Walpole

Walpole is a town in Western Australia, 432 km SSE of Perth and 66 km west of Denmark. Walpole lies very close to the northern point of the 100-hectare Walpole Inlet, from which it takes its name. The area is famous for the giant tingle and karri trees of old growth forest. Another attraction is the Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk in the Walpole-Nornalup National Park.

Cottesloe to Valley of the Giants 2002 – 10 days, 610 km cumulative distance.

The aim of this trip was to visit the Valley of the Giants again, and to see the tree-top walk built since my last visit in 1987. This time I would go by a reverse route and with some motorised assistance, but none from the Australind train.

Other days on this Tour:

Daily Locations for this Tour:

Denmark to Walpole, day 4, Saturday 19 October 2002. I started from Denmark at 8:15. The speedo read 1163 after a visit to the post office. The morning was cool and cloudy with spots of rain and a north-westerly headwind, though not as strong as the day before.

I rested at Pates Road, 1181, and at 1200. I reached Bow Bridge and took the right turn into Valley of the Giants Road at 1205. The country was very pleasant but hilly. I reached the turn-off to Tree Top Walk at 1217 and walked the bike up the steep hill to the entrance, 1218.

Entry to the Walk cost $6 and there was a shop and toilets. The Walk is 600 metres long and very satisfying.  ... Read more

Walpole to Manjimup, day 5, Sunday 20 October 2002.

THE MIRACLE (OR WIMP-OUT) OF THE WILDERNESS

I left the motel at 7:45 am on a cool sunny morning, with winds almost calm, developing to a light north-westerly headwind. The day became warmer as I went on. There was a short descent out of Walpole, then a long climb, then a long descent. I reached the turn into the South Western Highway at Crystal Springs at 1251 in reasonable shape and greeted the South Western Highway that I would be on until Boyanup. I rested at 1258, again at 1278. There was a hill to climb every km or so and it was all getting too hard. Hills take it out of you and you don’t get it back.  ... Read more

Perth to Albany, 12 day 779 km bicycle tour 1987. This Great Ride of 1987 was a major departure from previous rides, those between 1977-1985, and contained the ‘Chesapeake Road’ episode which has become a life metaphor and was referred to in the 1998 ride story (Cottesloe to Windy Harbour).

This ride was not surpassed for total distance and nights on the road until 1996 (Kelmscott to Rocky Gully), and that ride had a lower number of kilometres per day.

This story was originally written into a clone of an Apple IIE computer and printed on a crude early dot-matrix printer. That computer failed in 1989 and the 1987 story was faithfully copied, from a retrieved printout, into an XT computer with a slightly better printer.  ... Read more

Northcliffe to Walpole and the Chesapeake Road, day 4, Thursday 8 October. I left Northcliffe at 7:07 on a cool but sunny morning with a light westerly, went down the Windy Harbour road for about 6km then turned left into Chesapeake Road. This was an exciting moment as I ventured beyond paved road into the unknown.

The surface was bikeable and the radio said that the westerly would strengthen during the day. Bumping and jarring were continuous, with regular skids. For some reason I find this sort of riding less mentally tedious, though more physically arduous, than riding on the smooth sealed highway – as long as I know how much gravel there is and have plenty of time to negotiate it.  ... Read more

Day 5, Walpole to Denmark, day 5, Friday 9 October. I decided to make a detour, on the way to Denmark, through the Valley of the Giants. I intended to stop at the first picnic spot shown on the map, then return to the SC highway via Rate Road, thereby not adding much to the day’s journey.

I couldn’t find the first picnic spot on Rate Road and ended up in the main picnic area, having to return to SC highway the long way round via Valley of the Giants Road, emerging at Bow Bridge. Anyway I had a picnic in the picnic area then took the walk trail. The ‘giants’ were tingle trees, giant in girth rather than height. They didn’t impress me as much as the karris at Northcliffe but were interesting by being burnt into huge hollow caves at the base, yet still living.  ... Read more