Manjimup 19th March - 2nd April 2013

Manjimup

We used this as our base for 2 weeks, the caravan park was very quiet but was new and immaculate. initially only 1 other van besides ours, Mike and Janet. Mike was a pilot on contract for the fire bombing season. he had been here for 3 months and gets 2 days off per fortnight. The rest of the time he has to sit around his van waiting for calls. Every day at 6.15 he heads off to the airport to check the plane and start the motor. The only times we saw them was when they left their van to go to the toilet. He was not very social and kept to himself very much.

Day 1 and 2 were just admin stuff going to bank etc, new tyres being fitted tomorrow, went for Coopers. Spoke to Ken today wants to meet South of Perth around end of April, he will hire a campervan to try and convince Noela, I don't like his chances. Problems with TV reception, had booked a TV guy for $100 but managed to fix it myself, thank goodness

Ivan and Josie pulled in beside us and being Qldrs gave you a starting point. Originally from Gladstone but had recently packed up and moved- to Brackenridge, they have been on the road for 2 years and had another year to go, This seems to be the norm for travel. Another 5 vans pulled in over the 2 weeks and it is funny, some people just don't like to communicate or mix. We became friends with a couple from Adelaide and another from Perth. I have developed the habit of wandering around talking to everyone but some people just think I am weird.

Manjimup is a nice town with a large Coles, Woolworths and country Target, 2 bottle shops, a visitor centre, cop shop and wood museum just to name a few. Had the Waeco fridge fixed, new tyres fitted to the car, was even able to print out some documents and send them back to Brisbane.

 

We visited the King Jarrah Tree, a tree that was preserved in 1921 against felling, it was due to be dropped the next day. The trees being Karri, Marri and Jarrah are just enormous and with the roads form beautiful hallways through the forests.

Bridgetown was a bit of a disappointment, it was smaller than Manjimup and very trendy. Not much was open when we were there but managed to have a walk through the puzzle and photo display behind the visitor centre, this was very interesting.

Pemberton is again smaller than Manjimup but has built it's tourism on the the timber mill, coffee shops and train/tram trip though the forests. We sampled everything we could and did enjoy the town. From the Karri Forest Explorer Drive, Beedelup Falls, Big Brook Arboretum, Big Brook Dam, Bicentennial Tree, Gloucester Tree and the Cascades we spent

2 full days exploring and could have spent more. The tram ride was great taking us through the giant Karri, Marri and Jarrah Forests, the track is the old line which used to go through Albany. The last bridge on the trip, the Warren Bridge, is now condemned and is the point where the driver goes to the other end and returns us back to Pemberton station. we crossed Eastbrook, Lefroy, Bob's, Redgum and Cascade's Bridges. The driver was a bundle of laughs and kept us all entertained. The trip was 1 3/4 hours after stopping at The Cascades and Warren River Bridge.

Just South of Manjimup is the Diamond Tree which like the other gives you the opportunity to climb. We gave it a good go but up about 10 metres I had a severe case of jelly legs and had to come down, just think another 52 metres to go to get to the lookout.

Fonty's Pool is a caravan park around 10 klms out of town, beautiful spot with a large lake. It seems that Fonty owns half the town with his name on things such as skip bins etc.

 Said goodbye to Jeff and Pauline from Perth, Geoff and Judy from Adelaide, ex Jayco man and Ivan and Josie Carr from Brisbane. drove through to Nannaup and had a beautiful lunch.

 We drove to Dingup to have a look at the historic church and the local community hall. Very old and run down, across the road was an old race track that was probably used for motorbikes, took the Prado for a spin but the trees were hanging over too much around the back straight. saw the old Pioneer cemetery with 18 graves, mostly the Giblet family with burials starting around the late 1800's. a little further on was the Bararup cemetary which is still used with the last burial happening only about 6 weeks ago. Many children and very old people, a large number of the residents lived until

their late 90's. Not many in the mid range. first burial was 1904.
Played golf at Manjimup Golf Club, glorious golf course with beautiful greens. Played with Ivan using Josie's clubs, first round of golf for many years and was very happy with the game. I probably should have given up then and there but decided to play another game which brought back memories of how frustrating this game can be. First hole topped the drive, second shot air swing, third shot straight across fairway into the trees, I took 9 on the first hole, this was going to be a long day.

This area is renowned for forestry and has a great forestry display, Trice and I went for a wander, I had found the wood turning the Sunday before which was an absolute delight chatting to the locals. This time we wandered into the blacksmith shop where we met George. A very interesting and spooky guy from country Russia, we chatted for over 2 hours about everything from the steel in car springs to the slitting of throughts back in his home town being a very small fishing village. The conversation was diverse and at times we were glad that there was a mesh wall between George and us especially when he was showing us knives that he had made from car springs.

We did enjoy Manjimup, it is a low socio-economic town with nothing to draw tourists into the town but we are glad we decided to stop.

Next stop Alexander Bridge.