Jun 2009

You can't go to Albany and not visit the Whaling Station. It only ceased operation in November 1978, not that long ago. Top right photo shows the whale oil storage tanks. It took 70 or so whales to fill each tank. They now use these tanks as cinemas so that you can see the history of whaling.
The skeleten of the whale we are standing next to is 30 metres long, and it was supposed to be a small one!

As we are in Albany, Greg decided to check the bearings in the car. Having stopped at Denmark and finding a mechanic that wouldn't be able to do them for 2 weeks...., Greg has decided to become a bush mechanic. What sort of mechanic would he be without an apprentice...callum. Double trouble. Anyway, the weather in Albany has not improved, in fact on the tv in the camp kitchen a warning has just come across to say wind warnings of up to 100km per hour.
As you can see Greg has the car apart, only to tell me with a smile and excitement that he has never pulled the axle out of the car before. " I always wanted to be on that bush mechanic show, you know the one where they have to fix their car with things from the bush or whatever supplies they have!" After showing me that the wheel bearings are dry and gungy (is that a word?) he then gets his trusty apprentice to "pack" the bearings with grease, and then help him bleed the brakes.
Once all back together, they take it for a test run. Greg assures me that it is quite normal to have a nut or two left over!!!

After visiting all the "Gregory" things, The gregoryNational Park, gregories campsite, the gregory tree etc we couldn't go past "Shannon" national park. What a lovely park it was too. The camping ground had flushing toilets, and a shower. To have a hot shower all you had to do was light the furnace.

Talking about facing fears. We did the Tree Top Walk, which is 40 metres high. As you can see from the photos (top right), you are up there in the trees with the birds. It would have to be the scariest 600 metres I have ever walked. Not to mention Shannon kept on commenting on how amazing the structure was, that there was nothing under us!! It sways a bit too...that's meant to give you the perception of being in a tree!!

I just hate it when you go on these cave tours and they have to do the routine...turning the lights out so you can see just how dark it is in a cave. Der..!!?? We all know it's dark, very dark in caves, that's why bats and glow worms like them. They have great delight too, in telling you that you are 45 metres underground! As you can tell, I'm not a great fan of going into caves. Once I get underground I'm ok, well sort of. It was a pretty cave, pretty much like the ones in Victoria. I think these tour guides are retired dentists, they like to torture people and they do it with a smile . Oh, by the way, when you are heading back up the stairs out of the cave you may experience heart palpitations because of the oxygen-carbon dioxide levels. I looked to Greg to see how true that one was, but he just shrugged his shoulders!!??