11th ~ 14th February 2016
 
The drive from Mount Barker to the coast holds a surprise of how high we had climbed towards Mount Barker, the drive to Albany feels downhill, all 46klm of the journey. Albany sits on yet another spectacular coastline as we have come to expect, and is the major commercial hub of the southern coast. Boasting a population of over 35,000 people, shopping , services and attractions abound in what feels like a very vibrant and young provincial town.
 
Albany sits in a saddle of roughly triangular high ground around several largish hills and the whole town is dotted with huge smooth granite boulders around which houses, buildings and parks sit. The Albany Highway on which we entered town is bordered by showrooms, caravan, boat and car sales, and terminates at a roundabout where a right turn puts you in York Street, the main street through the shopping district that slopes down to the waterfront about 800 metres distant. 
 
Undecided regards our choice of Caravan Park we drive down York St almost to the bottom and turn into a laneway beside a rail line where the Info Centre lies. Interestingly there are limited parking spaces for a vehicle and van, so after doing a lap of the car park Roscoe pulls our rig onto the covered setdown area at the Centre’s front door and stops, blocking all view of the door front, no one says a word, all good.
   
Albany is situated on a blunt triangular peninsula with King George Sound to the east and Princess Royal Harbor (and with names like these we want a Republic?). The Harbor holds docking and loading facilities for bulk tankes loading both wheat and woodchip and is really a deep saltwater lake as the land sweeps from the town north then west and finally east to form Vancouver Peninsula enclosing an area of water many kilometres square. Further, to the north of King George Sound is Oyster Harbor, also accessed via a narrow channel and is the harbor fo the fishing fleet, commercial and recreational boats.
 
Why the geographic lesson? Albany holds much significance to Australian history because of the coastline and Albany’s position on it. In late 1914 over 40,000 Australian and New Zealand troops departed Albany for World War I, Albany being the last sight of Australia so many young men were to have. In all 48 troopships and their navy escorts were moored in King George Sound as the convoy grouped here for the journey across the Indian Ocean. Today Albany holds this history very dear and on a few hundred acres upon the high headland between the Sound and Princess Royal Harbor they have built a grand ANZAC Memorial at its peak, and out on the apex stands the National ANZAC Centre on the old Princess Royal Fortress site. The apex of the hilly peninsula is know as Convoy Lookout as it provides a sweeping view of the fleets anchorage.
 
The whole ANZAC experience offered by this memorial area is quite unique and very moving. The National ANZAC Centre especially is worth visiting for the dynamic interactive displays that actually allow you to trace the history, service record and outcome after WWI of individual servicemen. Touring the whole place kept us occupied for a day and was totally enjoyable.
 
We stayed at Middleton Beach adjacent to Oyster Harbor, and the Harbor lived up to it’s name as we purchased beautiful fresh oysters and mussels direct from The Oyster House Albany. On the harbor apron also sits “The Squid Shack” restaurant, café and takeaway that TripAdvisor gives top marks to. One evening Roscoe went over to get dinner for us and was greeted by a full dining area and a line of patrons ordering take-aways. With a wait of over an hour he retreated and we settled for a  platter of cheeses, dips and salami from our own stocks. Not to be beaten we returned for lunch the next day with more success enjoying a large feed of Salt & pepper Squid with a few Ciders.
 
We were at the eastern extremity of Middleton Beach and one morning we embarked on a walk which took us the 6klm length of the beach, well that’s fine, but, this then requires a 6klm walk home. Fortunately there is an excellent breakfast place, Hyblo Café, where we took nourishment and enough caffeine to sustain the journey home. Walking back along the beach we spy a large group of people well ahead, bodyboarders, looks to us like a scholl perhaps. It came as a surprise that when we reached them this group of about 50 plus people were the Albany Granny Grommets who meet every Friday of the year to go surfing on this long beach. Minimum age is +55 and there are many blokes in there as well (after the younger chic Grommets no doubt.
 
Exploring this coastline was a full day out commitment as it winds from Middleton around ANZAC hill, through the town foreshore then a long drive past Vancouver Peninsula out to Bald Head. Including many detours to see beaches, whaling stations, coves and the Albany Wind Farm we covered well over 100klm for the day with many stops. Not long after leaving Albany on the westward leg, the peninsula is only a few kilometres wide with both the Harbor and the Sound on the eastern shore, and the open Southern Ocean on the west which all makes for an interesting sightseeing day out including history and geographical highlights.
 
We left the best till last on our day-journey. Back near Albany, after we had exhausted all the “must see” spots on the peninsula, sits Limeburners Whiskey Distillery, a favorite multi award winner drop and a must visit, taste and buy for us. This is arguably (after a bottle or two), Australia’s best whiskey distillery and so we settled comfortably in this rather austere shed at a small tasting bar and off we went. It was after the second generous tasting that we woke up to the fact that we had not eaten since early morning and it was now 3pm and here we were downing a few well-earned top class drams of Limeburner! After four tastings we felt discretion should prevail and purchased an excellent numbered bottle of Limeburners Single Malt Whiskey from a Port Cask! Expensive and delicious!
 
On Sunday morning we received sad news that an old friend, George Parish, had passed away. We were on our way to the Albany Fish Shed Markets on the waterfront at the time and upon entering the shed were greeted with a local vineyard doing a wine tasting. The winery was called Parish Lane and we could not pass up this coincidence, even at 10:30am on a Sunday morning. The winemakers, Richard and Julie Parish, make an excellent Pinot Noir amongst other varieties and after the news of George and being Valentines Day we purchased a few, especially as it would sit beautifully within the lunch Roscoe planned to cook today. Here’s to George and Valentines Day as well. 

 http://www.parishlanewines.com.au/
 
 http://www.nationalanzaccentre.com.au/