Graham and Edith 2011 Trip: Day 34

Another big day today - we were up and about reasonably early. We packed a picnic lunch and we set off for Albany's Whale World which is near Frenchman Bay. This is an old Whaling station that was in operation between 1952 and 1978. It was the last Whaling station in Australia. We did a guided tour throughout the plant, which took us through the Cheyne IV Whalechaser, the Flensing Deck, Cutting up Deck and the processing factory. We then watched a 3D video - Giants of the Sea. All in all it was a very interesting place to visit, though I don't think I would have liked to have seen it when it was in operation. The bay just around the corner is called "Misery Beach" not surprising when you think of all the whales that were slaughtered there. Apparently the water used to be red with blood and sharks used to come in in their hundreds to feed off the whales so it was a battle to get the whales flensed as quickly as possible.

After the tour of Whale World we went to Frenchman Bay picnic area to have our lunch. Well what a strange phenomenon - there were fish literally being washed up onto the sand. They were fighting against the tide but then they gave up and just got washed in. We asked a local (who just happened to come from Birmingham) what this was all about. He said that they were called "funny" fish, but did not know why they being washed in on the tide. We also saw quite a few fish jumping out of the water. We then went to Salmon Cove - named after salmon looking for calm waters close to the beach. This was another very pretty beach. Apparently over Easter the salmon were there in the hundreds.

We then drove back into Albany and went to Mount Clarence. This is where the war memorial is and the views from the top are incredible. You could actually see right over to Whale World where we were this morning. Then we had a look around Princess Royal Fortress.

We left the van at about 10-30am and we arrived back here at 5-30pm. All in all a really big day but well worth it.