15 March 2000

Good day today (the further from Perth the better it gets). Before leaving Augusta went back out to Cape Leeuwin to photograph in the morning light. Beautiful, rugged coastline with Indian/Southern Ocean breaking on it. Went up inside Cape Leeuwin lighthouse. Bloody long way up; oddly enough, same as distance back down (Lorraine wasn't sure about this). Should have counted number of steps, but probably better we didn't. Magnificent clear, sunny morning and glorious views all round.

Left Augusta and drove through Nannup, Giddyup (only kidding again - but I keep wondering why so many towns in just this south western part of WA end in "up"), Pemberton, Walpole, Denmark (no, no mistake - that's its name) and on to Albany, which we reached about 4:00 this afternoon.

Drove through some beautiful countryside. Plenty of vineyards and wineries again. And again some magnificent stands of karri trees, periodically from north of Pemberton all the way through to Denmark.

Albany is a lovely city - the oldest in WA. It sits at the back of King George Sound, on Princess Royal Harbour. It was originally established as a military outpost in 1826 to give the British a foothold in the west of Australia. It has also been important as a whaling station and as a coaling point for steamers from England. Today it is apparently the major holiday destination in WA and it is interesting that it holds this distinction without having succumbed to the developmental excesses we have recently seen in other centres. We are only here overnight, but we did manage to get out to a place called Frenchman's Bay, which is on the point where King George Sound meets the Southern Ocean. There are a number of islands not far inside the entrance to the Sound and these are unusual in that they appear to be no more than large (very), smooth rounded rocks. The ocean coast here has this same unusual feature of being rounded and sloping rock, which is in stark contrast to the craggy, rocky cliffs of the other coastlines we have seen so far. The Southern Ocean, while not seeming to have much of a swell, was pounding in to these cliffs with enormous power (again in contrast to the comparatively gentle swell of the Indian Ocean) and throwing up copious amounts of spray. There were a couple of small, sandy beaches in amongst the rocky ocean shores which were quite protected from most of the roughness and which seemed quite good swimming places.

We drove round and looked at a number of other places nearby. The best of these were a natural bridge between the mainland and an offshore rocky outcrop through which the sea pounded, and a narrow channel called locally "The Blowhole" through which the swells of the Southern Ocean crashed, throwing huge plumes of spray high into the air. These fell as light mist over the whole area, including the carpark some 100 metres away.

Aterwards drove around the town admiring the architecture of the old buildings. With the benefit of hindsight should have spent a few days here instead of in Perth.

Should make Esperance (at least) tomorrow, a further 480 kms to the ENE, before turning north for the goldfields.