Thursday 20 September – We’ll have to come back to Albany as though we have had a full day sightseeing, we still have more to see.  We woke to weak sunshine at about 7 o’clock, and it didn’t get much sunnier as the day progressed, and as I write this there’s a very threatening sky.  Grant thinks we may miss the downpour – he feels it is moving away from over the top of us.  Regardless of the dubious weather I did a bit of hand washing, which actually got dry, so that’s good.

So we first went for a drive to Frenchman Bay which is pretty well south east of Albany, but you drive from Albany in a westerly direction.  Work that one out!  A short visit to a lookout gave us a picture of the coastline and the very rocky and hilly terrain, then we drove a short distance on to Whale World.   We thought this would be about an hour visit, but it turned out to be almost three hours.  Sited on the former Cheynes Beach Whaling Company, this is an authentic site which has been developed as a place where visitors can get a real insight into the whaling industry which of course is now no more.  The Cheynes Beach Whaling Company was Australia’s last operating whaling station, closing in 1978 after whaling was officially brought to an end almost worldwide.

We joined the guided tour for just under an hour where a guide gave a very informative and quite amusing description of the life of a whaler, and the processes involved in locating, harpooning, bringing in to the station and processing of the whale.  After the tour was over we then went back over parts of it, watched three visual presentations on the industry before boarding a whaling boat.  They have there one of the last three whale boats operated by the company, and visitors are welcome to go aboard and sus it out.  It was a really good tour and visit.

Skeleton of a Pygmy Blue Whale.

After leaving the whale place we moved on to two coastal attractions nearby – The Gap and Natural Bridge.  The Gap is an impressive really rugged granite channel which has been carved by the waves of the Southern Ocean over thousands of years.  I’ts pretty scary, as there is a sheer drop of over 25 mtrs from the lookout platform to the crashing water below.  As the water came thundering in, spray flew up against the rocks and into the air.

 Likewise, the Natural Bridge is the result of the same action of the Southern Ocean, with the erosion of the rock forming a bridge.  The entire area around this part of the coast was made up of massive rocks and was very impressive.

The Natural Bridge.

An example of the massive rocks at this coast.

Another interesting sight here was the effect of the wind on the vegetation – the ti-trees growing here were literally growing horizontal to the ground.

Back in Albany we next visited the exact replica of an early 19^th century brig “Amity’.  The Brig Amity brought the first white settlers to Albany.  While the replica was built in 1975, the original Amity arrived in the Princess Royal Harbour on Christmas day 1826. This replica is situated just a few hundred metres from where the original landing took place, with a party of forty-five under the supervision of Major Edmund Lockyer.  This was the first European settlement in Western Australia.  We went onto the ship and did a very good tour, using a handset to provide the commentary on the ship and the story around it.  There were some ladder like steps to go down, lots of ducking the head to avoid knocking yourself out on the low doorways, etc, and a very small appreciation of what it must have been like to be on one of the ships our earliest ancestors came across the sea on.

The Amity replica.

By then it was after 2pm so we came back to the van and had some lunch before going to explore the other side of Albany – the Forts, Avenue of Honour and two or three great viewing spots around the coast.  By now however, the sky was darkening by the minute and it had become a bit cool, so our sightseeing here was a bit less enthusiastic.

 Finally, as we were returning to the park I took a photo of Dog Rock, a rock almost in the centre of town which bears an uncanny resemblance to (as the name implies) a dog’s head.  There has even been a ‘collar’ painted around his neck.

Dog Rock – taken from the moving car as there was no place to stop!

Now as I finish up for the day I must day that Grant was right – we did miss the downpour – let’s hope it continues to be fine as we make the long drive tomorrow to Esperance.