Walpole to Perth

27 July – 2 August

 

Competing the loop of the south west, we made our way along the south coast back to Albany, stopping along the way at a free shire camp site. Before hitting Albany town again we had a look around the national park on the peninsula around the South side of the bay. Albany had the last operating wailing station in Australia which started operation in 1953 and closing in 1978. In its time the station processed 16,000 humpback and sperm whales from the edge of the continental shelf. The station is now a museum to this important part of Albany’s history, as it supported a good portion of the community either directly or indirectly.  The museum was interesting in that it did not go into the ethics of whaling, just simply explained how it was done and displayed the equipment used. Whale oil was used for a great deal of things back in the day, from Swiss watches, cosmetics and space vehicles as it was the finest oil available at the time.  They still had one of the Norwegian built whale chasing boats which we could explore. The volunteer there was able to take us down to look at the quadruple expansion steam engine in its belly. The old oil tanks had been converted into theaters showing short films of life of the whalers, sharks, and a sweet 1990’s 3D computer generated film on whales.

 

 

Back towards Perth is The Gap. The gap is essentially a hole in the cliffs where the swell smashes into and concentrates into a huge surge. Parks and Wildlife recently opened a new lookout over the gap. Made of beautiful sweped stainless steel beams moulding to the contours of the rocks supporting a large platform cantilevered over the gap. I liked it up there.

 

Back in Albany we started hitting the places we missed last time, most notably their war memorial prescient which is on the hill on the harbour in the centre of town.  At the start of the first world war, the first and second fleets of troop ships left from Albany harbour on their way to Gallipoli, Egypt and other theatres of war.  There is now a really well done museum dedicated to the troops (and horses) which congregated in the sheltered bay over 100 years ago.  The architecture of the building gives great views of the bay and compares it to how it looked filled with ships.  Each visitor is given one of 35 cards, each with a name and QR code on it.  This allows you to follow the story of one of the souls on board the ships throughout the war at special card readers.  Although a small museum, it still took us a couple of hours to have a good look through and was well worth it.  The museum sits directly above Ataturk Channel which separates the harbour from the bay.  This channel was renamed after the war in a deal with the Turks to rename the landing cove at Gallipoli ANZAC cove.

 

Also up on the memorial hill were a selection of guns/turrets/flack cannons/torpedoes/cruise missile launchers which have been used by the Australian defence force throughout the years. At the other end of the hill was the memorial to the desert mounted corps and the site of one of the first ANZAC day dawn services.

 

 

We decided to detour slightly on our way back to Perth to head past the Stirling Ranges which had been enveloped in cloud the last time we passed through. It was impressive to see Bluff Knoll which we’d climbed with the top in white out, as well as the rest of the ranges stretching out above the plains.

It felt odd heading into a big city with multilane roads, high-rise buildings on the skyline and trains cruising down the tracks in the middle of the freeway. As we neared Perth along the Mitchell Freeway the traffic increased and all too soon we were part of a procession of crawling cars – back to big city traffic jams, no emus on the road here.

 

 

We were lucky to be able to stay in Perth with our good friends from Uni. Again it was so relaxing being inside, enjoying great company and playing cards in the evening. We had a shopping hit list that we managed to knock off in a very successful morning – a new power pack for the laptop, a replacement set of shoes as Estelle’s trail walkers had started falling apart (more than wear and tear) and other miscellaneous tasks we’d been saving for when we were in Perth. Making the most of the big smoke we indulged in brunches, catching up with some old friends and using the kitchen to satisfy our baking bug.

One of the places that neither of us had been to was the Perth Mint so we duly headed down for a visit. It was interesting to see examples of the old coins minted there although the highlight was a gold pour.

The other place we hadn’t been to was Rottnest Island, so with the 4WD in for a service we headed to Freemantle to catch the ferry over to Rottnest Island for the day. It was a clear sunny, if slightly breezy day and after picking up the rental bikes we were off ready to explore the island. It was really nice to be back on a bike cruising along the cost in and out of the numerous sandy bays. Rottnest Island is the home to Quokkas, a rather cute oversized rodent looking marsupial. Despite our best efforts, our attempts at a Quokka selfie let a bit to be desired …

We were having a fabulous time until Estelle’s bike slid out from under her as she was racing Marcel to the top of the lighthouse hill. Falling down hard right into a big patch of gravel, there were nasty grazes to her elbow, hand and hip. Being at the lighthouse we were able to use the limited first aid kit there, and there just happened to be a nurse around who could help patch Estelle up for the meantime. Not letting the ‘biking wounded’ look deter us, we continued our tour of the island, albeit at a slower more cautious pace. In the middle of the island there are two 9½ inch guns that had been part of the defence system guarding the port during the Second World War. The gun emplacements were still intact which is rare with all the other similar guns around Australia broken up for scrap.

 

 

We had been planning to drive north the next day, but with Estelle’s grazes we decided it was better to be in Perth another day. We touched base with the doctor, who decided that given the high incidence of quokka poo on the island, and that we were headed away from the city it would be wise to take a course of antibiotics.

It was a bit odd saying goodbye to Perth which we’d actually ended up spending a fair bit of time in visiting friends and on work trips during our eight years in Australia, and not knowing when / if we’ll be back. Hopefully we’ll be back someday.

 

M & E