Denmark – Albany – Esperance

We left Denmark and headed to Albany (just down the road). Rich wanted to carry on but I thought the town seemed quite nice and the weather was lovely so we stopped at the Visitor Centre. It was Whale Season and we were told that they come right into the bays around Albany so that made me want to stay. Rich agreed (to appease me, I think) so we checked in to a beachfront campsite complete with pool and spa.

As it was warm and sunny we decided to walk the Boardwalk into the town which was about 3KM one way. The first part of the walk takes you along the cliffs around the bay and as told there was a whale just floating along!! At first I thought it was a log or pipeline as it was so close to the cliff and did not appear to be moving but soon after it started to swim along as we walked.

We stopped for coffee in the town (no cake this time, though) and had a wander before heading back via a hill walk. This appeared to be a pretty straight forward route on the map but in reality it proved very difficult to find the pathway – even the locals were non-the-wiser! We had walked up and down the same hill a couple of times before we stumbled across it (and it probably wasn’t worth all the effort to be honest as it just brought you back to the Boardwalk).

Here's Albany town centre:



However, on our return along the Boardwalk there were a couple of whales in the bay and one was splashing its tail in and out of the water. I could have stayed there all day just watching them – Rich couldn’t, though…

That evening Rich decided to go for a swim in the FREEZING pool – what possessed him I’ll never know. When he got out he said he could feel his back tingling like pins and needles! At this point we decided to make a bee-line for the 34C spa, which was lovely! And we spent the evening around the kitchen campfire – it was a shame we didn’t have any marshmallows!

The next morning we were up early for our 5 hour drive to Esperance. Before hitting the highway we planned to stop at MuzzBuzz (a drive through coffee place) as we had some vouchers. We ended up going round in a circle to get to it (looking back it probably wasn’t worth the detour). After we got our ‘Really Big One’ (aka RBO – the Aussie’s shorten everything) we headed on our way. Along the route I did my first bit of driving as the road was pretty empty and I thought I would be safe. I had not been driving all that long when 2 birds flew out in front of me, straight into the grill. I shrieked in horror as I saw blue feathers just falling to the road in my rear view mirror (Rich also chose this exact point to take a photo of me so didn’t know what I had just done). My driving experience did not last long after this; mainly due to the fact that the van was horrible to drive and Rich kept wincing every 2 minutes! We switched over and Rich (happily) drove the rest of the way.

Evidence of me driving! (Just as the birds commit suicide):



After checking in at the campsite we decided to go on the tourist drive around the cliffs and up to the Pink Lake, which we were told was very pretty. The drive was pretty spectacular along the cliff tops with the rough sea crashing on the sands. When we got to the Pink Lake we noticed that it wasn’t pink; it was blue! Apparently algae in the water had been disturbed and the chemical balance had been altered so this meant that the pink hue had gone.

That evening we had a rushed tea as we had to go to the local pub to watch the Premiership highlights on TV (much to the Aussie’s moaning as the barman changed it over from Aussie Rules Football to English Premier League for us). (Rich) AFL seems to be just a bunch of blokes chasing after a football. As my football coach told me and my team mates when we were 12, “everyone shouldn’t chase after the ball like a herd of elephants”. Well, AFL doesn’t seem to have been told this!

Sunny Esperance: