Albany Part 1

We didn't leave Perth until lunchtime so we weren't sure if we would make it all the way to Albany. By about 6 the kids had had enough of driving so we called in to a caravan park in Mt Barker which was about 60km north of Albany. They wanted $50 for one night which I was not happy about considering the time that we had arrived and the fact that we would be on the road again by 8am. What a rip off some caravan parks are in WA. Most of them charge up to $12 per child including Charlie and when their base rates are already expensive, it gets ridiculous. There are a lot of people concerned that tourism is dropping off in WA. Well in my opinion if they did something about the cost of not only getting here but traveling around then they might get more tourists from the east coast. Everything is expensive here, not just caravan parks but attractions, restaurants and cafes and supermarkets. It is costing us a fortune to do this trip but not much we can do about it. Anyway, I will get off my soap box and talk about Albany. After ranting about the cost of caravan parks we decided to keep driving and find somewhere to pull over on the side of the road or a "roadside" as the kids call it. Found somewhere, saving us $50, went to bed early and were on the road again first thing to drive into Albany.

Our first stop was the Tourist Info Centre who were very helpful with plenty of suggestions of things to do with the kids. We drove out to The Gap and the Natural Bridge which were formed by the ocean pounding onto the granite cliffs.











We then went to Whaleworld which is an old whaling station that closed in the 1970's. It was excellent. The tour was really informative and there were movies including a 3D one to keep the kids happy. There was also an old whaling boat to have a look at. This photo is the flencing area where they dragged the poor whales onto to cut off their blubber.




This is what it looked like in the whaling days.







We all felt very glad that they banned whaling in Australia and the kids were unhappy about the Japanese who continue to hunt whales.

They also had a couple of whales skeletons which Charlie said were "too scary" for him to look at!




This is a sperm whale, one of the few toothed whales. They can dive down 3km! One time they were cutting up a 15 foot sperm whale they had caught and a 12 foot giant squid fell out of it's stomach!



This is one of the old whaling ships skippered by Jack Brookes.




We had a picnic lunch then decided we needed to find somewhere to stay. The caravan parks in Albany are charging up to $100 a night as it is peak season (see above for rant) so we were keen to find somewhere a bit cheaper. On the road to Denmark there is a free camp called Cosy Corner so we drove out there only to find that it was very busy and we wouldn't fit in the 2 spots that were available. So back into Albany and then out the other side to the Albany Happy Days caravan park which was right on the King River and they didn't charge for Charlie. The kids were thrilled to finally do some fishing again and they did have some success. (See next blog entry!).