28 May 2011

Nannup to Pemberton

Gina is obsessed with a tree.  Usually it’s me who goes on and on about things like big trees and big rocks and big birds and other big natural wonders, things that Gina sometimes doesn’t even notice as she’s busy walking and talking and telling me once more how she wishes she hadn’t sold her bedroom set.  But now that same Gina is obsessing about a tree.

Mind you, this is not just your run of the mill apple tree.  This tree is a giant among trees, a 61 meter (200 feet) high Karri tree that’s been around longer than great-granny’s dentures.  And this tree is for climbing.  Cool, you think, I’d like to climb a big tree like that.  And you think back to the trees you’d climb as a kid, reaching and stretching from branch to branch, never actually more than a handful of feet off the ground.  Far enough that a fall might require your older sister to run and get Mom but not so far as to require that she then dial 911.  Climbing those trees was cool and easy and wouldn’t you like to feel like a kid again, climbing a tree?

Those were all of the happy thoughts bouncing around my brain when I read in our guidebook that we could climb this tree.  And as we walked to it from our campground in Pemberton in the late afternoon, my main concern was whether or not the tree would still be open for climbing.  Convinced that it wouldn’t be, we were both surprised, shocked, really, when we reached The Tree.  You see, The Tree doesn’t “close” to climbing because no one is manning the tree.  No conservation volunteer, no park ranger, no paramedic.  There is no fee to climb the tree because there’s nothing to pay for.  No safety harness, no rope, no belay system, nothing.  Now as a reader you might think, Jeez you pansies, why would you even expect that to be there – it’s just a dang tree to climb.  But really, it’s not.  It’s almost impossible for me to describe what climbing this tree entails besides ironclad conviction, courage, and a touch of crazy.  If this tree were in the States you would never, and I mean NEVER, be allowed to climb it unless you paid a man standing at the bottom at least $25 and in turn, he harnessed you up and belayed you to the top.

You see, you climb this tree by ascending a series of rebar (steel bar) steps that have been pounded into its trunk in a circular staircase fashion all the way to the top, nearly 20 stories off the ground.  There is nothing to hang on to besides the rebar and your lunch.  And even now you might be thinking that doesn’t sound all that bad or hard, and you may even think that when you’re standing at the bottom of Spiderman’s training ground.  But just try a few steps and you’ll likely find, as we did, that it’s harder than it looks.  Physical toughness not required but you better damn be able to supress every fear of falling you’ve ever had or you won’t make it higher than I did, which was about rebar #18.

As for Gina?  She made her mistake, i.e., looking down, at about rebar #29, and now in her defeat she has become obsessed with getting to the top of this tree.  Dusk prevented her from attempting once more today but now it’s all she’s talking about.  Nicely, this is a reprieve from discussing her furniture, but I sure hope she makes it up tomorrow or I’ll be wishing we were discussing the sofa again.