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Published: March 20th 2012
We’re not much further along the coast, only having traveled 120km from Walpole to Albany. The road runs several km inland so there are no views of the sea, and there are only occasional tracks and even fewer roads to the coast. The forest here is mainly Tingle trees and Karri. Tingle have no tap root, so they send out buttress roots and the timber inside often dies and is burned in the periodic bush fires, The result is a huge cavity inside the trunk of the tree. The Karri have a different defence. It sheds its bark in the autumn, leaving a very flammable carpet around the tree. When the fire comes, the area around the tree is cleaned out completely – no competition. The bark has been shed high enough to ensure the Karri is not harmed. The underlying tree turns a lovely shade of orange after it sheds its bark.
Albany was the first formal settlement in WA, founded in 1826, 3 years before Perth. The first settlers were, as usual, convicts and their guards. They claim a population of 30,000, but there are no coffee shops. Lots of old peoples homes. The town hall, built in
the 1880’s is still the tallest building in town. They do have a Bunnings and a McDonalds. The main street of Albany faces due south, with a good view of the harbour. It also allows strong cold southerlies to sweep straight up the street.
Even here mining is on the rise – there is a mine investigation going on for a magnetite mine about 60km away. Magnetite is a form of iron ore. There’s a gold mine to the west, too.
The beaches are great, the water is really clear and turquoise in colour. The water temp is quite good too. We’ve had easterly winds, but as the coast faces south, a good SW is a spectacular sight. They have some wind generators here – just as ugly.
On Sunday it got to 32 deg, Monday and Tuesday, and the rest of the week are much cooler – 21deg max. We are 400km from Perth and here it’s a completely different climate. We did a few maintenance things yesterday and went to a distillery for lunch and some samples. They make quite a good scotch – bought one. Will be good for the cold nights ahead.
We went for a day cruise on the “Kalgan Queen”, where we got a quirky interpretation of local history and lots of semi-trained birds. In WA, the Dutch were here first in the 1600’s (apart from the aborigines), but they weren’t interested in this dry dusty land on their way to the Dutch East Indies. There is quite a bit of French history in the early days, but they only explored and didn’t settle. As is common, the seals, etc were decimated by the whalers before the first British permanent settlers arrived in the 1820’s.
Off to Esperance tomorrow and then north where it may be a bit warmer.
Scroll down past the ads, etc for more photos.
PandD
20 March 2012
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Julie Pauljules@ajp.co.nz
non-member comment
another great one.
Have Jonny here right now , Andrews son. he knows the beaches you talk about as he is a keen surfer. They look stunning and nice and isolated, great for skinny dipping !! How are the golf courses. ? Had a great round for a change and pissed Lizzie Coote off no end as we were playing a match ! Any way. It was good to break 90 for the first time in a year ! Loved your oics and look forward to the next one. Love Jules.