http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Oceania , Australia , Western Australia , Albany en-us Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:23:41 +0000 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:23:41 +0000 Perth Our last day in this lovely city. We got back on the bus down into town and walked down to the Jetty to see what trips were going and booked ourselves on a lunch cruise up the Swan River to a Winery for wine tasting. This gave us 2 hours to spare so we took the free blue cat bus to the closest stop for Kingrsquos Park. The bus stopped right outside the hotel that Dave Taylor and I stayed http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-455279.html This is our fourth night in Albany we decided to stay 4 as the caravan park gave us a deal to pay for 3 and stay 4 nights and as there is so much to see here we decided to take the deal. The first couple of days and nights in Albany were very very wet with rain hail and lots of wind. We figured we were actually experiencing Albany's proper winter I am just soooo glad we didn't tent again th http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-414372.html Tonight we are at Albany WA. We haven't looked around too much as we only arrived late this afternoon. The caravan park we are staying in is quite nice but quite expensive. Oh well we have stayed in alot of free camping spots its nice to splash out now and then . It has been raining off and on for most of the afternoon and then some hail tonight. A lady at the information centre told us Pe http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-413323.html 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 lsquouprsquo means lsquoplace ofrsquo.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 tre http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-408673.html A small piece of advice cruise ships are not fun. Reading the last entry I remember hoping that the boat would be really excitingly cheesy but sadly it wasn't. It just moved from side to side for ten hours until I got off. The only exciting person I met was an eighteen year old English backpacker who regaled in great detail how many drugs he had in his posssesion and was attempting to smuggle in http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-407135.html It's now June and we have been back in New Zealand for over 4 months seems like forever some days Time to round off our travelblog which we didn't quite finish before we flew out of Perth on January 27 2009 bound for Wellington. Last time we wrote we were in Perth for Christmas spent the day with Blu's brother Ross his wife Laurin and her family. Funny not to be spending it with our k http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-402210.html Friday 1st May canrsquot believe itrsquos May already where have the last 3 months gone Anyway had a lovely leisurely hot shower the first for 3 days then sent last blog before setting off to see T he Natural Bridge and The Gap both just outside Albany.More superlatives The Natural Bridge is a huge bridge of granite some 60 or 70metres long 30 metres wide and about 30 metres above http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-396767.html Saturday 25th April Stayed at Frank Lipino Memorial rest area last night and on road early this morning. Heading towards Bunbury did a U turn and took scenic route to Serpentine Dam wonderful spot nobody there except for us and lots of tame green parakeets. Bit further on came to a welcome caf and viewing point. Very peaceful apart from lovely jazz music from caf Nat King Cole Dave http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-395281.html Escaping form Perth for a few days I drive along the coast from Walpole to Albany. Attractions during this trip are the Valley of Giants inlet beaches and the former whaling city of Albany.Walpole 450 kms southwest of Perth is located on Walpole Inlet which drains into the larger Nornalup Inlet and hence into the Southern Ocean. Established in the 1930's as a group settlement for farmers its http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-393176.html Awesome day even though I came down with a raging head cold. Where meant to go out to Bluff Knoll in the Stirling Ranges to do some trekking but I softed out. So instead had a looky around the historic main street and picniced in a park for lunch.Headed out along Frenchman Bay Rd to Frenchman Bay to have a look at Whale World the old Albany Whaling Station which closed down in 1978. They used to http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-388156.html Hello EveryoneWell Sandy and I were off to a good start. We had a great dinner on Friday night at The Saint our neck of the woods. With a good feed in our tummy's there wasn't a chance for a overly huge night. We gave it a good bash though The party was great the company and the stories were a plenty. It was a great send off and Sandy and I rolled home bout 12.30 pm for a good nights sleep. Aft http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-387863.html We have now left the lovely beaches of Esperence and are in Albany home of the Dog Rock This has got to be one of the most bizarre tourist attractions so far. It is essentially a huge rock that is supposed to look like a dogs head. This would be fine if it actually looked like a dog's head. As far as we could see it was a large rock with a collar painted on it but that was it. We took the oblig http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-387685.html Tuesday 17th March Thursday 19th March From Bremer we travelled through the farming areas of Borden Gnowangerup and Tambellup before reaching our destination Cranbrook. Here we had arranged to spend Wednesday working with the teachers and students using ICT. The principal Brian Appleby had been at Teachers College with Rags all those years ago as well as teaching his daughter Julie in Ye http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-384863.html Halloellegruesse fliegen an euch alle aus albany in westaustralien nach deutschland. ich sitze hier gerade am hafen in einem netten cafe und trinke einen schoenen milchkaffee mit so dickem schaum dass der keks drauf liegen bleibt und wahrscheinlich nur meine keule jonas besseren machen kann. das wetter ist zum ersten mal richtig schoen scheisse aehm trueb und regnerisch natuerlich. perfekte vor http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-382732.html Meine liebsten Daheimgebliebenenich muss ehrlich zugeben dass ich mich um diesen beitrag zu schreiben erhlich ganz schoen aufraffen musste...meine guete das ist aber auch immer ein aufwand so einen eintrag zu machen ich hoffe ihr wuerdigt das auch ausreichend will ich stark hoffennachdem wir also wieder aus dem Outback lebend entkommen sind haben wir uns aufgemacht und die eyre Peninsula e http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-382729.html Thursday 12th March 2009 After arriving in Albany we stopped at the tourist bureau where we were given a list of caravan parks. We decided to try the Kalgan River Caravan Park just out of town because it was on a river and looked peaceful. We were right It was lovely and we were given a river bank site which would have been perfect for a longer stay.We wandered through the Albany shops before go http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-382057.html Bremer Bay 170 km east of Albany introduced a whole new challenge to The Kornies 5 setting up in the pouring rain We were all saturated and the kids when not assisting in set up were busy drinking the flowing fresh water coming off the awning. The surrounds were a lush green forest close to more beautiful beaches. We treated ourselves to ldquoMistyrsquosrdquo Pizza and devoured the g http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-381106.html Donrsquot you hate it when your blog site crashes Well thatrsquos what happened to our Travel Log while we were in Shanghai. So here is our revised edition of Dr Tinklersquos interview with ALL of the photos. Thanks for your understanding.Easily the most recognizable passenger on the Regent Seven Seas Voyager is a diminutive gentleman with a David Niven moustacheLloyd Tinkle from Siou http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-379550.html Since we left Adelaide we have been crossing the Australian Bight which is sort of a huge bay along southwest Australia. It is notorious for being rough. And it has been. Yesterday afternoon the swells starting getting bigger and they were 18 20 feet all night long. The creaking and banging in the ship were horrible. Our dresser drawers kept opening and closing. Even the door to the balco http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-378438.html To all interested blog readers please be advised that if you click on any of our photos it will enlarge them for you and give you the option of a slide show allowing you to enjoy them hopefully more...cheers Kornies5 http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Western-Australia/Albany/blog-378405.html