"How likely is it to see a wild snake here?? Most Australians have probably never seen one before." These were Basti's words in Dunsborough. Even if I also believe that we, just because we are in Australia – where there are many poisonous and to me not so secret animals – not constantly any snakes run over the way, I am of the opinion, one should not shout such a thing in any case.
2 days later it happened: After a super interesting day at the Historic Whaling Station near Albany and a sighting of super cute kangaroos, a sleeping koala and other furry companions in the adjacent animal park, I got a huge fright and goosebumps all over my body. Why? Because a python got right in our way. Yes, a wild snake. Thanks Basti!
And here's the proof picture..
Albany Tip: ANZAC Museum
Apart from that I had a great time in Albany. The city is located about 400 km south of Perth and doesn't have much to offer – except for a great ANZAC museum, from which you have a great view of the coast (if the weather is good – in Albany it rains quite often).
ANZACS, that are the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who went to war in 1914 (over 40.000). For 25 AUS-dollars you get an audio-guide, where you can listen to personal stories of soldiers and a card with a soldier on it – whose story you can follow during the tour. Really worthwhile!
Torndirrup National Park
Worthwhile is also a trip to The Gap, Natural Bridge and The Blowholes (Torndirrup National Park). A platform was built for The Gap just this spring that extends above the bedrock. From there we had a great view into the 25 meter deep gorge and the beautiful ice-blue seawater, which demonstrates its full power there. Natural Bridge is – as the name already says – a stone bridge, which will collapse sometime, because it is washed out further and further by the sea water.
A little bit further are the blowholes. These are large holes in the rock from which a rather strong breeze came out at regular intervals during our visit. Sometimes there shoots probably also sea water through – thus care😉 !
Historical whaling station
The whole coast is beautiful and the views are really spectacular. If you've had your fill of nature (although it's really hard), we strongly recommend a visit to the Historic Whaling Station (Discovery Bay).
There we could not only look around the last whaling ship, but also learned a lot about the profession of whalers and the different whales. Did you know that the heart of a blue whale is as big as a car?
By the way, humpback whales were hunted at first, but because their number decreased extremely, they switched to sperm whales. In 1978, whaling was discontinued – not to protect the whales, by the way, but because the need for their oil was simply no longer so great and the upkeep of the ships and co. was too expensive.
32 AUS-dollars is the entrance fee per person – including guided tour, ship visit, 3D whale movie and three other informative movies, whale skeletons (very impressive) as well as the adjacent wildlife park (and there lives just u.a. also said snake).
Finally, we recommend a beach walk from Ellen Cove to Emu Point (Middleton Bay). That's a good 5 km, but it's worth it: sea air, walking barefoot in the sand and this beautiful turquoise water – what more could you want??