Al-bany or All-bany?
A relatively short drive back down to the coast, to another caravan park on the edge of Albany. it has good facilities and nice staff, but once again we are packed in like sardines. I have to move our car out off our site, just so someone else can park their caravan opposite.
Time to clean up and secure the camper trailer after a mini mouse plague (yuck). T hooks up with an old uni friend and her family, who are very welcoming. Great food and chat.
Albany is the oldest port in WA, and had the last whaling station in Australia (closed in 1978), which is now a open air museum. It's a fascinating picture of a relatively small industry in its death throws, due to declining markets and environmental lobbying. Some things to learn from as (hopefully) the Australian fossil fuel industries go the same way.
T does another market stall. Then we head inland to a great bush camp at Northcliffe. The region was developed for logging native forests (another industry about to cease). Most of the remaining forests are now protected. At Pemberton, T and D1 climb the Gloucester Tree, which is impressive and somewhat scary. and take a ride through the forest on on the old tramway.
We also check out the local dunes.
