After the intensity of the first two days of this trip, followed by my brother-in-laws wedding in Albany I am now casually making my way back home. The plan is to head to the south west tip of Australia then travel as far north as Geraldton then go inland and down to Kalgoolie and head over the Nullarbor.  Then once in South Australia follow the coastline around to Victoria and then home. 

Luckily before we left Albany we had a day and a bit to have a quick look around.  With the interesting coastline and big harbour the layout of Albany is quite interesting and once we could see it from the lookout the layout made more sense.  We really didn’t scratch the surface of what there is to see and do in Albany with the few short days we had there.

On the site of Australia’s last whaling station which closed in the 1970’s is Whale World.  The Whaling station is complete and the tour goes through the whole grisly process from spotting, harpooning, transporting and finally flinsking the whales. It is hard to phathom now killing these giants, and it was primarily only for the oil.

They also had a few whale skeletons including this pigmy blue whale that washed up on the beach in 1973. In regards to scale the pigmy blue whale grows to 22 meters. The blue whale grows to a staggering 34 meters!

After leaving Albany on Tuesday morning I made my way to the valley of the Giants, just out of Walpole, where they have a tree top walk 40 meters up in the big red tingles.  These are just beautiful trees. However, not a place to be if you suffer vertigo.

What I have been surprised at is the glorious riding there has been in the the south west of WA. The roads wind through forests and farming land. I’m not sure what I was expecting in WA but I have to admit this wasn’t it. 

   
    
 
  
I then made my way across to Augusta to Cape Leeuwin where the Indian and Southern oceans meet. Maybe I was imagining it but I thought you could make out the different directions of waves.

   
 
Cottesloe

Before I left I was told hat I had to have fish and chips at Cottesloe.  While it was a bit early for lunch I wasn’t sure when and where my next stop was so I availed myself and then found a nice spot to watch the world go past.  What a beautiful beach.

  
And then as I headed north I just ducked down various roads to have a look at seaside villages and lookouts. The coastline is quite staggering.

   
   
It’s probably been over 15 years since I have visited the Pinnacles.  Now there is a visitors centre and everything. Still an amazing place.

   
   
Then with assistance via a text I was told of a nice camp ground at Sandy Cape.  So after 7 km of horrible dirt corrugations I made it to this nice little spot where I could have a cuppa and watch the sun go down over the ocean.
   
    
 Not too shabby.
Sure beats working.