Saturday 4th November – Albany

The first night’ sleep in the camper went quite well as far as I’m concerned.  I slept through solidly anyway, and the curtains in the van kept the light level low enough to stay asleep until 830am.  

Choosing to turn the gas supply off last night instead of risking gassing ourselves was the sensible thing to do but, sadly, the gas switch is accessed from the outside of the camper.  That means whoever wants tea or coffee first is forced to head outside.  Despite only having showered when we left Lisa’s yesterday I couldn’t fail to use the brand-new showers here.  Who knows what state some of the facilities we see will be in?! 

We hit the road just before 11am.  I took the first stint until lunch and Simon completed the journey to Albany, arriving about 2pm.  Ozzie’s fuel consumption may not quite be what we hoped for.  We topped up half a tank yesterday and the rest of today’s journey has left us needing a full tank before we set off again, so AUD$90 of petrol in two days has gone.  But now we’re down here on the south coast we will be taking it more slowly as we do our touristing.  Albany had been recommended to us for a couple of different reasons – a great wreck dive of the HMAS Perth, plus the National war memorial as well as some stunning scenery.  Seeing as we had no intention when we arrived here of visiting anywhere south of Perth, this had better be good! First things first – find the dive centre I had selected on line.  It had shut down and the number didn’t work anymore so they had clearly gone out of business.  Where do you go for the best info?  Well, the Visitors’ centre of course!  As well as being given directions to the sole remaining dive shop in the city, we were furnished with a multitude of information about other ‘must-see’ locations and given a list of campsites with prices.  We made a bee-line to the dive shop but it had shut at 1pm and would not re-open until Monday.  However, there was a telephone number.  I spoke with Gary who apologised but told me they didn’t intend on diving the Perth over the next couple of days whilst we were around.  Ah well, that is probably just as well for the budget.  We definitely must get dives in on Ningaloo reef up the west coast and the Great Barrier reef on the east, this would have been a bonus but maybe a dive too far for our expenses.

On to other things.   

Stunning view of Albany bay and town (and our campervan!)

It actually does look quite dog-like

We drove up to Mount Melville for a view of the City and then on to Dog Rock before heading to the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) memorial at the peak of Mount Clarence. An impressive statue at the top looked amazing against the backdrop. Shame we’re a week early for Remembrance Day, but it’s always good to learn about the hardships suffered by our ancestors for the sake of our freedom that we take for granted. 

The view from behind the war memorial on ANZAC Hill

I was relieved to be able to stretch my legs after a morning cooped up in the van and Simon enjoyed seeing some military memorabilia (left). 

Driving back through the city we paused for photos at Patrick Cottage, (right), the oldest dwelling in WA, and by a replica of the Brig Amity which was the first ship to arrive on the Western side of the continent with European settlers on board.

Time was against us, it was heading for 6pm so we needed to find our stop for the night.  Despite intending to try a freebie site tonight, they were all a distance west of Albany, meaning that we would have to drive 30km out and then back again the next morning.  Or, we should just get a reasonably priced $30 camp ground with an electric hook-up and showers right next to the water for the night?!  The Panorama caravan park is on the south side of the harbour, leaving us perfectly situated for the sites we want to visit on the peninsula tomorrow.

View over to Albany from the Panorama camp site

We made fajitas for dinner and spent our first evening alone in the camper.  Hey presto – a great time can be had with just the addition of a wireless speaker for tunes and half a bottle of red wine!