Well this could have been almost everything today with the wind blowing hard, the rain coming in horizontal, the visit to the various coastal areas including the blowholes or our visit to the last Whaling Station in Australia (no longer working).
After heavy rain all night, the sunshine in the morning was welcome but it was not to last. The wind howled today and eventually the rain came back but it presented some interesting times on our walks.
While enjoying the sunshine, we took in the sights of the Princess Royal Fortress on Mount Adelaide with its very Anzac emphasis, particularly the history of the 1st and 2nd Convoys of ships from Australia to World War 1.
Next on the agenda was a drive through town with a visit to the iconic Dog Rock. I can believe that the powers to be wanted to blow it up to expand the road in 1921.
With the weather starting to come back in, why not visit the coast that is closest to Antarctica – what could go wrong.
The Gap and Natural Bridge were going off with the spray making it to the car park. Love the new viewing platform and you soon can pick the squamous ones when someone jumps up and down at the end.
Onto the blowholes and they were also performing well. We could see some heavy rain coming in from the ocean and with an 800 metre walk back to the car, we found a rock ledge to wait it out. It didn’t take long for rivers of water to flow over the granite. Glad we didn’t try to get back to the car. A couple that did decide to try and out run the rain were just finished changing their clothes when we returned to the car park – they must have got drenched.
A couple of other spots with magnificent views both along the coast and back towards Albany, in between the rain storms which also produced some great rainbows.
Last stop for the day was the Old Albany Whaling Station. This was the last active station in Australia before closing in 1978. It was interesting to see what went on here over the years with the amount of hard work it took to process the whales. We are probably a lot better off to let the whales swim but we didn’t spot any off the coast today.
Tomorrow brings some more walks and a farm visit.
