Rain, 'up' towns, and giants of the forest

This morning we did some shopping then headed off south toward Pemberton via Bunbury and Manjimup. No, I didn’t make that one up and for whatever reason there are a whole lot of towns around there which end it ‘up’ like Boyanup, Nannup and Quinnup. I haven’t found out the significance of the ‘up’ on the end of each name but the people at the Information in Manjimup seemed happy people. It rained for much of our trip as you can probably tell from the photos. We definitely did the right thing getting the winter clothes out of storage!

We stopped at Bunbury, known as the city of three waters, first and took a drive around to check it out including stopping and climbing the Marlston Hill Rotary Lookout Tower which offers an excellent view of Bunbury harbour and the breakwater. We went to one of the many cafes in the busy shopping area there and had some lunch then continued on our way.
On the way we went through Donnybrook which has lots of fresh fruit and vegetable stalls and also has posts with large apples on them in the main street. I read in a tourist mag that Manjimup was the place where the Pink Lady apple originated but I got the impression when passing through Donnybrook that it was there. However it is known for its apples, stone fruits and wines as well as little galleries and cafes for those with time to meander.
Next we called into the Manjimup

Information and found out how to get to some of the main attractions of the area. We went to One Tree Bridge; a bridge that was built by the early pioneers of the area from one large karri tree and the Four Aces which is four large karri trees growing in a straight line that are over 300 years old. Then we went to the King Jarrah tree which is around 600 years old and is 47 metres high, 2.69 metres in diameter at chest height and narrowly missed being cut down in 1910 for fence posts and sleepers. It’s a huge tree!