Hello from Albany

---

---

After leaving Esperance, we had a longish drive, stopping overnight at Jerramungup - one of the many towns ending in 'up' in this area - in the aboriginal Noongar language, ‘up’ means ‘place of’.

Then it was a similar drive the next day though cattle country, sheep country, and wheat fields as far as the eye could see. As we got closer to Albany, the country changed to tree plantations - mostly eucalypts but a few pine trees.

It's nine years since we were in Albany and it seems to have grown no end. It is a pretty and neat town, dominated by smooth rocky hills, white sand and many bays and islands. A very large silo - or silos - dominate the main waterfront and beyond that is a woodchipping mill and wharf - obviously the end product for the trees in the plantations. It is a smart town, too, with a university and heritage listed buildings. The history of Albany is interesting. Early explorers include the Dutch, English and French and it had a thriving whaling industry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany,_Western_Australia.

Today we went exploring. We drove up and down the tidy streets of the town and then out to different ridges of the peninsular which juts into the harbour opposite the town. There were some very pretty little hidden beaches, always pure white sand and turquoise water, and then we found a wild coast where huge rocks dominated the shore. The attractions there were the natural arch - an arch of rock where the ocean thundered through, and the blowhole - more wild water blowing through way into the air. We found a quiet little spot overlooking one of the pretty beaches further on for lunch, then went to the old whaling station, now a tourist destination.

Once we made it back into town, we did a bit of retail therapy, including to a new, and super tidy Spotlight. When I remarked to the salesgirl she said 'give it time, we've only been open a couple of weeks', still it was nice to find what I wanted without having to go through all the usual chaos.

We really like Albany, it's been a pleasant couple of days, but tomorrow we press on towards Margaret River.

---

Photos

Theblowhole
The water was blowing up about 40 or 50 ft.