Longer than usual drive today. We wanted to reach the coast of the Southern Ocean before sunset and still have a couple of hours for hiking before arriving.
Much of the landscape getting here consisted of sheep country (100 million sheep live in Australia) and farmland, giving way to vineyards and even some small orange groves as we neared the coast. When the scenery gets monotonous, we take pleasure in listening to our music playlists or, when we fail to get internet, we have some 200 tunes that Eric had downloaded from FBI radio back in Sydney.
We did our hiking in Porongurub, a mountainous area outside of a small town called Mt. Barker. Mountains are a rare site for Australians, the country being largely a massive continental mesa. This location can be compared to parts of north-central California, where tall trees prevail on the heights, which are surrounded by rather dry terrain.
Porongurub was a welcome oasis. Eric took the Granite Skywalk to the peak, a 2-hour class IV trail; I, too lazy to change from my coastal flip-flops, opted for the 1-hour lower trail, called the Eagle View. Clear, instructional markers dotted the way, denoting the flora, as well as the fauna of the environment. This was my first encounter with kangaroos in a wooded area, as a mother and her joey shared some of the path with me and eventually decided to go separate routes, hopping through the thicket.
Albany is the largest town in the south coast of Western Australia; it is built on hills. Like all towns here, large and small, it is apparently quite affluent and well-manicured, as well as impeccably clean. We are told that Sydney is the exception to this rule. Public toilets in Australia are sparkling lustered and scented, including port-a-potties, by meticulous governmental employees, but that’s another subject, so let’s get back to Albany.
It is the oldest town inhabited by Europeans in the state of Western Australia. It sits on a natural harbor on the Southern Ocean, which, I guess, is the vast expanse of salt-water lying between the Pacific and the Indian Oceans. When I was going to school, there was no Southern Ocean to learn about. Be that as it may, if you sail on a straight line from this shore you’ll land directly onto Antarctica.
Wind is a persistent fellow-traveler in Australia, especially on the coast - as you can surmise by my hair in this picture taken near the beach of our campground - and when the sun begins to set, it is definitely sweater time, even when an hour earlier, the thermometer read 90 degrees.
Today is the first day of school for Australian children. Vacations are over and towns feel empty, including Albany.
We walked the streets for a while, then settled on the Venice Restaurant for dinner, where I devoured a plate of Spaghetti alla Marinara, well-made, with mussels, shrimp, fish and squid in a most yummy spicy tomato sauce. Eric wanted to try the Queenslander pizza, made with chicken, bacon and bananas, and he did, enjoying every bite.
We had read in a travel brochure that an artistic display of thousands of lights, symbolizing the ANZAC casualties of WWI would remain open until the end of April, and so we walked to the top of a very, very long stairway, called something like The Walk of Honor, only to discover there was nothing there, except this imposing monument. Upon re-checking our source, we realized that the date it referred to, was April of 2019. Oh well, back to the campground. Nighty night, friends.
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