Judy & Brian Tour Oz

Albany WA April 22, 1025 Slow old day today, just couldn't be bothered rushing into town or visiting yet-another-museum. Finally had to go to the shops, sometimes it just can't be helped. On the way back I finally remembered to take the fairly obscure turn-off into the Old Farm at Strawberry Hill. Its the remnants of the first farm in WA and its tucked in between all the bungalows and cottages but is worth a visit. The original farm as such was established in 1827 after places like Green Island failed to literally produce the goods. In 1833 the brand new Governor's Resident, Sir Richard Spencer, came to town from the old dart, bought the farm and built the first cottage. It is said that with his, and his family of wife and 10 kids, arrival, that they doubled the population of Albany! How these people survived in basically a two room shack is anyones guess, but they did until they built the two story 'mansion' next door. Sadly, it is really difficult to see how ...

Albany WA April 21, 2015 An early start this morning to catch the Kalgan River Cruise. The Kalgan is the river that runs down into Albany, though Oyster Bay and out into King George Sound We knew we were in for a treat the moment we set foot on the wharf. Right below us were two of these huge stingrays cruising about and our guide started telling us all about them, calling each by their pet name and explaining how one must be at least 40 years old as that was the last time anyone knows of when they used to cut their tails off for safety. I took pictures of the pelican instead Pelican. Emu Point. Albany WA Our guide I must mention is a local and only about 27, but he's been doing this cruise since his father started it 15 years ago. He's been doing it on his own as a guide for 7 years, 7 days a week, 9 months a year. Our craft is flat bottomed and has a glass viewing section. As we followed the channel markers out from the marina, he explained that the theory is that ...

Albany WA April 20, 2015 We awoke to another day of full on sunshine - that's two in a row... I went for an early long walk on the beach, and still only got halfway along toward Emu Point. We started our day at the Anzac Memorial, high on Mt Adelaide overlooking the harbour. To give you some background, This is the very harbour from which the 1st and 2nd convoys of Australian and New Zealand troops left for Gallipoli in 1914. Some 40,000 troops had been assembled on a whole pile of ships, and they complete with a bevy of warships, all gathered here in the harbour, right below this very point. High up here was also where the garrison and guns were housed in the Princess Royal Fortress, built in 1893, as part of the coastal defences for Australia. Princess Royal Fortress. 1983. Albany WA Time moves on and now the whole place has been turned into a really nice park with museum pieces all around the place. The National ANZAC Centre was opened on November 1, 2014 and so is re...

Albany 19 April 2015 An interesting run down to Albany from Hyden through the back country. On our map, they started of as thin brown lines and became thin red lines for some 360km. At first the country was flat, vast expanses of dry looking wheat fields interspersed with heaps of salt lakes, the biggest one of which is Lake Grace, which boasts a tiny town with a large railway siding. The only thing open on a Sunday morning was the servo, where we took some time out to have a coffee and muffin. After Lake Grace the country started to get greener and greener. Way off in the distance we could see the outline of the Stirling Ranges. We figured out that they must be up to 50km away. They kept getting closer and the big flat plains gave way to rolling hills leading up into and across the ranges, which boast their own national park and there were camp grounds and hiking trails all over the place. Stirling Ranges WA Stirling Ranges WA Pressing on we finally came into Alb...