypt forest. The imagery was magical, a supermodel, in a super forest, the colours vivid in that way that colours in WA just seem to be. I made a mental note that I would go there one day. (As an aside, the ad went to air in 1997, almost 20 years later I STILL remember it!)

The Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk is in the Walpole Wilderness area, made up of a continuous chain of 13 national parks and reserves. Within this protected area are some of WA’s most beautiful wild landscapes, including Karri forests and Red Tingles. (Both Karri & Red Tingles are a species of eucalypt, only found in this south west corner of WA, as a result of high rainfall, and temps being cooler here than elsewhere in WA.) These forests are ancient, with some trees said to be over 400 years old!

Admission to the Valley of the Giants grants you access to a steel walkway, that juts out at strange angles, like a super sized Mechano set, and rises into the canopy above, reaching 40 metres above the ground at its highest point. There is a bit of movement to the walkway, which freaked Kinga out, but Wolfie loved it! There were signs advising no more than 10 people on a stretch of walkway at a time which freaked me out!

What really struck me once we reached the top was how peaceful it was, no noise save for the odd bird, just rustling of leaves in the wind, the gentle movement of the forrest. Strange how being so high off the forest floor could be so…grounding! The perspective up there is so unique that you seldom look down. It’s a rare opportunity, being up so high and surrounded by green.

The Ancient Empires Walk is the continuation of the tree top experience, but back on solid ground, on a 600m looped boardwalk, through and around the trunks of the giant tingles. There are felled logs to clamber over, and gigantic, gnarly hollowed out tree trunks to pass through, all of which the kids found terribly amusing!

It is just under an hours drive from Denmark where we were staying to the Valley of the Giants, and the drive along the South Coast Highway is a very pretty one. Keep your eyes peeled for the Old Kent River Winery on the way, look out for a GIANT blue marron (yabby to anyone on the East Coast!) out the front. The folk at Old Kent River have a dam with intensely cobalt blue marron in it, and sell them for $400/kg. We were curious to taste test, but had to satisfy our curiosity by checking them out inside a tub in the cellar door/cafe.

I loved being so immersed in nature, and history too.
This ancient and unique forest is a must see during your stay in the south west!

Entry to The Ancient Empires Walk & Discovery centre is free

Admission to the Tree Top Walk is as follows:
Adults (16 yrs and over) $19
Children (6 to 15) $9.50
Family (2 adults/2 kids) $47.50
Kids under 5 are free

(you can do the tree top walk as many times as you like after paying admission)

We were very fortunate to spend Christmas 2015 in Denmark, in the Great Southern region of WA. Denmark is a super cute town, named for the river that runs through it…it has a really great vibe about it; everyone is friendly, and it’s little wonder! The town has got it all; sensational beaches & a river (so lots of water based activities), incredible old growth forests, excellent food & wine…

Our home for 5 nights was the Denmark Ocean Beach Holiday Park, and it was a brilliant base camp. Our cabin was elevated and overlooked the playground and jumping pillow- chockers with kids of all ages during daylight hours, and a feeding ground for roos come evening time! The cabins had pretty good kitchen facilities, so we self catered the entire time, and over the course of our drive had amassed a comprehensive travelling pantry. For all our fresh food needs the local IGA was great. If you happen to be in Denmark and you drive past the information centre and see a man in a white van selling seafood, be sure to pull in! This guy has a great variety of local WA fish and it’s great value! The butchers down by the river on the way into town is also excellent, and smells heavenly, as they do all their smoking on site.

The main drawcard for us was the local beaches…Denmark boasts 100kms of coastline from huge surf beaches (not for me! I’m SUPER scared of waves!) to tidal inlets, and natural lagoons.

Greens Pools is a large sheltered rock pool, perfect for swimming, snorkelling, we even saw a family stand up paddle boarding in it! It is spectacular, with crystal clear water, huge rocks for the kids to climb and swim among, but be warned; the water is FREEZING cold! Somehow, this doesn’t deter anyone, and on a nice summers day it gets very busy, so it’s best to head there early. A short walk east, just over the other side of the headland is Elephant Rocks, thus named because the large grey rocks resemble a herd of elephants wading in the water…sadly it was too far for tired little legs to walk (and big legs carrying all our beach gear!) so we gave it a miss…next time!

Both beaches are located in William Bay National Park, 14kms south west of Denmark, an easy 20 min drive.

Ocean Beach Holiday park is in fact walking distance to Ocean Beach (big waves!) Wilson Inlet (home to about 400 black swans!) and Prawn Rock Channel which connects the two. The channel is very interesting, it changes colour dramatically depending on the tidal flow…with the tide flowing in from the ocean, it is clear as glass, with a strange greenish blue tinge, and the water changes to a tea stained colour as the water rushes out to sea from the inlet (the tea stain comes from tannins in gum leaves that line the shoreline in Wilson Inlet!) It’s a top place to keep an eye on smaller kids & less confident swimmers, and every now and then when the tide is coming in, kids body board up stream, then clamber out and do it again! It’s a lovely spot to go for a walk, and a little floating bridge connects the channel & a footpath that goes all the way down to the ocean.

Next week, we move from the beaches of Denmark, to the Valley of Giants!
We stayed at:

Denmark Ocean Beach Holiday Park
770 Ocean Beach Rd, Denmark 6333, Western Australia

You should try

A Vanilla Slice from the Denmark Bakery (they’re VERY good!)
Denmark Bakery
Shop 9, Fig Tree Square, 27 Strickland Street, Denmark WA 6333

Some locally produced wine from the Denmark Liquor store (it is a wine producing region afterall! We had a great local sparkling Shiraz!)
22 South Coast Highway, Denmark WA 6333