Day 9 – Esperance to Albany Albany, Australia |
Albany, Australia
Todays Challenge – To spot a whale.
Depart Esperance at 7.00 am and refuel, Rod notes that it is still cheaper than Brisbane.
We have an uneventful drive until we hit Ravensthhorpe where we spot the first cop car since Ceduna, they are pulling over a poor sucker that has exceeded the speed limit in a school zone. The town has a population of 400, they must be bored!
We pass a sign the says we are entering the Fitzgerald Biosphere. What the f#&k is that? Rod suggests we might be entering a radioactive zone. We drive through Jerramungup (what a mouth full), we see no sign of life. We pass through the next town of Gardner, still no sign of life. Deb opens the window and a blast of hot air melts her lip gloss, so we switch the air-con on to recycle, as a safety measure.10 km later we spot another sign that says we are now leaving the Fitzgerald Biosphere, we are still alive and none the wiser. Rod says he will “google it” and report back.
It approaches 12.00am as we near Albany and the countryside is becoming very attractive with a lot of grain crops and cattle farming starting to appear.
We arrive in town and decide that this place has “lilt” for those who don’t know the term “lilt”, it describes a feeling of approval and comfort . We book into our motel overlooking King George Sound and find lunch at the “Earl” which is a historic hotel just around the corner.
After lunch we head to Frenchman’s Bay, the site of Albanys Whaling industry which closed with a lot of controversy in1977. We recon we met todays challenge at this site, although none of the whales were alive.
Having taken the last tour for the day and the fact that it’s getting dark, Debi suggested we return to our accommodation and go next door to a nice Indian Restaurant for dinner. Afterwoods we return to our motel and settle in to watch an episode of ‘The Voice’ and plan our activities for the next couple of days. Rod finally gets a chance to update his blog.