Albany Wester Australia

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We have had a terrific 2 days in Albany. Yesterday we spent the day visiting Mt Clarence and Mt Adelaide to see the Anzac memorial, the Princess Fortress and the National Anzac Centre.
The views were magnificent and the weather was beautiful. The fort included a couple of old 6 inch guns and a hit full of information about HMAS Perth, the version that has been sunk as a dive wreck in King George Sound in 2001.
The National Anzac centre was utterly brilliant with great technology to interact with and the option to follow a character from a card.
The amount of detail was brilliant and I was thrilled to see a photo of the Beacon Hill Kiwi taken at Sling Camp in 1920. The kiwi was dug out by Kiwi Anzacs who had to wait a very long time to get shipped home and had become restless and rowdy.
My mother grew up in Sling in sight of the Kiwi and the Kiwi is still resplendent on Beacon Hill as a memento to those guys.
Details of the origin of the Dawn Service and Padre White were also very moving and I wish I could attend a service here, so many of those Anzac service personnel and nurses that had their last glimpse of home soil in Albany before a terrible experience and death for so many.
Today we have explored the Albany wind farm (supplies 80% of the towns power) and the Torndirrup National Park. More great weather, great views and a couple of glimpses of whales. In the last 2 days I have done a lot of walking including steep slopes and lots of steps. My knee seems ok - doesn't like going downhill but things are pretty good and I can go uphill fine which I couldn't before the op.
I do have a confession to make, I have persuaded Brian (very easily by the way) that we should abandon all attempts at camping till we are in warmer territory. We also spend up to 3-4 hours breaking camp and packing when everything is wet which reduces the distance we can do in a day. So tomorrow we move on to a cabin near Pemberton and from there to a cottage in Margaret River. This should mean we spend more time seeing stuff and less time just driving and setting up gear.
I promise camping will be resumed further north - I need to find out if the waterproof spray worked on my swag.

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