Albany day 2

We woke up and went to the local breakfast spot, The bay Merchant.Ono Excellent coffees and great breakfast. No pictures, I guess I had not had my coffee yet. I had Porridge that had grilled bananas and a bit of marscapone in it. Really delicious. Then Michael drove, while I got us lost. We did pass Dog Rock which I did have to take a picture of.


our destination was Frenchmen's Bay, where Whale World is located. On the way we stopped at two natural rock formations, the gap and the bridge. The pictures tell which is which.








Walking along the coast, you come across these little pocket beaches. This one was notable for the 1 tonne boulder that had been washed up there.





From what I understand the water was quite calm, so the blow holes down the beach were quiet. The water in places is a stunning turquoise.


Of course there were flowers along the way. Icicle plants. Ihave them at my house in Rhode Island.


We drove back through Albany and made our way to Emu Point where we had lunch at The Squid Shack. We had snapper and calimari. The seafood was good, but the batter was greasy. Sea breeze in Cervantes wins hands down.


This was clearly a local hang out. There is a marina and fish cleaning station along with the sea rescue offices. The pelicans are quite large here and have white and black markings as compared with our brown ones in the states.





We had a leisurely evening and planned out the rest of our road trip.
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Location:Albany western Australia

Albany

We drove south again through the Stirling range. Vast fields with the mountains as a back drop. In the video the field is cannola, but there are also fields of wheat, barley and oats. The vastness of the countryside makes you feel so small.

The weather is still cloudy and grey, but there is the promise of blue and the cloud shapes are endless.


Michael has been designated the Australian driver. He is better at it than me. He is willing and I am grateful. We checked into The Dolphin Lodge, a basic holiday accommodation. They only had a 2 bedroom unit on the first floor but they gave it to us for the one bedroom.


We have a little garden sitting area behind the fence.
We went into town for a late lunch. We initially went to Cosi's, but no one wanted to serve us so we left and went across the street to Mean Fiddlers.


The decor was fun. Along one wall was all kinds of coke memorabilia. On the other wall were a variety of fans.


The stars aligned and we had a fabulous lunch of grilled marrons (a crustacean that is smaller than a lobster but bigger than a crayfish)with wasabi butter and a Vietnamese salad.


Dessert was had.


Sprinkles are called freckles in Australia. Full of food we went back to the hotel until the concert. Michael wrote while i walked Middleton beach.





At the Albany Entertainment Center. This is a newly built structure. It is quite contemporary and has a sense of sails, like the opera house in Sydney. Capercaille were terrific. The acoustics in the hall were wonderful.

Location:Albany western Australia

Stirling Range

After a filling breakfast we set out to explore some of the area. It was a grey day with intermittent rain. Our goal for the afternoon was the banksia farm outside of Mount Barker. We drove across The Stirling range to get there.


Right before the town we saw Plantagenet Winery, which was recommended by Pauline and Andrew. It being noon, a tasting we did go. Michael favored the Shiraz and I liked their Sauvignon blanc. They had surprisingly dry roses and reislings, but they were a bit harsh for my taste.





Fortified, it was onto Mt Barker and lunch at The Grocer Cafe.





I was in high state of anticipation for the banksia farm. 77 kinds of banksia, a museum and gift store. After twists and turns to the middle of nowhere, we arrived to disappointment. You can imagine how sad Michael was. The farm was closed for family reasons til Nov 21st.


Oh well. There were a few bansia noticed from the road.


So then it was off to Albany to scout out the town with the idea of finding a place to stay and see what we would want to do in the upcoming two days. The whales have moved on. I guess their migration must be north as we saw quite a number of spouts when we were in Cape Leewin. There is a whaling museum. Also a very contemporary arts building where we bought two tickets for a Scottish group Capircaille playing Saturday night.


The tourist office is in the train station and next to a beautiful memorial rose garden. I am amazed by the roses here. They are so sweet smelling and large.


We got a small apt for two days near Middleton beach and departed back to our digs up North.

Location:Stirling Range, Western Australia

On The Road

We departed Kalgoorlie early in the morning along with The Villa Carlotta Tour. Then it was to the airport to pick up our rental car. They upgraded us so we have a Nisson suv. Plenty of room for all our stuff. Michael handled rush hour traffic in perth and we made it back to Andrew and Pauline's South Perth apt. We packed and organized as if were not coming back to the apartment just to give us maximum flexibility. The luggage seems to have gotten heavier since it's initial packing. Trying to travel with books and wine will do that to you. Dinner was take away from the Thai Orchid. We ate while gazing at The Perth night sky.


