Albany

Albany was the last stop on our camping trip.  We stayed in the city at Middleton Beach Caravan Park right on the ocean's doorstep.  A bit different from the bush camping in Fitzgerald River National Park.  There, we had no amenties and were 80 some kms from the nearest town.  Here, we had mulitple washrooms with showers, a swimming pool and spa, games room, theatre, camp kitchen and kids programs all adjacent to a city of 30 000.  We paid for it though - national parks are $7 per adult per night compared to $58 per site per night.  We made sure we had extra long showers and put the kids in the day camps to get our money worth.  The photo is a Blue Bottle Jellyfish washed up on shore.  Don't touch, the tentacles sting!

Brig Amity is a replica of the first ship that brought convicts, sailors, craftsmen and settlers to Albany in 1824, Western Australia's first permament European settlement.  

Brig Amity seemed pretty small for the dozens of men who sleep and worked on the ship.  Most definitely it had some mastercraftmenship of the day.  Above we are listening to the audio tour desribing the innards of the hold and what life was like aboard the ship.

Go figure, one of the oldest buildings in Albany is a convict built gaol (jailhouse)!?

More reptiles out and about in the spring sun.  This one was the aptly named long necked turtle.

During the morning kids programme, us adults went for a hike along the coast without kids.  Later, we stopped by a cafe and drank tea.   (If my sister saw us, she would of called us a pair of dorks!)

The beautiful Two People's Bay Reserve is just outside the city limits.  Nice granite rocks, wonderful colours in the water, spring wildflowers in a peaceful natural setting until our two cranky pots woke up!  I guess 11 nights in a tent and 12 days travelling takes it's toll.  We had one more night to sleep in the tent and by the next afternoon we were already packed up and home in Harvey. And will our kids ever stop picking stuff up out of the bush?  This time it was a leg bone from a kangaroo!

Pluses and Minuses from our Camping Trip

+ Gas BBQs in city parks, camping spots, caravan parks, bush camping spots, the beach.  Aussies got it going on :) with all the free bbqs available.  We only used our cook stove twice.

+ Free kids programs at the Albany caravan park.  Yes, please take our kids for 3 hours.

+ Empty beaches.  If we were in any other country or near a metropolitan area, they wouldn't be so special.

+ Nature. We saw animals that exist no where else on the planet, more reptiles in 2 weeks than in the past year, endless open bush, seemily untouched coast and nature preserves.

- Ticks!  Becky got a tick in Dryandra Woodland (removed with tweezers - not so good) and Collin got one in Point Ann (removed with olive oil - less than 5 seconds - much better).

- Rain and clouds.  Can't complain too much about the weather.  We knew we were camping in the spring, so one night tenting during a thunder storm and two mornings driving in the rain isn't so bad.  The clouds did make it feel a little cooler near the water though.