35:05.634S   117:54.391E

PEMBERTON TO ALBANY

28-31^st August 2007

Albany offers a beautiful natural harbour down on this South Western Corner of Western Australia.   The port is not highly developed however, and can only take one ship at a time for exporting its timber and wood chips. 

These two ships were waiting their turn in the outer harbour area

We stayed at one of the Middleton Beach cottages, where these photos were taken

Middleton Beach is a pristine, long white sandy beach, a little cold for the bare feet in the winter however!  Every tide washes up loads of pink scallops, small clams, blue mussels

and oysters amongst the fronds of kelp, grass and seaweed.  Winter storms regularly eat into the sand dunes, hence the rocks have been added to give a little more protection to these vulnerable shores at the far end.

We were sent to Oyster harbour to purchase the oysters which are cultivated there, just the other side of this headland in the photo.  Clearly the original aboriginal settlers who lived here 40,000 years ago had plenty to eat.  However, none were for sale due to the rain we had.  Notice the black cloud in the photo! That gave us the opportunity to have a rest day from travelling in warm and comfy surroundings.

The Torndirrup National Park, just south of Albany has huge granite boulders, David has climbed to the top of one here to view the whales, one of the main attractions in this area is going whale watching rather than shooting.  Albany used to be one of the principal whaling stations.

Flowers not seen elsewhere along the coast abound once again, with the fragrance of the peppermint eucalyptus dominating

It’s a great walk along the coastline to the lighthouse at Albany, minding the blowholes and wind don’t send you off into the water in the strong winds!

Torndirrup National Park is very nearly the Southernmost part of mainland Australia

Just North of Albany are the Stirling ranges. We discovered this typical settlers cottage

on the way to visiting a local winery in the Porongurup mountains area which are adjacent.

Peter Thorne, the owner also runs a B&B here, as do many wineries in these areas.

They had suffered a serious forest fire last Summer, as you may notice by the blackened trees behind his house.  He managed to escape it by keeping the gutters full of water, he and the small settlers cottage both escaped the inferno which raged on in shifting winds for nearly two days, before the water was dropped on it by helicopters.   Not only was his wine good, but he is also quite a character, with a cricket pitch on his land at the top of the hillside where his estate is situated, close to Castle Rock, which we climbed:

I know, the climb has been made easier by the addition of the final stairs and walkway to the very top, as David being King of the Castle shows!  Great views right across to the sea made it a worthwhile steep uphill climb through the blackened forest.

The new shoots on the eucalyptus show just how these forests regenerate themselves after what appears to be devastating fires.

There will be plenty more of those as drought conditions in Australia become aggravated year after year, they have already had 5 years of it, with more on the horizon, despite what appeared to be plenty of rain and green fields whilst we were travelling.