More of the south west of WA

So far in December we have:

• joined in the excitement of the Busselton Ironman competition
• enjoyed the Cherry and Harmony festival of Manjimup
• been dwarfed, enchanted and overwhelmed by the majestic forest areas of the sw of WA
• taken a trip back to the whaling days of Albany

And today we encountered a snake and two goannas on our bike ride and walk to the beach.

The Ironman competition took over the town of Busselton. We watched as a competition tent village was built. It was a real thrill to be amongst so many elite athletes. We did our own little bit of bike riding each day and I ran most mornings along the bike/walk path. But nothing of ours compared with the 3.8 km swim, 180 km bike ride and 42.2 km run all in one day!

Sometimes the bike transition was smooth. Sometimes it wasn't.

Eight hours and thirteen minutes after they dived into the sea, there was a winner. Most people took a great deal longer.

We met up with some friends in Manjimup and joined in the fun of the festival. The cherry pip spitting competition was lots of fun even though we didn’t join in. We had our own competition later with the cherries we had bought. David won!

These photos are an attempt to share a little of the majesty of the forests here in WA.

A big karri tree

Look at the beautiful white-breasted robin which sat still for me with my new camera.

If you are brave you can climb this tree. There are pegs in a spiral formation all the way up to the top of the tree. There is a platform half way up the tree and another at the top. Trees like this were used as fire spotting trees. Neither of us climbed to the top!

A majestic old red tingle tree.

A fire in the Walpole area caused the smoke haze which made the air a reddish colour.

We wandered through many of the tourist walks of the tingle and kari forests and walked 40 metres above the forest floor to get a bird’s eye view.

This was an amazing experience so we did it again without getting the camera out.

The old whaling ship the "Cheynes IV" which has been restored and is part of the fantastic whaling exhibition in Albany.