The next morning we took the van to a garage to have a look at a spot underneath the windows on either side of the van - the hi-top part. The last two days we'd had a lot of rain and the van had decided to let some of it in so we rang the rental company who sent us to two garages where we found out it would be a four hour job. The rental company told us to drive to Perth where we found out there were no replacement vehicles and all they did was put sealant on the window! Then we drove down to Pemberton having wasted six hours on the road and lots of petrol for something the mechanic in Margaret River could have done.
By the time we reached Pemberton we were ready for bed after a chat with Dave & Jane and lots of complaining. In the morning we saw that the caravan park was in a really nice spot as it was surrounded by a thick, green forest with trees reaching pretty decent heights.
Afterwe'd been to the visitors centre I (Rich) drove in the wrong direction, luckily though we spotted a sign that said 'Gloucester Tree' which I'd read about in the Frommers guide so I diverted us down a residential street and finally to a small national parks car park.
The Gloucester Tree is actually a 60 metre tall fire lookout tree and to reach the lookout they've put pieces of metal into the tree that spiral around it all the way to a ladder at the top! I thought thus was great and duly climbed all the way for some satisfactory photos and moments of peace high up in the forest. (most of the photos were just of trees though!). Gem did make it about a fifth of the way and then decided that if wouldn't be a good idea to continue incase she panicked further up! The great thing was that there were no supervisors and nothing safe about it - well, no harnesses etc. If you fell, you fell... I'd like to see the same thing in England some day - Health & Safety would go mental. All you had to do was climb up each step like a ladder set at a safe angle with some steep points.
Later on in the day we visted a small waterfall and had a walk around a short nature trail and then departed for Walpole and Denmark. The highlight of the journey to Denmark was the walk in the Valley of the Giants as sponsored by AFL's and the Docker's own giant, Andy Sandilands (he's pretty tall). It's a really good as it reaches about the same height (40 metres) as some of the trees in the area and maintains this height for a while as you walk on a metal platform. It lasts for 600 metres and is a great way to see all the trees in a different way.
By the time we reached Denmark it was going dark and so we parked up and began to prepare for tea. During the time we spent in the camp kitchen, numerous kangaroos descended on the campgrounds and for the rest of the night our van was surrounded by about ten kangaroos all having their evening meal while we watched them. It was a great sight especially as they were all 'wild'.
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