Albany, Bridge & Gap, Whales and the Gloucester Tree

We continued our long weekend on Sunday with a visit to Albany and surrounds. Mike found some interesting shots around the town while Kyle & I checked out the tourist info centre to plan our days itinerary.

First we hiked up to a lookout point from within the town. En route there were again memorial trees dedicated to those who fought in wars. Next stop was to drop by the oldest farm in Western Australia. Albany was the first settlement area in WA, so there is lots of history in the area. Had lots we wanted to see so didn't go in, but did browse around the lovely gardens.

The local guide recommended 'The Squid Shop' for lunch which we did. Bit of a wait for our order as it's a very popular place, but worth it. The shop was near the pier with the typical pelican regulars. This fellow landed on the light post straight over Mikes head.

Our next stop was back down to the coast for more rock formations. The bridge is a natural bridge formed by the erosion of the granite rocks. That lttle speck on the rock is Kyle (click to enlarge and you may be able to actually see him). The rock face to the right was quite spectacular also - very subtle colours which you cannot see in the shadows here. The bridge will eventually erode away to form a 'gap' similar to the one photo'd here.

These rock formations really do emphasize the power of the ocean. Standing listening to the waves pound on the rocks it is hard not to be humbled next to the forces at work. Beautiful and scary all at once.

It was then getting late in the day, but we decided to squeeze in one last visit - to the Whale World centre. This is not a museum to whales, but rather of Whaling. Very informative and they really did hide nothing - all the gore of the industry was on display. This whaling station was in production until 1978 when it went folded due to financial reasons - the ships needed replacing and the cost of whale oil was plummeting due to new synthetics - so they shut down. It was only recently made into a museum.

Dad will appreciate the engine at left - pulled from one of the ships. They even fired it up for us. Not so familiar to Dad would be the harpoon on the front of the ship seen here. The nose of the torpedo has an explosive inside and is meant to explode shortly after connecting with the whale. Quick painless death if they shoot it in the head successfully. They would go out at 4:30 am - 3 ships and an aircraft for spotting. Spend the day shooting whales, tagging, inflating (so they don't sink), releasing. Then at the end of the day, they'd pick up the ones killed and drag them back to an off shore rock (mini island). Next day the processing would take place. One by one the land crew pulled in the whales and took them apart for 'rendering'. Almost the entire whale went into the cookers - only the bladder was tossed back to the ocean. Lots of blood and gore - photos on display showed it all.

There were several skeletons on display along with the tools of the trade. The skeletons were interesting since they were mounted low - you really felt the size on the animals. We had seen large whale skeletons before, but they are usually mounted overhead and so you lose the scale a bit. We were quite rushed as they were closing, but very interesting and informative - worth the visit.

Monday morning found us back on the road for some final touring before heading home. We were looking for a beach from one of the flyers, but ended up at a deserted point - but there was one bloke out there fishing away from the shore - quite peaceful.

We stopped by a favourite surf beach - but it was too early and the surf wasn't up yet. Lots of boards and lifeguards around actually, but all anticipating a day we could not wait for.

Our final stop for the day was at the Gloucester Tree. We parked outside the park and hiked in along a short stretch of the Bibblumun trail (runs from Perth to Albany).

Nice forest - but there are lots of signs warning not to wander into the woods due to the snake risk! We stuck to the path. Kyle did venture off a couple of feet to climb onto this fallen and cut tree so that you had a sense of scale however.

And this is the Gloucester Tree - it is a fire spotting tree - 63 metre climb to the top (which we all did - and my butt can still attest to that 2 days later!). It is one very long ladder climb to the top. The view was great from the top - but it was the feeling of being on the very top a single tree that was unique.

Back at the bottom, someone was feeding the ring neck parrots - any where there are humans with food the wild life becomes much less sensitive to our presence. As Mike was taking his shots, one of them landed on his shoulder - too close to photo unfortunately! (Can you spot all 5 of the birds?)

We did make one more stop at the beach in Bunbury since the weather is really warming up again, and it's a long drive.

RIght now as I type this, it's 37C here and headed for over 40 again today. Records are being broken with the heat. Guess summers not over just yet!