While we were down south we thought we may as well keep heading in that direction and took a five hour road trip to Albany. As you can see from some of the pics it wasn't as nice and sunny as we would have liked and boy oh boy was it windy. I am also now a bit shattered that I didn't take more pics while we were here. I got a bit lazy and snap unhappy I think.
We had one entire day with 2 nights accommodation booked to see whatever sights we could fit in and one of these was Whale World and what a fascinating place it was. After hearing about the gory details of a life as a whaler I would have to rate it as probably being one of the worst jobs anyone could have had in the world. However it was an essential job; not for the faint hearted may I add as people wanted and needed whale back in the days. They needed it for fuel for lamps, to eat, for lipstick, for soap products, lubricating the bits and bobs in watches and even for making candles. How the guide described the process of hacking cutting up a whale, sawing it to bits, dropping it down into the boilers and then cooking it up was really quite gruesome. You could only imagine the noise and the smell.
We were told on our tour that this was the very last whaling station in operation in Australia and that was due to the fact that there were dwindling numbers of Humpbacks in the Southern Ocean and then finally the government declared a total ban of whaling in the late 70's.
It was pleasing to note though that the current Humpback Whale numbers are now right up and there are about 80,000 huge mammals swimming in the Southern Ocean. The museum also housed one of the last whale ships that was in operation as part of the exhibition to go on aboard and have a look. The pic below is where they pulled the whale up onto the deck. The wooden deck there amongst all the concrete was like a huge big chopping board so they wouldn't destroy all their sharp knives and tools. The poor whales!
The old boiler you can see in the pic below is one of many at the museum that have been converted into a theatre where they have various movies depicting the life of a whaler and even the life of a whale out in the sea. If you like a bit of history and love learning about this country of ours than this place is really worth a visit.
I wish I had of taken pics of the part of the museum where they had a full skeleton of a Blue Whale exhibited. I couldn't believe how big it was. I found a pic in Google Images just to show you.
We also went for a squizz at the blow hole down the road from Whale World. I only made it half way down the track as we had a toddler tantrum to deal with, which though annoying was kind of a blessing as Cam said there was only flat rocks to see and no water blowing out of any holes. Phew! That walk back up the hill would have killed me. Though the view from up top was pretty spectacular.
That was our accommodation at the holiday park we stayed at. A double story caravan park cabin. Awesome!
And this was our view from the back deck. Though the wind was freezing and ridiculously strong so we didn't get to venture out here that much. It was nice watching the big ships anchored in the bay and all their pretty lights on at night time.
Another place that we briefly stopped by on the way to Albany and a place that I would have liked to roam around in a lot more was Denmark. Have you been there? It seemed to be quite a quaint and alternative little town with a stack of galleries to peruse. I would have loved to have found some artwork as a momento of our trip. One day!
The drive to Albany from Busselton, you could say was rather on the boring side as there really is not much to look at as you are driving through a national park most of the way. However, if you a nature lover like me than you too would be amazed at the ginormous Karri eucalyptus forests for most of the drive South. I thought the trees were beautiful and I posted a pic on my Instagram feed here.
Cam and I also visited Limeburners Whisky Distillery. Yes we got rid of the children! Didn't I tell you my parents were on the trip with us? And we even got to enjoy a lovely, quiet lunch at one of the cafe's in town to end the Whale World venturing afternoon. I wasn't a big fan of the whiskey thing so I left that to Cam and we now have a bottle of one of Limeburners finest drops up on the top shelf.
It would have been good to stay and see a lot more of Albany and surrounds but Fremantle was calling and the end of the holiday was drawing closer and closer.
Do you know much about Australia's whaling history? After this trip it is now certainly very interesting indeed.
See you tomorrow
Thanks for visiting today
Elisha x
