Friday 16th January 2015 - Albany WA misty overcast and then bright sunny day -

Albany has typical weather of the south, it takes until lunch time to see what the day is going to be like.

We decided to drive over to Frenchman’s Cove and visit the Gap and Natural Bridge – which are closed for upgrades.  Since we have had the benefit of many upgrades recently not being able to visit this site is a little disappointing but then it has to be done.

We visited the blowholes which was making a very scary noise but no spray as there wasn’t much swell at low tide.

The Blowholes are just a very narrow long crack way back from the shore line, so there is a very large cavern underneath the rock.

It isn’t visually exciting, but the noise is something else.  The walk down was excellent with heaps of great plants to the side of the path and a lot of honeyeaters and white eye birds.  It is difficult to see the birds in this area as they stay in the under growth because of the wind.











We then headed off to Discovery Bay which was formerly called Whale World and is now Whale Discovery Centre.  The whaling operations closed down in 1978 and it was the last in Australia.  It is pretty confronting at times and it is a good thing that we do not continue to hunt and kill whales.  The cafe had a full glass viewing area over the bay.  The Cheyne IV is one of the very few whaling ships that you can access today and it was interesting to walk around in it. 

View from the cafe of Cheyne IV

The entrance to the gift shop and cafe area

At the discover centre there are also botanical gardens and a wildlife section.  We purchased the 3 area pass which was reasonable considering that this is a full day out excursion.  The tours of the whaling station run on the hour, so we headed up to the wildlife and botanical section. These areas are new, however, I felt that the enclosures were a bit on the small side and even though they had planted trees for the animals, they could do with more shade.

We then returned for the tour which went for an hour.  The tour guide was very professional and certainly knew a lot about the industry.





















They have turned all of the whale oil tanks into theatres.  You can still smell the oil in there.  The bay was red with the blood of the processing of the whales and white pointers were a constant hazard.  They used to shoot them to stop them from feeding on the dead whales tied up in the harbour reading for towing in to be cut up.  It is no wonder that these sharks still think this area is a feeding zone.  The last attack was over the bay at Cheynes Beach a couple of months ago.

I am still amazed at the size of the Oyster Catchers over here.  This is a Sooty Oyster Catcher.

This nasty piece of work is a very large drop saw for cutting off the head of the whales.

A old photo of the working operation.

The size of some of the whales is amazing, this isn’t a fully grown blue whale.

The photos below are on the Cheyne IV Whaling Ship

It was a dangerous and tough life.  The ship was also involved in search and rescue and saved a rock fisherman.

We enjoyed the tour and also visiting the various galleries and museum buildings within the centre.

This is Salmon Holes a popular swimming and fishing spot further along from the Discovery Centre.  There are numerous warning signs of the dangers and they even have fishing anchor points for the fishermen to tie themselves to the rocks, so that they are not washed away.  This makes fishing an extreme sport in these parts.