The gps in the car refuses to speak to us no matter how we adjust the vol/mute settings. So I am armed with my IPad and in my dulcet tone croon my directions to Michael. Of course, once out of Perth, it is a straight shot south on The Albany Highway. A lot of oversize vehicles, road trains and various farm equipment. Luckily there were overtaking lanes.



As we drove out of Perth, there were storm clouds brewing. Michael kept the pace up, keeping the bad weather behind us until we stopped for lunch in Kojonup at a roadside cafe/distillery. A lovely stone building deck and gardens. We sat in the covered outside porch watching the clouds gather and darken.








As we began to eat the storm bore down and this terrific wind began to blow everything about. There was a mad dash to the inside bar area.

There were worse places to ride out the storm.




Back on the road, you could see the damage with a number of trees down in the road. The countryside is vast with fields of grains, oats, barley, canola, spelt and wheat. Cattle and sheep graze here and there. Towns are anywhere from a post office to a few buildings. We passed the entry to what I am assuming was a farm. There were these poles with wire sculptures of birds.








Our destination was a hotel, The Lily (http://www.thelily.com.au/). And as we checked in, the clouds were amassing. We met Ted the sheepdog who was lovely and accompanied me for a prestorm jaunt around the premise.









The working windmill sits on a small hill overlooking The Stirling Range. The owners have a winery in addition to the mill. The also have a small airstrip and offer flying lessons. Pleun, who is Dutch built the mill himself copied from a mill in Holland. He also plays the saxaphone and keyboard and has recorded some CDs that are in our cottage. We are in the winery building. A small bedroom and living room with kitchen. There are exposed beams varied art work and well provisioned kitchen. Hennie collects frogs and all around are frogs worked into the decor. Just after we got inside, the storm hit again with driving wind and rain. Ted curled up in our living room and we watched dry and cozy. The power went out but pleun started the generator. We had booked dinner and at seven a car drove up and delivered a delicious dinner of pork chops in a rosemary wine sauce. How lucky are we.






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Location:Stirling Range, Western Australia

Melbourne Cup day

Our last day in Kalgoorlie coincided with Melbourne Cup day. This is a horse race that stops all Australia. We elected to watch from The Pic (Picadilly Hotel).





We arrived a half hour before Racetime. We got our free glass of champagne and were sat in the back room with The Ladies of Kalgoorlie. Some were wearing hats, all were dressed to the nines.





Who to bet on. The favorite was number 1, American. We had to bet on him. We also selected a longshot, DrunkenSailor. The bets were placed in-between the bar and the back room, clearly where the men were.





Alas we were skunked, American coming in 4th and Drunken Sailor apparently stopped for a drink. It was an exciting race with an incredible photo finish. Then the ladies and us chowed down on chicken and prawns with Pavlova for dessert. We got to chat with Dixie the proprietor. She had come to Kalgoorlie for gold five years ago, bought a hotel instead and now has the hotel up for sale so she can retire. Apparently the past five years did well for them. We resisted purchase, not part of our life plan. She gave us a shirt as a souvenir.
We did look at some galleries and photographed some of the amazing architecture. Some of the buildings were scaffolded because of an earthquake that occurred a few months ago.












This is a mining town. Somehow we missed the brothel tours but noted the stripper bars.





The craft/ art store was a bit over priced but they had crocheted an afghan for the jacaranda tree trunk in front of the store. The jacarandas were in bloom while we were here. Quite beautiful.












This was the first day Michael drove and within minutes, he was pulled over for a u-turn and per the police, nearly hitting their car. They let him off, not because he was a deputy but we are tourists.
The Western Australia mining museum had a lovely bush garden outside it's entrance.





Of course more flowers.











We dropped the rental car, quite dusted with orange from our drive to Lake Ballard. We ate dinner at The Blue Monkey. We had grilled Barrimondi. Now we are packing for our train trip back to Perth and the pick up of our rental car for the second half of the trip. Nothing scheduled, not my modus operandi. Somehow I will muddle through.
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Location:Kalgoorlie Western Australia