Before leaving Albany, we treated ourselves to breakfast at a café I remember well from the time we had an adventure race down this way in 2009. Sam – you’ll remember the one I mean. The man who owns the café used to live in Jan Juc, and I knew his lovely mum in her final years. He knew John from competing against him way back. More small world stuff.

The wind got nasty so the boys abandoned the proposed paddle to Nanarup, and instead we looked at the Princess Royal Fortress built in 1893 on Mt.Adelaide.

It was from here that troops left for Gallipoli and many other campaigns. There is a memorable photo there of hundreds of Australian troops sitting on one of the pyramids in Egypt. They cover at least a dozen of the huge steps. When you see the marginal country further east in the soldier settlements they were given on their return home, it seems a poor reward for their time fighting for King and country.

We left the last major centre we will see in Western Australia with a full pantry and tanks of fuel. Note: it wasn’t raining. We’re hoping we don’t see “100% chance of rain” on the forecast again.

It’s 477km to Esperance from here, but we’re going to see if we can get in to Fitzgerald National Park on the way. A lot of the roads are closed after all the rain.

We arrived in Bremer Bay, population 250, and marvelled at the clear blue water and white beaches. Too bad the sand was being blown away by the wind. We crossed the Bremer River mouth through the sand and attempted to get to Doubtful Island Bay, but it wasn’t to be. The road was either a sea of water or otherwise corrugated. It was after 5pm, and not a good time to get bogged. We retreated back to Bremer Bay and enjoyed their carpet of green grass. And their showers.

I think I’ve mentioned my passion for wind turbines gently turning in the wind. A breezy old spot like Albany is making the most of this form of energy with a large number of turbines along the coast. Each blade is 35m long and the tower is 65m high. That means it’s 100m to the top of the top blade!

We were here near dusk and this time I took the best sunset photo…..

As we left the coast to drive back into Albany township, I took the photo below of the Southern Ocean.

The funny thing is that when we got back into the harbour, the water had glassed off. Perfect for water skiing! You don’t see that in Albany too often.

Lastly, today’s wildflower is Bacon and Eggs or Nemcia capitata. I saw this in the track to The Gap and actually had one in my garden until recently. It got out of control and it never flowered this well. Perhaps I’ll try again now that I know how good it can look.

Bacon and Eggs

Down south, the coast is remarkably different to other parts of WA. The water is a beautiful turquoise blue with the whitest sand and around this neck of the woods, there are huge domes of granite boulders added to the mix.

Shelley Beach

Shelley Beach (above) is on West Cape Howe. You can camp here – when the weather is better.

Shelley Beach. Again.

You get two photos of this, just because it’s so picturesque.

Before you know it, you’ve arrived in Albany. This is a major centre in the south, and was the first European settlement in Western Australia in 1826. The harbour is magnificent and welcomes huge ships though its narrow channel. There’s an inlet off the harbour for even more protected waters. The historic waterfront has a seafaring history and the town then degenerates into a sprawling metropolis of about 25,000.

Skirting the town is the Torndirrup National Park with a windblown, surf lashed, rocky coastline where you find some cool natural features. There’s the obligatory Blow Holes, but more spectacular is The Gap and Natural Bridge.

Natural Bridge

Note the exciting lack of rain today.

Fergus and Harry named this one Bum Rock.

Apart from a rugged coastline, Albany is also famous for its whaling history. The population of both southern sperm and humpback whales was decimated after 26 years of hunting at the Albany whaling station. It seems sweet justice that the whales swim past the slaughter deck within harpoon shot as the tourists ogle at these majestic animals. Since closing in 1978, the old whaling station has turned around and become a major attraction and museum of the history of the town. The place has been left virtually as it was when it closed, and they have one of the old whale chasers on display too.

Whale Chaser Cheynes IV

There were some Japanese people on our tour, and I wonder what they thought of what we saw. It certainly was a barbaric style of killing they employed.

This is the skeleton of a pygmy blue whale they have on display. It’s much bigger than the ones they used to hunt.

Right after the wind started so did the rain. Watch the short video below to see how our day panned out.

I made John stop in Pemberton. Excellent coffee there. Say, 7/10. We took a drive around Gloucester National Park and ventured out of the car to look at Circular Pool on the Frankland River.

Okay, so it’s a boring photo. I just wanted to put something up after walking there n the rain.

It was frothing away at its best and some of the viewing platforms were underwater.We drove on through the rain to Walpole. There’s not much to Walpole, but it always gets a bigger dot on a map than it should.It was still raining.

Green Pools

We stopped in at Green Pools, a beautiful protected beach just west of Denmark. The boys had hoped for a dive, but we’ll come back in the morning for better conditions.

We made it to Denmark with enough daylight for the boys to surf at Ocean Beach.

And finally, today’s wildflower is a clematis. There were heaps of these near Denmark and further along the coast.

We loved being amongst these towering karri trees. They are exceptionally straight and tall. Karris are one of the tallest trees in the world, growing up to 90m. Their forests are not unlike the huge mountain ash forests near Marysville.

Karri forest near Pemberton

They use four of these trees in this area as fire lookouts. They have pegged a spiral staircase to the tree tops, and one of the famous trees most people have heard about is the Gloucester Tree, which the public may climb. We decided to do the highest of the four public trees – the Bicentennial Tree, at 65m tall, with a four level tower on the top making the total climb 75m. Let’s just say: really high. I had to go for the diagonal shot to fit it in!

The Bicentennial Tree – just bend your head over

Off they went – John, Harry and Fergus. I climbed the Gloucester Tree back in 1987 and clearly didn’t mind the airy nature of the ladder back then. This time, no thanks. Ferg went to the first platform. But John and Harry made it all the way up there.

John and Harry on the way up. Those are big steps for a kid!

It’s not for the faint hearted. John was even heard to admit to a nanosecond of height aversion. There is a pathetic piece of wire fencing around the outside, but nothing to stop you falling downwards. No harness required, no helmet, no indemnity to sign, not even any fun police to watch you fall. Quite a contrast to the safety gear the boys wore for their tunnel tour under Fremantle which included life jackets for water one metre deep! We reckon the reason for the lack of safety measures is that if it’s really scary to do, then not many people will climb! Risk reduced!

Fergus on his way down

The tree sways up to 1.5m in the wind. Yuck.

You would have heard by now if they hadn’t made it. We did it first thing in the morning, and soon after that, the wind picked up and the Ranger would have appeared from his office to close the tree for climbing. Okay, so maybe they do have some safety measures.

Here’s another shot showing the variety of the trees in the forest.

A bendy one and a spiral one!