Albany Havana Villas

... houses it really was rubbish, but at one house I bought a suitcase. Unfortunately in South Africa, the zip on my case had torn, and so I had to buy extra straps to stop it falling apart. A new case was actually on our shopping list for today, but this high quality hard shell case was just the job, and a snip at $5. Pale blue would not normally be my colour of choice, but one can’t look a gift horse in the mouth!
Albany, Western Australia, Australia john-vanda

... of which had been burnt out but that were still alive!

Then our next stop was the William Bay National Park and the area known as Greens Pool and Elephant Rocks .. which when i load the pictures on you will see why it was called that!

We then carried on though Denmark to the Natural Bridge and The Gap and watched the sun set .. it was lovely and yet again we saw another couple of whales .. it was really ...

... a little wooden shack, with a pot-bellied fire in it to keep the place warm, but you can order freshly caught fish to be cooked to your liking. We ordered salt & peppered squid, which was delish! It was really back to basics, where you even have to bring along, not just your own drinks, but also your own glasses, plates and cutlery!

... symbols will vary wildly and change frequently as X day approaches and then dawns, with weather unforeseen and inhabitants unprepared. I digress. Neither the weather nor it's forecasters have been kind to us of late, and the ominous grey of the sky seemed to suggest this wasn't going to change. The problem was not simply that we would prefer not to be washed out as we slept for a second time. We also needed the water feature in our tent to be removed by the evening ...

... from her old school class who'd recently emigrated there. After meeting her with Alex and his brother Barry who had all travelled back to Perth for a music event we set off down south to Albany. Driving all day we arrived by early evening to a nice camp site right on the beach on a bay outside Albany harbour. 2 nights here gave us some drive around time to take in the lovely views from the hill-top lookout. Leaving here we went to Walpole-Nornalup ...

... but on a smaller scale. Still massive trees, but the Sequoia's are enormous. Then had a wander on a trail at ground level, some interesting old hollowed out trees which show evidence of fire damage due to the many forest fires which must of passed through here over the centuries. Then on to William bay national park which covers a small area along the south coast. A jaw droppingly beautiful beach, probably the finest beach these ...

... sea and it took us about 45 mins to walk the length of it and back. It was so windy that i thought we were going to get swept away too! If you look closely you might be able to see the end! After we checked into the hostel we drove to Cape Naturaliste to Bunker Bay, a white sand deserted beach which was gorgeous! We wanted to stay there all evening but had to get back for dinner!! We then went up to the light house at Cape ...

... 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 ...

... back to the camper and even managed to convince Silvio to join me. We jogged along the beautiful white sandy beach for 20 minutes, then headed back. On the way I told Silvio a couple times I saw whales, but he seemed to think they were rocks, as they seemed to stay at the surface for so long. Just at the end, though, saw some "rocks" by the surfers which has definitely not been there when we ran by the first time. Two whales, just off shore. We stopped and ...