The Guidebook warns not to linger too long in the sun, and it really was difficult to tear ourselves away... but we had a short day with the promise of magnificent Jarrah / Marri forest and more of the local Karri / Tingle / Sheoak forests, with a visit to the Valley of the Giants Tree-Top walk (which we're not sure if we'll do again or not).

After a comparative long sleep-in, and being woken by the gorgeous sun streaming into the tent, we had a very leisurely morning soaking up the sun as it warmed the campsite and our bodies.

Sandi wrote:

What a nice, relaxed start to the day. Saw everyone and we had breakfast while they dispersed. Had been a coolish night and we woke 3-4am, but thankfully did get back to sleep and then slept in to 6:30am! After p did some writing, had a really leisurely pack up and was just about to go when ~15 day walkers arrived in: quickly left!

Perry wrote:

Had a very relaxing start to the day with a wee sleep in, and a very relaxed pack and go (well after everyone else – and just before some day walkers arrived): 9:30!! The sun was so lovely and warm and shone straight into the hut: meant we dried the footprint and fly – and good charging to FUSE. Funny enough, as soon as we set off the clouds appeared and the humidity rose; it wasn't until lunch at the Tree Top Walk that the clouds disappeared and we sat on a seat to soak it up! Made us realise how little sun we'd had in the past weeks.

Day 45 Google Earth Track

Frankland Tree Top Walk Giants

Isabel, my appointed trip planning advisor from the Foundation, was here doing some track maintenance a couple days ago, and it showed: the track looked very manicured!

Sandi wrote:

Strode along and felt pretty good. Rolling hills and along river then crossed on a great bridge (Sappers), then away from the river through the forest, plain but nice feel to it. Toe ibugaup tumas nau mi les liklik!

It was pretty humid by this point, so Sandi took the opportunity to wet her bandanna in the Frankland River, before heading off up Brainy Cut-Off Road.

Brainy Cut-Off Road revealed some Kangaroo Paws, which we've not seen nearly as many as we thought we would have, and a massive fungus! The Track turns off the road into some wonderful mature Jarrah / Marri forest before passing through a sandy section, where we eventually stop for Morning Tea. Actually, we had to quickly move during morning tea as the stump we were using was also home to a million angry ants!

Sandi wrote:

So morning tea and it was better. Had a fit of hysterical laughter and then P and I had a silly fight and he said we don't tell the truth when we're angry and upset and that was so true that my anger dissolved. Quite weird.

The track notes in the Guidebook got a little confused with our GPS, and we were left wondering if the descent "past massive, burnt out, hollow-butt, Tingle stump" at 8.2km was actually reached or not?

We passed a dead quokka (which wasn't hard) and Sandi had her laughing fit, which was unrelated to the quokka and we marched with a temper up to our lunch stop.

Sandi wrote:

Got to Tree Tops and sorted ourselves. Good timing as all forerunners were there but on their way. P had predicted ice-creams and he was right. Had lunch then, I had ice-cream sandwich (3.5/5, P had plain heart (4/5). Had machine coffee (NMC: Not much chop – 2/5: See other Cafe Ratings), then had our oranges: delicious.

Sandi wrote:

Emptied rubbish, so pleased we remembered. Bought Chilli Peanut Brittle and WA Wild Flowers Honey & Ginger to share tonight.

Perry wrote:

Didn't do the Tree Top walk in the end (we'd done it a couple of years ago) – maybe another day when we haven't been immersed in them?

Sandi wrote:

Day walkers [the Wilderness Tour that arrived at Frankland this morning] arrived so a lot of chatting, quite neat what they were doing.

Perry wrote:

A lady from the Wilderness Tour said our boots were wearing down – and it's scary to see how worn the tread is – but it looks like they're going to last the time.

Sandi wrote:

Eventually headed the quick 30 minute walk to the hut.

We'd had the most glorious 2 hours at the Tree Top, soaking up the sun and moving the FUSE around to get it charging. Most reluctantly, we decided we'd better head off to camp.

We passed Sandie coming the other way, back to the shop to buy a coffee. I think she was looking for some space as she mentioned the large number of people in the campsite; also a couple of large Tiger Snakes on the track: we didn't see the snakes, but we did see the large number of people. :(

Sandi wrote:

German Julia and Kevin had doubled but 2 blokes, going the other way, were there too, plus Leo (interesting guy). Toffee and Brittle very yummy. Quite a convivial night. Leo did part of 'Man from Ironbar': Pretty neat. Kiwi's did Sunday morning request songs! Crazy.

Perry wrote:

It's very odd having so many people in the hut... Having 7 adds a lot of funny dynamics to what I'd hoped would be simple hut life. I think I'd be very disappointed it they hutted with us all the way to Albany!! In fact, we prayed today for some space.

Perry wrote:

Was really wonderful walking through the forest today – very strong sense of forest!! When the understory is a tree (e.g. Casuarina) it means it's possible to look through.

Perry wrote:

Giants is nestled in a majestic forest of Karri, Tingle and Sheoak. The sun disappeared quickly, a lot of the tent sites are slope-y or stony, or both – but we found one that was great: level and soil. The campsite has a nice dynamic with tables and levels, and although a few people doesn't feel crowded (apart from all the people!).

Perry wrote:

We've miscalculated the breakfast: there is only one day left, which means the extra we ate at Coalmine was NOT extra. Not sure how that happened, or if it was an error in the spreadsheet?? We get to have one of our emergency dehydrated meals for breakfast on Saturday before walking into Peaceful Bay.

Yep: it was an error in the spreadsheet. We made a late change to the itinerary around Rest Point and Coalmine Beach, taking an extra day through Walpole, and the extra breakfast was not added in :( What's funny is that the planned breakfast at Rest Point was superseded by our Walpole Plan to have breakfast in town, so our thinking was right: we did have an extra one, it's just that extra one was cancelled out by the error :( This was not the first time I missed my calculation sheets on the walk...

Perry wrote:

The walk has been in two halves:

1st Half	2nd Half
Lots of women	Lots of men
Lots of sunny days	Lots of rain
Only walkers (not many)	Lots of tourists
Lots of unshared huts	Lots of shared huts

So after what was a pretty relaxed day, we headed up the hill to our wee tent, leaving the snorers to the shelter :)

	Distance			Time		Hours			Speed
	Section	Daily	Total	Arrive	Depart	H:M	Daily	Total	Km/h	Daily	Total
Frankland Campsite	0.0				9:33 AM	0:00			0.0
Frankland River	2.9	2.9	841.4	10:15 AM		0:42	0:42	238.4	4.1	4.1	3.5
Twin Creek Road	5.2	8.1	846.6	12:06 PM		1:51	2:33	240.2	2.8	3.2	3.5
Valley of the Giants	5.0	13.1	851.6	1:15 PM	3:13 PM	1:09	3:42	241.4	4.3	3.5	3.5
Giants Campsite	2.2	15.3	853.7	3:42 PM		0:29	4:11	241.9	4.5	3.6	3.5

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