Norfolk Sands/Bay Merchants Albany

... Was a good night though, I reckon I learned a lot, more about family as Phil was a true scouser back in the day and knew my uncle Chris really well, and about all sorts of other things. <br><br>The next day we headed out to (somewhere near Albany, forget the name!). We went to an amazing beach. The views around were really amazing, and was so good to see such a nice beach so deserted! We were the only people there. We went round to another little cove after that. Again really nice ...

... here seem to be precious, rationed commodity, whereas I am of the opinion that every major junction needs at least one). We also had a rather pointless argument, since Rhiannon felt I wasn't appreciating the magnificent sunset, which I found distracting since I was busy trying to appreciate our position on a map, whose vast scale rendered it essentially useless. By the time we arrived in Albany it was dark and we were knackered and happy to pass out for the night.

... tour of the facility we were told about the methods of catching and processing the whales - we won't go into too much detail because it's quite horrible but let's just say it's a good thing the photographs on display are in black and white, so you're not completely put off your dinner. The three enormous oil storage tanks have been converted to theatres showing interesting short films, including one in 3D which was cool, and the Cheynes IV whaling ship is open for inspection, exactly ...

... and saw the sun setting behind Sugarloaf Rock. Day 2- After an early morning run along the beach (yes, still trying to keep fit!) we headed south again to Margaret River. Here I joined the Wine for Dudes winery tour. Jill is allergic to wine (so unfortunate) so she went to the caves while i went and got a but tipsy on free samples of wine! It was great, we went to 3 different wineries, the chocolate factory and the ...

... t like heights though! At the end- a ground level forest floor walk through the amazing tingle trees with their hollowed out trunks. Lots of photos later its been a pleasure on this cooler morning. Scaredy cat nattie freaks out once more - this time in the souvenir shop- jumping almost as high as the treetops (without the need of the walkway) as she read the factfile about spiders- a trick book that had a spring inside making her think ...

... cheap backpackers who just wanted to try her wine, not buy it, we went to a nearby bottle shop to get some real cheap booze. (But can you believe it, there were even some Mallory Towers pupils who didn't want to try the wine?!) I got some beer from the bottle shop but I wish I'd purchased Scotch or something with similar warming qualities for the icy hell we were to endure that night. We were beginning to bond a bit more as a group at this stage and ended ...

Nous décidons maintenant de commencer à chercher du travail. Apparemment, Albany est bien connue pour ses cultures de fraises et autres fruits, et il est possible d'y trouver du travail en se rendant directement sur place dans les fermes qui sont en perpétuelle demande de travailleurs. Malheureusement, la réalité est parfois bien différente des ouï-dires et une fois de plus, nous rentrerons bredouille.

... the southwest of Western Australia. The mountain is well respected and feared as a dangerous and sacred place. We are asked by the Noongar to respect this sacred place, as they do. A note just before the hike began gives some geological history of the area. The Stirling Ranges are formed of layers and layers of sand, silt and clay that long ago settled to the bottom of an ancient shallow sea and slowly became ...

... for the quokkas on traffic-free Rottnest and as a result they are pretty mellow; we saw one mere feet away which looked at us and then promptly dozed off, head dropping forward as if the batteries had gone flat.<br><br>Before leaving Perth we visited Kings Park and climbed the double-staircase DNA tower - at which point we got caught up in a bizarre university initiation rite. The tower shook violently as 30 18 year olds hurtled up it to ...

... spray blowing out from between small crevices in the rocks, which act as geysers as the water pressure builds. We managed to pick a calm moment to visit them, but it was still pretty windy and noisy. We arrived at our next stop, the walking museum, Whaleworld, just minutes after the 3pm tour had started. Decided to go on a short walk (Story Hill Lookout - 360 view of surrounding area, including good view of the city) and then come back for the 4pm tour ...