Kojonup to Albany

Aboriginal Dreamtime Art

During our two week vacation break the Walker clan +3 grandparents rented a van, piled in and drove all over southwestern Australia.
Kodja Place - Kojonup is an awesome stop-over town on the four hour drive to Albany.  The wheat and sheep town has a fantastic play park, rose garden maze, and fabulous museum.  According to our vacation director Becky Walker,  "The wealth of information and the personal stories of the residents made this museum very unique and the interactive displays were a lot of fun for the kids".    The museum had local sports, school, aboriginal history, British and Italian immigrant history, old time tools, artifacts, etc..
Visit: http://www.kojonupvisitors.com/

Caleb driving the school bus, then taking a rest on some roo skin covering stumps.

Jackson peeking out of a traditional Aboriginal hut.

Vacation Director, Becky amongst the roses.
 

Albany, WA

The big trip of the break was 5 day 4 nights away along the southern coast and interior forests.  Two nights in Albany was not enough and we hope to return before the year is up.  Albany is a nice-sized regional city (pop. 25000 -30000) set in the rugged coastline of the Southern Ocean.  Rolling green hills, islands, sea life, beaches, historic downtown, whaling/ANZAC/convict/settler history and true coastal beauty.  It rains a lot more here and you can tell with the lushness of the surrounding area.  We also had periods of rain during our stay, but that did not stop us from checking things out.

Aussie Pelicans - the size of Jackson

The Southern Ocean - next stop ANTARCTICA!

Spectacular southern coastline.

Beautiful, powerful and dangerous. The picture above is of the Natural Bridge and below is called The Gap.  The day we walked out it was windy and wild, the tides were up with 3 metre swells.