Albany & The Torndirrup National Park

 ALBANY & 
THE TORNDIRRUP NATIONAL PARK

We drove down from the Porongurup National Park to the coastal town of Albany. We stayed at a few different places around bay that the town is built on so we could cover all the things worthwhile seeing.

We stayed at Emu Beach for the first stint and on the first day we jumped on the bikes and rode over 38km from Emu Beach, past Middleton Beach and onto the Ellen Cove Bardwalk that led past the commercial wharves and into the main township.

Down on the foreshore is a replica on the Amity Brig. 

Being yachties, we just had to go and have a look.

On the way home we stopped to look at the old WW2 gun emplacements and there were even chooks walking along the bike track.

By the time we got home to Emu Point it was after 6pm and getting cold and windy.

Up on the hill is the town's most iconic tourist destination - the National Anzac Centre. The place is huge with the so many things to visit. We ended up spending an entire day there.

The big and unexpected bonus was finding out about a local man who was a captured POW at the imfamous Changi POW camp in Singapore. He was the camp doctor and from what we can put together, he helped Paul's Grandad (who was also a Changi POW)   stay alive.

If we weren't already stuffed after a full day out and on our feet, we say a sign on the way home that was promoting the local Trots that were on that night.

We'd been to a stack of horse racing events but had never been to the Trots so we go changed, rugged up (it was cold at night...) and off we went.

We had a blast and after a entire night of fun social betting we walked out $2 up after having covered the whole night expenses including dinner.

Being suckers for punishment, we backed it up the following day and went around to the other side of the bay to see the old Albany Whaling Station which is now known as Whaleworld. 

We had no idea of the size of it - and that it had an adjoining wildlife park. It actually take us 2 days to completely see the whole set-up.

We enjoyed a great sunset that night and a nice sunrise over the water the next morning.

We moved to another van park that was on the other side of the bay and closer to the Torndirrup National Park (and Whaleworld so we could see the wildlife park later on).

We decided to explore the park and spent a full day doing walks, scenic lookouts, beaches and bays.

The most famous are the 2 natural attractions of The Gap and The Natural Arch.

Finally in the afternoon we were able to get back to the wildlife park.

We went in and 10 minutes later the keeper came out and started feeding the animals. We was great so we followed him around and he let us get some good photos and let Lisa hold one of the snakes.

2 hours and over a 1000 photos later......

Overnight a big storm hit. Winds to 50 knots, driving rain and massive seas over 6m. The caravan park copped a hiding with many tents blowing over, annexes and awnings imploding and camper trailers leaking. We did ok but our small toilet/shower tent was leveled.

We know it was coming for days so we hung-off going to the blowhole until the next day when the seas were huge.

We ended up covered in saltwater spray and struggled to keep the cameras dry - but it was so worth it.

After the blowhole, we went over to the other side of the bay and in the protection of the high peaks, we visited some of the quieter beaches.

By the next morning the wind was gone and we had great glassy reflections across the bay.