The Count around Australia, travelling in a Morris Minor.: 25 July 2014

Saturday 26 July 2014

25 July 2014

Off to Albany this morning, not a long drive by past standards, only 330km, though long enough to fill in most of the day, though short enough to allow a few stops in the towns along the way. I left Busselton a little bit later and thankfully it wasn't raining for what seems like a nice change to this south Western Australia since I arrived, then followed a few twists and turns before finally getting to the road to where I wanted to go. Amazing drive though through forests, huge old gums just lining the sides of the roads, even arcading the road in some places with branches stretching over the roads to meet each other.

First up was a small place called Nannup which is a nice quiet country type of place. They have a music festival here on the long WA labour day weekend and have a purpose built open air festival venue and stage, so it has to be quite something I guess, I believe that it is a bit of a folk, jazz, blues style happening. It is a well looked after place and the gardeners were there trimming the roses while I was wandering about, lots of public spaces and quite a nice quiet feel about the place. Oh and who knew they had Thylacine, well they did at a minimum of 200 years ago, though probably longer ago than that. The introduction to Australia of the Dingo basically wiped them out on the mainland, though they lasted in Tasmania until the early 1900s. Supposedly there was a sighting in the Nannup area as recently as the 1990s, though no one can prove anything and none have been seen since. Like Cowaramup yesterday I think it was a case of how to get the tourists to stop, though perhaps I am just a sceptic ;) Bit of an artsy place too by the look of it

Just think the work in this bench seat is amazing

Next up for a quick lunch break was Walpole, multiple winner of Tidy Town awards, it is a neat place too as you would expect and it has everything that a small Tidy town needs, indeed the bakery isn't too shabby, but really it was a lunch stop and that is it. Not anything there for me to bother walking around it for, though it seems well located for the folk that want to do some national park walks as there are a few of those in striking distance to the town.

As I passed by this sign I just had to take a picture as I have not been to Denmark before, though I suspect it isn't quite the same as the European one. Oh and to be honest I still have not been to Denmark as this sign was in the middle of no where, unless they had hidden the town particularly well, I think this must just be the shire boundary perhaps.

Lastly it was on to Albany, quite a large town though perhaps not one that is actually big enough for the number of roundabouts in the place, it's manic. The new entertainment centre really does not sit well with the older buildings of the town, so probably best that it is on the harbour rather than near the older part of the town. It is situated on the base of a number of hills and some of the streets are a bit challenging for the Count, though it does afford a lot of people great views from their houses.

On Mount Clarence there is the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial and the Avenue of Honour as well as the Princess Royal Fortress, though the latter is currently closed for redevelopment prior to the ANZAC Centenary, it's a really great area and a great memorial development, the lookouts additionally afford great views over the town.