22/03/12
First settled in 1826, Albany (pop. 25000) is now the largest town and port along the south coast. It’s set amoung wooded granite hills on the shore of an enourmous double-bay natural harbours. The outer portion is the broad King George Sound, while the inner part is Princess Royal Harbour, where the port stands. Albany has sevral lstrong links to the Anzac story, and the first great Anzac Convoy assembled here, but these days the harbour plays only host to grain carriers, fishing boats, dolphins and pelicans.
History of a different sort can be found on the opposite side of the Sound, on the site of Australia’s last whaling station at Cheynes Beach. Whaling only stopped in 1978, and whales have since become a tourist attraction.
It is a beautiful area. The Southern Ocean in all its powerful beauty crashes against dramatic cliffs and rock formations that nearly pre-date all life on earth.
Albany is mainly known for it’s beautiful white sandy beaches. March is supposed to be the best time to go there. Blue skies, cam sea, fresh nights… Not for us! Grey sky, cold wet days and freezing cold nights (with lots of wind)! We couldn’t even spend some nice time on the beach! So we just went to k-mart instead to buy some stuff that we needed.
For lunch we headed off to Two Peoples Bay. A beautiful spot. A little creek with white sand and turquoise water. And the sun even came out for a bit! Two peoples Bay is a sanctuary for the Noisy Scrub Bird, that everybody thought extinct until recently.
For the night we went to Quobba beach. We had to drive for 8km down a very bumpy dirt track that took us ages!
The place was lovely. In the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nature.
Le Carnet de Voyage
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