Crowea

7 – 8 November 2022

With only a couple of hours driving time to get to our friend’s place from Hamelin Bay we decided to have our first stop at Nannup. After morning tea in a park just before reaching the town, we drove on and found a terrific spot by the river where Mick spent a couple of hours photographing the birds. We stayed so long we had lunch there before setting off for Manjimup.

We did some shopping in Manjimup then set the GPS for Crowea and that was our big mistake! I had looked on Google Maps and had a bit of an idea about where we were going but did not commit it to memory and trusted the GPS – otherwise known as The Crazy Lady – to get us there.

After a travelling a significant distance down a main road she tried to get us to turn onto a fire trail which we ignored, then she tried another one. We realised this would not be an easy journey. Fortunately we had some mobile signal and a message from Jeff with some detailed directions had us going back the way we had come and taking the right road. After a couple of more wrong turns we eventually made it to Jeff’s place deep in the forest and set up camp beside the shed.

We enjoyed a fantastic night catching up on the 25 years since we had last seen each other. Watching the moon rise on a clear sky and sharing food and wine was a lovely way to end the day. In the morning our host took us on a tour of the property – once grazing land and now returning to forest. We met some of his favourite trees and saw the potential of regeneration up close with lots of small jarrah and karri trees around the place. We left, promising to return to this very tranquil spot.

After a very good look at Google Maps this time, we navigated our way towards Pemberton and the Gloucester Tree.