Albany, WA – rain, rain, go away

The drive to Albany took us through more stunning forests, and the rain continued on and off. On the way down, we stopped off at the Valley of the Giants Treetop walk. We walked along the Empire Walk which lead us past huge trees with massive trunks, many of which had been burnt out by fires, creating hollows inside that we could walk right into. Having been listening to the Magic Faraway Tree series since Busselton, we felt like this walk was taking us right into the story. After the obligatory walk through the gift shop, we continued on to Albany and checked out two fairly uninspiring caravan parks before settling on the third one which fortunately had one site left. It was a great park with a games room complete with pool table and ping pong table and a sheltered camp kitchen with a stove, BBQ and pizza oven as well as heaters. Kat and I set up while the kids headed straight for the games room to play some ping pong and giant chess. We then headed to the camp kitchen to watch the AFL preliminary final between the Giants and the Tigers. Unfortunately the Giants were thrashed but we still enjoyed the game. We then watched the NRL semi final which came on straight after the AFL and watched the Cowboys beat the Roosters. After the glut of sport it was time to get the kids to bed, followed not long after by us, hoping that the calm weather would continue through the night.

Fortunately the weather remained calm that night and we woke to the sun trying to break through the clouds. The kids spent the morning in the rec room, giving Kat and I some downtime to relax a bit by ourselves. We then headed off mid morning and drove out to Natural Bridge and The Gap, a couple of lookouts next to each other on the coast. Natural Bridge was a huge expanse of rock that formed a bridge over the ocean, and we enjoyed watching a couple of whales playing in the water not more than 100m from us. We then wandered to The Gap lookout, which was a platform suspended over the edge of the cliff, allowing us to look straight down to the surging waves below which were pounding the cliff face. The kids loved watching the massive sprays of white water as the waves crashed into the rocks below. We then headed around the point to Cable Beach, a secluded bay where we watched another whale hanging out in the shallows. It was a stunning sight, with his white belly turning turquoise as he came near the surface. Our final stop was a wind farm, where we got to walk right under the massive turbines, on the way to a coastal board walk which gave us views of about 20 turbines dotted along the coast in one direction, and rugged cliffs stretching along the other way. Back at camp that afternoon I taught the kids the basics of pool and we played a few games together while Kat did a bit of shopping, before we all headed down to the camp kitchen to take advantage of the pizza oven and make a bunch of pizzas for dinner. We met another family with three kids and the kids all played games together while we prepped dinner. We then enjoyed a feast of pizzas before the kids continued playing for a bit more before bed. That night the wild weather set in. Around 11pm we had to get up and put the awning away as the wind picked up and started to lift it up, inspite of it being pegged down. After battling the wind to secure the awning we settled back into bed until about an hour later the rain started to fall, and without the awning up any more the kitchen was now exposed, so I had to get up and put it away and close the rear door. I managed to get pretty soaked before crawling glumly back into bed, hoping for no more sleep interruptions that night.

The next morning we awoke to more rain and wind. Without the awning up overnight the rain had driven against the usually protected side of the tent, pushing water into the tent, but thankfully only a bit next to the door, mainly soaked up by the towels we had put there the night before. We got up and headed to the camp kitchen to have breakfast and work out what we wanted to do. We had already paid for another night but we were looking at the weather and it showed no signs of improving any time soon. When I would check the rainfall radar anywhere else, I would see a band of rain moving its way over wherever we were, but here in Albany, there was a massive area of rainfall right over Albany and its surrounds, with no sign of it moving anywhere at all. Albany seemed to be a rain magnet. Sick of the wind and rain, we were keen to move on and try to find somewhere a little less wet. While the kids hung out in the rec room for the morning playing games, Kat headed to reception and worked her charm to get us a refund which then gave me the green light to pack up in the drizzle. We finally got out of there about 11:30 after running all the towels through the dryer, thinking we might be needing them to be dry in case the bad weather continued.