Settled in Albany

We're now in Albany, on the south coast of WA. We're planning to stay here a month, as there is a lot to see and do in the area, plus they have a very nice golf course. Although the golf club doesn't have a temporary membership, because we said we would be coming regularly for a while they have welcomed us into their competitions, and given us a note to say we can have reduced green fees. We've already played several games each, and for the first time since Darwin have actually managed to win something, albeit only a couple of NTPs for Wendy and a ball down the line for John. Still, we're hopeful for better by the time we leave.

Albany was the first town settled in WA, and is the port from which the ANZACs departed on their way to the battlefields of WWI. We did an interesting heritage walk around some of the early buildings, although the brig shown above with John at the wheel is a replica of the one that brought the first group of settlers. Albany is also quite hilly, so there are several spectacular lookout points over the large sheltered harbour. It is quite a large town, providing good shopping and a weekend farmers market, where we have stocked up on beautiful fresh vegies, fruit (in particular some gorgeous cherries) and fish.

In between games of golf we spent a day at the Porongorup National Park, about 30km north of Albany, doing a fairly strenuous walk up the massive granite outcrops (and down and up again). The tree in the photo on the left with Wendy at the base has grown straight up through a rock, it must have taken a lot of force to push its way through. The views from the top of the outcrops were spectacular, north to the Stirling Ranges NP (site of another walk we intend to do before we leave) and south to the distant coastline. Like many of the parks in WA they have a problem with a fungus called 'dieback', which attacks the roots of plants and causes them to, well, die back. We dutifully cleaned our shoes at each of the control points, using the very manky toilet brush supplied - it seemed to transfer more dirt to our shoes than it got off, but at least we tried. For a change of pace, on the way home from Porongorup NP we stopped in at a couple of the wineries in the area and picked up some excellent riesling, we'll have to make a return visit before we leave Albany if the supplies start to get a bit low.