Day 13 - Denmark & Albany

Started the day in Denmark. It’s a nice town. Similar to Margaret River, it mainly survives on tourism. I like this place, and I’m trying to figure out why I have such different feelings about the two towns. I suppose, unlike Margaret River, Denmark is on the ocean, its streets are broken up in a curious and almost un-planned way (yet I suspect it was part of a master plan, for it works beautifully), and I suppose it feels like local people really call this home (more than a place to work). Having said that, I see there is a youth hostel here (just like in Pemberton), and most of the wait staff I’ve dealt with are foreigners. I’m getting the impression there’s a labor shortage (a vacuum to draw in outsider workers). But there are plenty of weathered-looking men out in their diesel work trucks this morning too. Denmark’s rougher around the edges while Margaret River’s too polished. I do like Denmark, but it’s time to move on.

A Decent Kangaroo Photo

I think I finally got a decent kangaroo photo!

Albany’s a wonderful town with a population of around 32,000, and I spent most of the day here. The beaches are plentiful and incredible. The area seems to have heaps of natural and cultural depth. There's a University of Western Australia extention, an old historic red brick gaol (jail), stone churches, tudor style buildings, etc... It used to be a whaling port, harvesting 850 Sperm and Humpback whales annually, until 1978. The historic whaling station has been converted into "Whale World", where they provide tours of the original facilities and explain the processes of obtaining whale oil and meal (everything other than the oil, which was dried and used as fertilizer and animal feed – they wasted nothing from the whales). Whale World was very well done and included 3D movies. The theaters were actually inside the original huge whale oil tanks.

The rugged coastline here is where Antarctica and Australia were once connected (45 million years ago). The rocks on Antarctica’s Windmill Islands still match the rocks on the shores of Albany.

She responded...

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Day 13 – Denmark & Albany

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