After leaving the Stirling
Range we headed south to spend a couple of nights in Albany on the southern tip
of Western Australia. Before checking-in at the Dog Rock motel in Albany, we
visited the Valley of the Giants.
With some of the tallest
trees in Australia, the Valley of the Giants is well worth a visit – it also
has a new canopy walkway that gradually lifts you 30m into the trees.
The gum trees in the valley
are incredible: evidence of fire on the older trees is apparent and, like this
example, has resulted in trees that you walk through!
After visiting the Valley of
the Giants we headed into Albany to check-in at the Dog Rock motel.
The following day we toured
the Albany area: there are stunning beaches and a whaling museum that is well
worth a visit.
At a bay near a rock
formation called Elephant Rocks there is a gently shelving beach with safe
bathing.
Julie couldn’t resist!
It takes a lot to get me in
the sea however!
Can you see the elephants?
Elephant Rocks has a very
sheltered and secluded bay. And again Julie couldn’t resist a paddle.
I have my own way of
enjoying the beach…
I did end up in the water
eventually!
Albany had a thriving
whaling business until the moratorium ended Australian involvement in the
1970’s.
Skeleton of a pigmy blue
whale; a smaller relative of the largest animal in the world, the Blue Whale.
As with other areas we
visited, Albany has some beautiful plants…
It’s a botanist’s paradise!
The holiday was almost
over…. We next drove back to Perth in readiness for the flight home the next
day.