Week sixteen:  Denmark/Albany/Bremer Bay

Two humpbacks frolicking in King George Sound, Albany.



The holy grail:  seeing a whale breaching! This one is at Bremer Bay.

 Last week I mentioned that we are hoping to see some whales in the south...as you can see from the pics above, our wish came true!  We have seen humpback whales while on a whale watching tour, a Southern Right Whale and her calf in Bremer Bay at Town beach and then two separate sightings of Humpbacks at play, fairly close to shore at other spots around Bremer Bay.  From what we have been told, there is plenty of whale activity to be seen as we cross the Nullarbor, too.  So the whale drought will be well and truly broken!

Warning:  There are LOTS of photos in this week's blog post as this area is just so darn beautiful.  The cameras have been busy!!

We began our sixteenth (!!!) week on the road taking the very scenic drive from Busselton down to Denmark.  Though we love the coast, it was nice for a change to drive through green, pastoral areas complete with rolling hills.  We even managed to be driving through Nannup on the eve of it's Flower Festival.  Gorgeous! 

 

Before we landed in Denmark, we stopped at Dinosaur World.  This was greatly anticipated by the boys and the dinosaur skeletons were pretty impressive.  They also had reptile and bird displays, and kangaroos to feed.  The old hip pocket takes a hiding from going to these sorts of places, but I guess you have to do these things. 



An impressed Charlie in front of a replica T-Rex skeleton. 
They are bought from a museum in the U.S.





Triceratops meets Mattasuarus.

 We were very impressed on arrival at Ocean Beach Caravan Park in Denmark - a park to rival the famous Mandalay!  We were not surprised, though, to see that apart from one other van we were the only ones there.  It is the off season.  Apparently it will be packed to the rafters over Summer though, with about 1800 people there over Christmas!  Denmark is a great spot, with beautiful beaches, a gorgeous village area with great shops, beautiful rivers and vineyards around...I could go on.  It  has become my new favourite spot (along with Cable Beach and Kalbarri). We could definately have spent more time here, but we are keen to dedicate September to touring South Australia so must press on.   

Litoria moorei (Western Green and golden bell frog), one of the many
 animals we shared the caravan park with.  Thanks to my good friend Bethlea
for helping me find out it's name :)  There was also a mob of kangaroos,
complete with joey in pouch, galahs, kookaburras, numerous parrots...

The boys on their new favourite thing: a jumping pillow.  Matt now asks
before we check in to a new park:  is there a jumping pillow?

We based ourselves in Denmark and explored the area: Tony photographing the famous Green's Pool and Elephant Rocks near Denmark, checking out the Valley of the Giants tree top walk near Walpole, going on a whale watching cruise in Albany, visiting the Wind farm at Albany (free, and very good) and Whale World, also in Albany (NOT free and a bit overpriced to be honest).  There was quite a bit of driving in all this, so thank goodness the scenery was beautiful!





Inside one of the amazing Tingle Trees in the
Valley of the Giants.







Grandma Tingle.  Matt was convinced this was a monster.
Some quick talking was required to avoid nightmares!





Our nearly 5 year old has some growing to do yet!



On the fabulous catamaran touring around King George Sound, Albany.





Playful New Zealand fur seals. 
Thank goodness they see no threat in humans anymore.



On the cruise we got to see sardine fishermen in action.
It was quite fascinating.

And we met a couple of professional squid fishermen. 

The fascinating (and free!!) wind farm.



Beside the wind farm were amazing walks along the coastline,
with breathtaking views of the beautiful Southern Ocean. 



Whale World.  The mind boggles at the size of these beautiful creatures: 
this is the skeleton of a Pygmy Blue Whale washed up near Albany.



Probably the best bit of Whale World: the native animal exhibit up the back.



Matt steering an ex-whaling boat. 
I tried not to think too much about the examples
 of harpoons displayed on the deck.  Whale World was half
about the glory days of whaling and half about
what magnificent creatures whales are...

 Today we had a 'whale of a time' pardon my pun, driving around the tiny town of Bremer Bay checking out the gorgeous beaches (absolutely too cold to swim, unfortunately) and seeing whales on three separate occasions.  We feel very lucky!  



Tony watching the Southern Right whale and her calf...
very hard to get a good photo of them though. 
How about that beautiful water???  And this was a rainy morning!





The boys on Whale Watch.



Back Beach, late afternoon.  The last whale
we saw was just off this beach to the right.



We climbed up these rocks to get a better look at the second whale we saw.
My heart was in my mouth the whole time, though, thanks to No-Fears Matt!

 

Tomorrow we have a big drive, to Esperance, where Charlie will have his fifth birthday on Wednesday.  We will spend at least four days here, followed by Kalgoorlie...then it will be time to head across the Nullarbor.  Our time in awesome Western Australia is drawing to a close.