Beautiful trees lined the road , it was hard to watch the road , fortunately it is a one way road so you don't have to deal with oncoming vehicles . Stopping a few times for photos - it is really hard to capture the scale of these trees - there are Karri , Marri, Karri Sheoaks , and red & yellow Tingle trees . The trees are all massive !!
Further down the road we reach stop 2 - the Giant Red Tingle Tree . There are photos from many years ago , showing cars parked in the Giant Tingle Tree. These days they won't let you walk around the base as you can damage the shallow root system!! They insist you keep to the walkways .
There are lots of tiny flowers in the shrubbery at ground level , this is one of them .
Tingle trees towered above us as we strolled down the pathway , you must remind yourself to look down to see where you are walking .
This is the Giant Tingle Tree , as you can see it is huge - Lyn is down there at the base just to give it some scale . The tree is still growing quite well , even though there are many splits etc in the base of the tree !!This is the view from the other side . We continued on around the loop track to the carpark , past many , many more trees .
Back to the ute , we headed for Circular Pool on the Franklin River . The road continued to be a one way track, till we got to another T junction.
Another few kilometres and we'd arrived at the parking area - we must have been timing it right , as we haven't had anyone else at all 3 stops so far , so we've had them to ourselves !!
This attraction is accessible for everyone , wheelchairs included , with bitumen ramps leading down to the river & pools , but the best thing is the steps between the ramps - instead of forcing everyone to follow the ramps all the way , there were steps that let you walk straight down instead of going backwards and forwards - hooray , something sensible !!!!
The pools seem to be more famous for the foam that is created in Winter with the water running over the rapids . Apparently it is like a very large cappuccino , created by the tannins from decaying timber in the water . The water is a murky green at the moment - swimming here wouldn't be good for you . The water going over over the rocks made a good photo though !
Off again , this time to the cultural part of the day . We were headed to Swarbrick Art Trail . It is a very short deviation off the road to a parking area , then you wander down the bitumen track till you find the door - the entry to the art trail .
Next installation you find is a mirrored wall , held up by steel RSJ's , some leaves and scrolls are painted on with stories etc written on them .
This tree looked artistic with it's twisted trunk , but it wasn't part of the exhibit , it still looked good though !!
The first item inside the mirrored wall was "5000 Seeds " - a piece of steel with presumably 5000 square holes in circular patterns - we didn't stop & count them though !!
Next was a floating golden ring - like a giant halo - called " The Golden Torus " - the ancient geometric metaphor of unity !!! - thought you'd be impressed !!
Next we had a totem pole with a pole grab and a hand saw from years long gone .
Then around the corner was " The Ghost Feather " - it looks a little like a banana tree leaf - that's what we thought , then wondered why would you have a banana leaf in the southern forest - that's just stupid !!
The art trail is an interpretation of the forest and it's past and present , and the affects it had on the communities and indigenous over the years . There you go , there's yours and our little bit of culture for the day , week , month and possibly year !!
I know , it's going to be hard to top that , but here we go - we headed further into the forest after driving through some more green grazing areas . Mt Frankland discovery centre was our next destination - it is an active forestry fire tower on top of a lump of granite 411 m above sea level . There are 300 steps and a couple of ladders to climb to get to the top - they are after you've walked up a steep track to get to the stairs - 200m above the carpark .
First point of interest is the Towermans Hut - where they used to live while at work - work consisted of going up to the weather station on top of the mountain at 7am , down at 8am , back up at 12noon till 6pm . That's 2 trips up & down the track , the steps & the ladders - they recorded weather conditions and also did the fire watch .
At the top the views were 360 degrees from the coast to as far as you could see , this photo is toward the northeast over the Walpole Wilderness Area . The granite knob down below is beside the carpark .
Flowering shrubs were beside the path & steps on the way down .
The was plenty of moss & lichen on the rocks & fallen trees , indicating plenty of rainfall - 1.4m of rain in fact .
We had lunch up on top of the mountain , before clambering down again . Lyn was determined to get to the top and 300 steps and a couple of ladders weren't going to get in her way - determined little thing she is !!
Back to the ute , we headed back to town via a firetrail that hadn't seen a lot of traffic for quite a while , still it was a nice deviation from the main track .
Heading back into the park , we stopped at the boat ramp and Yacht Club just beside the park , and discovered these cliffs - orange & grey with a layer of sand on top !!
That's it for today , here's a map link :-https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z1G8gwwxwyYo.kFX48K0eJhj4&usp=sharing
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