Blogs from Albany, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 4

I did not realize that such huge trees grew in Australia! In southern Western Australia there are major national parks dedicated to preserving these giant old growth eucalyptus trees which grow to 70 or 80 meters tall and can compare with the Californian Redwoods. We toured forests of tingle trees, jarrah trees and the karri trees. We walked on the Tree Top Walk in Denmark which is an engineering marvel which takes us 40 meters high in the canopy of the tingle tree forest. We really felt one with the birds up there!! It was very cool. Driving along these tree lined roads brings that distinctive, peppery smell. Certainly one of the highlights of visiting this area was a visit to one of many furniture and art galleries. Jarrah wood is heavy and red, somewhat like ... read more

It was just a short hop to Albany. As promised, the tall trees were suddenly gone, replaced by smaller eucalypts and sometimes heath land. In Albany we found ourselves in a caravan park that would be every caravaner’s dream. Every site was spacious and drive-through. For those without on board ensuites at least half of the park had individual site ensuites. A quick shop re-stocked the larder. This was followed by a lunch of delicious pies we picked up from the bakery as we exited Denmark, This allowed us plenty of time to look around this historic town. At the Princess Royal Fortress Museum we viewed photos and artefacts from various wars. We were surprised to find out that the first ANZACs actually departed from Albany Harbour. The duty officers, as elderly ex-military soldiers were very ... read more

Day 11 of our tour and we woke up in Albany once again. We decided to do a bit of sightseeing today and the first place we visited was “The Old Whaling Station”. The Whalers in Kilbrittain would have been proud once again. The Whaling Station was situated about 20 kilometres out of town in an area known as Frenchman’s Bay. It was a pity the weather was desperate as I reckon the place would have been stunning on a beautiful day! White sand and blue water everywhere, nice one. We paid the high fee of $29 dollars each and entered the Whaling Station. We knew it would be worth it already when we saw the old whaling chaser (boat) docked on dry land inside the museum. We had a wait of about 45 mins before ... read more

Day nine was another day with not much to report. We had decided the day previous that we needed a day to do laundry, stock up on essentials plus a few minor things that we’d forgotten like a serving spoon for the Tex Mex and a window cloth for the Seaside Rover! Coley did some maintenance to the car while I updated the blog (It takes a bit of time mind). Colman reminded me of Liam Ryan as he drained the radiator of its rusty water and replaced it with coolant! We then pucked around for an hour (courteous of Shane O’ Neill’s sliotar) and were thanking God that there were no other Irish around as they’d have been asking what part of Cavan we were from, due to our, or should I say lack of, ... read more

Day 8 of the tour and it was all about trees today. We hit the road early from Alexandra Bridge for fear that the caretaker might catch us for $8 dollars a head. We drove about a hundred kilometres to the small town of Pemberton, which is an inland town surrounded by National Parks. Our aim for the day was to climb to the top of Glouster Tree which was only about 5 kilometres outside of Pemberton. We got there and paid the entry fee to the Park, parked up The Seaside Rover and went in search of the 58 metre high tree we were to climb. It was fairly tall looking when we saw it but there was a heap of kids climbing up so confidently we decided to go ahead with it. As the ... read more