Western Austraila - Albany

Well, as the weather was a bit crappy, we decided to head down to Albany a week or so early. Our other motivation was whales - whilst we've seen some in SA, it is the tail end of the season in Albany, and there was a slim chance we could catch some more sightings.

So, we found a cheap car hire, and got one of the best cars yet - Nissan Corolla !!! Lots of space, and a bit of power. The only problem is the max speed limits here are only 100kph (62mph)!However, its not like Marc lets road rules stand between him and speed, so once passed the Perth suburbs (huge!!), we cruised at 126kph (78mph) down the open roads - unbeknown to Evelyn.


We know this so precisely as within an hour we'd been pulled over by a cop!! He was travelling in the opposite direction to us, so Marc thought we were safe, but alas, he had a speed gun on his car and turned round. Marc pleaded ignorance to the rules of the road, having only been in the country for a short time, the first time on Oz roads, used to UK driving speeds in mph, getting used to the car, etc etc. Luckily, this was a nice traffic cop and Marc was just warned. We didn't touch 101kph since as Evelyn nagged him every time Marc went over ;)

We got to Albany after the 4hrs drive, only to find out from the tourist office that there had been no whale sightings for 3 weeks ;( So, we headed up to the lookout point for sunset, and beautiful views over the bay.



Our next challenge was finding somewhere to eat!! After spending a few days out of Perth, we discovered that these little tourist towns don't operate on tourist hours, and shops shut by 4pm, and restaurants by 7pm!! The campsite recommended a fish and chip shop just down the road, by the sea, but could we find it??? When we did, it was well and truly shut!! Luckily, we found this newly renovated, nice pub by the sea, which was open. It had a nice log fire so we had a hot chocy by the log fire as it was cold and windy now the sun had gone down (not to different to something we do in the UK;). The pub food was a bit expensive, so we waited 30mins for a free table at the gourmet burger joint next door (presumably so busy as its the only decent eatery left open at 7:30 ;) It was a BYO as well (most Ozzy restaurants are, which makes for a cheaper night out), so Marc went back to the car for a couple of bevvies...

Next day, we headed to the whale museum, which had interesting, and sometimes graphic, displays on the old whaling industry here in Albany, which ended in '78. The tour covered things from the name of the Southern Right - called so because it was the right whale to catch as it floats when killed and contains a lot of blubber, and is in the Southern hemisphere - to the process of collecting the dead whales and getting them to land whilst keeping the scavenging sharks at bay, to the gruesome challenge of chopping up the dead whales. We also got to look around an old whaling boat.

After the museum we headed off to the blowholes which are caused by caves forming under the cliffs with holes forming an inlet of air, so as the waves smash against the cliffs you hear the blowholes, sounding very much like whales do. After this we heading back to the car up the steep hill... and came across our first iguana



Next stop was The Gap, where the natural erosion of the ocean has created a 24 meter drop into the ocean, and there is also a natural bridge caused by the erosion of the granite rock, quiet amazing to see.



The highlight of the day was visiting Two Peoples Bay, which is a national park. The main sites here are the two beaches. Little beach was just beautiful, white squeaky sands with large boulders and bright blue water, a little bit of heaven! As you walk along the beach you can actually climb the boulders and get a view round the corner to Waterfall beach which was a smaller version of Little beach, just exquisite.





On our way home, we got our first sighting of 'roo. Its quite funny to watch these marsupials hopping around, and they have the goofiest faces ;) However, this meant we had to drive back to the tent with more caution as these bouncing roos cause loads of accidents from dusk till dawn.

Tonight we went for a swim and spa at our luxury "Big 4" campsite, before cooking at our campers kitchen which had all the mod comms - microwave, fridge, freezer, BBQ, stove, lounge area (plastic chairs), log fire and TV!! We met our fellow campers, and it was nice to sit around and chat to some more normal people than at the hostels ;)

This town really talks up their famous rock called - Dog Rock, they've even painted a collar on it!!