Josh helped Ben out with some
auto work on his digger this morning while Zoe taught Jenna how to fold paper
boxes. Sami enjoyed her final hours with
Foxtel, in fact every spare moment here she has spent staring at the idiot box
– no surprises there. The girls had
their final play with Cedar and by mid-morning we were saying our farewells to
the lovely Eliot family. We headed to
Albany today, stopping at The Woodworks Gallery on our way through to view some
of the finest and most unique wood craftsmanship I’ve ever seen. Again it wasn’t a long drive today and we
arrived at Middleton Beach Caravan Park by about lunch time – this is a
fantastic caravan park for anyone ever coming this way. We quickly set up camp and decided to head
into town to pick-up schoolwork – already we are a week behind in this
fortnightly pack. We had, in the
meantime, been in contact with our new friends made whilst in Exmouth, Teesha
and Mike Stone and their lovely kids Jake and Chloe. They lived only a few minutes from where we
were staying and were on their way over for a few drinks. It was coincidental too that Teesha’s folks
are neighbours of ours in the caravan park as they are building a new home in
the area so they too joined us for a drink at the van. Late afternoon we headed to the Stone’s
stunning hilltop house for a social night of eating and drinking but I’m sure
we did more of the latter, not to mention having a bit of a sing and dance
around the lounge room too. The poor
kids were all up until around midnight or later but they too had a ball in
dress-ups and just playing with each other.
It was a fantastic night with fantastic people.
The following morning was
terrible – awoken with a hangover and just wanting to sleep but my head
wouldn’t stop pounding. Eventually I
surfaced and went for a shower knowing that the Stone’s would be here to show
us the sites around their town. Josh cooked
up some bacon and egg rolls for breaky but that wasn’t helping the head
either. The Stone’s turned up just after
9am and we headed off on our tour with them.
It was an icy cold morning with some light drizzles but they showed us
around the gorgeous coastline of Albany, thankfully stopping for a cup of tea
along the way. High on a hill, we
witnessed the 18 wind turbines that maintain 80% of Albany’s electricity needs
and with the wind here, it seems like a very logical choice. We attempted to get through to the Anzac
memorial but unfortunately its under renovations so we couldn’t get up there
which is a shame because going by pictures on the internet it looks lovely and
has great views. We ended up in the
Torndirrup National Park at The Gap, similar to that of the Sydney Gap where
many suicides occur; and also the Natural Bridge, another massive granite
formation caused by the gradual erosion of the Southern Ocean. There is a viewing “cage” for each of these
but I still didn’t feel all that safe, especially with much of the area being
very open and free to roam – as close to the edge as you like. Mike and Teesha left us after this point to
get the kids home for a rest after our late night last night and we headed back
into town for lunch ourselves. We then
went back to near the tip of the Torndirrup National Park and to the Blowholes
which are also made from local granite.
It was a big walk down the steps to the blowholes but, although it was
mighty cold, the swell wasn’t that big and no water was being blown. It began to drizzle so we found shelter in a
small cave for a few minutes while it passed – then we had to climb all the way
back up to the carpark. We next ventured
to Albany’s Whale World – Australia’s last old whaling station that operated
back in the 1950s through to the late 1970s.
We had arrived just in time for a tour where the guide showed us around
the station and explained how it worked back in its day, before then roaming
free around the station to explore it in more detail. There were four movies to watch, each on the inside
of an old oil tank where the blubber oil used to get stored and we even got to
board and have a thorough look around the Cheynes IV whaling ship. It is an extremely interesting place and well
worth the money – you could really picture how this place operated before it
closed down in 1978. It was almost 5pm
when we left here but still we explored other little bays on our way out of the
national park, such as Salmon Holes, Fishermans Beach and Jimmy Newells Harbour
– all absolutely gorgeous places but would have been even better had we seen it
with the sun shining across the water.
We attempted to drive in and view the Quarantine Hill but unfortunately
the gates were locked – not sure if this was due to the time or simply closed
to the public.
The next day we enjoyed a bit of
a sleep in before hitting the books and doing some schoolwork. We had promised the girls that we would go
into the shops today so just after lunch we packed the schoolwork away and went
into town. Unfortunately all the big
shops such as Kmart, Target & Best & Less, and most of the small shops
were all closed – probably good for our wallets anyway. We pulled into a wholesale butcher and topped
up the freezer before returning to the van.
Mid afternoon, Teesha and the kids dropped in so us girls took the kids
to the park for a play. The girls are so
good with the little ones!! Mike gave
Teesha a call not long after to say he had returned from his fishing day out so
we followed Teesha to where they were gutting and cleaning up after their day. From the number of fish lying about, it
looked like it was a pretty successful day out – the kids had fun poking the
fish eyes and playing in their guts – gross!
We said our goodbyes here to Teesha and Michael and their kids here as
we were planning to leave the following morning. I hope it’s not too long before we are able
to catch up with them again. Back at the
van, the kids and I spent some time at the recreation room playing table tennis
and snooker before retreating to the van for some quiet time.
No comments:
Post a Comment