"There she blows" or "Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to Albany"
What a good decision to stay on for an extra day. We have really enjoyed our day in the port, ex whaling town and seaside resort of Albany. (Thank you Bunty & Bruce for the suggestion)
We got off to a good start by going for brunch at the Emu Point Cafe on Oyster Bay. New to us road warning signs on the way asked us to watch out for long necked turtles. Sadly we saw none but over eggs benedict,fresh juice and coffee we were entertained by pelicans fishing and 3 dolphins leaping, not a bad brunch spot.
A bracing walk around the headland did not give us sightings of passing whales but we did have some close encounters with a succession of rather chubby, foot long lizards. We have yet to identify them but they were rather sweet.
Albany is sited on the coast of the Southern Ocean where migrating humpback and southern right whales pass by each spring. The original port of Albany was based around whaling. Mainly humpbacks were caught in large numbers for their blubber, meat, bones and ambergris. In fact Albany was the last whaling station in Australia only closing down in 1978. The last whaling ship and the processing plant have being turned into a museum which engaged us for a couple of hours. There was much to see and take in, some of it rather sad and harrowing. Yesterday we thought that the loggers had a hard life but the whalers had to be the toughest of them all. The only way they could tolerate the conditions was the knowledge of a good pay cheque at the end if the week. The best bit was a 3d film on whales and the news that the humpback population is once again thriving and the southern rights numbers are gradually increasing. Focus is now on the smaller Minkie whale still hunted by the Japanese. When we were in Sidney we saw the ship The Sea Shepherd moored up. A sort of Greenpeace for whales that travels the oceans using peaceful tactics to try and sabotage whaling ships.
After the museum we had another good walk around this wild coast to see some stunning rock formations and some rather drenching blow holes.
We head back to Cowaramup tomorrow by a different inland route. It will be a long drive but we have bought a cd of traditional Aussie songs so by the end of the day our Waltzing Matilda will be word perfect!