Drive through the Chittering Valley ... Part 2
If you have not taken a drive through the Chittering Valley, or it's a while since you have, then it is probably worth penciling in. For most people it looks it best at the end of winter and through spring.
But be careful of the twisting roads. Most of them are well wide enough for two cars to pass but there are sections that are not marked with a centre white line, and the road twists a lot and there are lots of hills. While this is no challenge for an experienced country road driver, if you are generally used to highways and major roads then I recommend applying an extra dash of caution.
Most of the road is posted at 80 kph and I would recommend you comply with this. Besides being safer, this also gives you time to slow down to go into on of the vineyards scattered around—should you so desire.
I have tried to find a useful map of the Chittering Valley area from maps available on the Internet. The map shown actually goes on up to Bindoon and then through to Gingin. But the area enclosed in my yellow spray area is the Chittering Valley area. Basically you turn right (east off the Gt Northern Highway) at Bullsbrook—just near the Information Bay (just after the hotel on the left).
When the lad an I were driving around the Chittering Valley area on Good Friday we came across a tall blackboy bush/grass-tree, and it has to be the tallest grass tree I have encountered.
As you can see from the picture above, it is much taller than any of its pals around it. It is as tall as the nearby gum trees.
I figure this grass-tree is about 18 ft tall.
The picture at right was taken with me standing underneath the tree. I am standing erect and I took the picture from head-height.
It is a pity about the overcast sky. It would have been nice to have a blue sky in the background. Yes, I know. With Photoshop I could have put in a blue sky, but I don't like editing pictures to that degree.
I have come across grass-trees about 10 to 12 feet high before, but I can not recall coming across one this tall.
I plan to do a Part 3 in this series so, if you are interested, watch out for that. It features a gate, which was the main reason for going for this drive through the valley. But it is a gate I has photographed many years before and I want to find the 'before' photographs so I can post them with the 'now' pictures.