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Published: February 28th 2013
Today we needed to pickup provisions from Woolworths and use McDonalds' free wifi before setting off on the days activities. Our first stop was the Princess Royal Fortress which commands the main harbor of Albany; the fort was built in 1893 after a pre-federation agreement to share funding by the existing colonies. Britain supplied the armaments and the fort remained combat ready between 1895 until 1956 when all Commonwealth shore defenses became redundant.
The site served a variety of purposes over the decades but has since been restored and now houses a first rate memorial to those who once manned the site and/or fought for Australia in the First World War. Albany is important as the first and second waves of troops left here for Egypt and then Gallipoli and the town was the last sight of their homeland that many of these men would ever have. In recognition of this, the first ANZAC day service was held here in 1923.
The fort was quite exceptional, we ended up spending two hours wandering through the various exhibits before visiting the museum shop where I bought a medal minted for the Australian artillery regiment of which I was once a
member. We then drove to the summit of Mount Clarence to see the Light Horse Memorial which was relocated from Egypt when the country threw off the shackles of colonialism after the Suez conflict in 1956. The bronze statue was stunning and the location over looking the bay stunning. On the climb up the steps to the monument we came across a large number of large black King Skinks.
It was now time to depart Albany so we filled our tank and began the fifty two kilometre drive to the town of Denmark which has a number of sights of interest in its vicinity. The first we visited was the Denmark Chocolate Company which was expensive and a disappointment, next was the Bartholomew’s Meadery which was set in a lovely forest location. Mead is a honey wine made since antiquity; we tasted a half dozen different varieties before purchasing a bottle and some honey icecream. We then continued on to the Elephants Rock Cider Company where we tasted a number of ciders before purchasing a six pack for later consumption.
Our next stop after the cider factory was the Denmark Dinosaur World and Parrot Jungle where we held
Coastal battery
Princess Royal Fortressvarious species of reptiles including the Carpet and Olive python, the bearded dragon and a Red tailed black cockatoo, the proprietor was fascinated by our stories of dinosaur hunting in the Gobi Desert. Our final stop of the day was the Valley of the Giants where we completed both the tree top and ancient empire walks, both were fascinating, the tree top walk was six hundred metres long and up to forty metres above the forest floor. The other walk was at ground level where we were able to get much closer to the Tingle and Karri trees and the bird life that calls the forest home.
The last few days I have been under constant assault from a species of fly that may be a March fly, I have been bitten a half dozen times much to Ruth’s amusement, at the Tingle forest that amusement turned to angst when Ruth was bitten a few times. After the forest it took about ninety minutes to get to Pemberton our destination for the night. Ruth and Mark decided to go feed the ducks only to have the beautiful twenty eight parrots swoop down from the trees to land on their
Bunker emplacement
Princess Royal Fortress hands to peck at the seed mix. I was privileged to be chosen by a beautiful male who sat on my hand while Mark threw seed on my feet to encourage the twenty or so ducks to peck me in their feeding frenzy.
First thing we did this morning is walk outside with bird food in both hands and hold them out within seconds the parrots descended in their multitudes to feed, my arms are now covered in scratches, when the food was gone, we walked into the forest behind the caravan park for a morning stroll, which was pleasant until the flies attacked.
Our first stop for the morning was the sixty metre high Gloucester Tree which after a few moments of trepidation, I decided to climb the 60 metres to the observation platform perched on the top, there was no real safety equipment so I took my time climbing while Ruth and Mark watched from below. The platform was placed there so that wardens could detect fires, so the view over the tree tops was quite spectacular. Climbing down was more difficult as my eyes struggled to focus on the rungs rather than the forest floor
Munitions store
Princess Royal Fortress below. Eventually I reached the ground and we set off on a short walk through the beautiful surrounding forest.
Our next stop would be the Jewel Cave located on the Caves road in the Margaret River region some hundred kilometres distant. This cave would be the first of three we would visit that day all of which were impressive although the Lake Cave was probably the best with its world renowned table formation. We then visited Cowranup a town dedicated to bovines. There are more than forty cow statues scattered around this small town. We arrived in Busselton in late afternoon and settled into a friendly caravan park close to the town centre.
Western Australia is far more expensive than SA to eat out and we are far more inclined to self cater now, but due to an excess of cider and Emu Export last night, we decided to have a cooked breakfast. We walked the two kilometres to the town centre where we all paid more than $20 for breakfast (it was good though) before heading to Busselton’s mile long jetty to visit the underwater observatory.
On arrival we learned we had just missed the 10am
HMAS Perth Museum
Princess Royal Fortress tour and would have to wait an hour so we decided to go visit the Ngilgi Cave near Dunsborough, this cave had lots of stairs and narrow tunnels and was easily as good, if different, then those we visited the previous day. We then visited a few other places of interest before returning to the jetty where we had a light lunch before climbing aboard the toy train for the very slow trip to the observatory at the jetty's end.
Looking back we don’t think this tour was of value too many people were down there and there were far too few windows, still the concept was good and it is always fun to see sealife in its natural environment.
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