Day 33 Friday 21 August 2026

First things first, once again I have been stymied by technology.  The motel, although it appears to have a strong wifi signal is not allowing me to post photos.  I will publish the this blog without pics and will continue to try and put in some pics until I am successful.  At great sacrifice and in roads into my drinking time I have managed to download one photo, which took me over twenty minutes!

This is being prepared in a nice little pub called the The Earl of Spencer.  This could be my local for the time of my stay as it is not far from my digs but is up a steep hill, which does count against it.

Margaret River to Albany (Al as in you can call me Al, not Al as in all), 400k or thereabouts with a detour the Valley of the Giants to see some big trees.  Unlike my previous detours this one worked perfectly, followed the signs, no bridges or boardwalks under construction and no round abouty detours.

Walking around these big trees reminded me a bit of my two visits to the giant Sequoias in Yosemite National Park in the US.  After the first visit I swore that I would never do that again, but foolishly I did.  When one walks to the giant Sequoias one walks down a path so subtle that one doesn't realise that one is walking downhill, for quite some distance.  After viewing the trees one realises that one has to walk back to the car which is when one realises that in this direction it is all uphill.  At about this time one also realises that most of Yosemite is above 7,000 feet and that there is a consequent lack of oxygen at that altitude.  My first visit was with friends Jon & Clair and I thought that all three of us would be looking for the rescue helicopter.  The second time was with Flashy & Lady P, with both myself and Flashy looking to expire whilst Lady P strode on ahead.  This is all done to see some big trees that arent that impressive anyway.

The Valley of the Giants was far better with much less walking and much more oxygen.  The treetop walk is a metal walkway that is suspended in the treetops at 40 metres high at its highest point and it is designed to sway as you walk along it.  It sways just enough to make it interesting and a bit exciting.  The trees grow to about have 70 metres high and live for hundreds of years although I how do you find out how old a tree is without cutting it down, which is obviously a big no no in this day and age.

This is the photo!

There is also a ground level walk which is about 500 metres through the forest with helpful information about the trees and the critters that live amongst them.

I arrived in Albany at about 4.00pm and after checking in and doing research online I discovered this pub appeared to be the most convenient.  It is very busy as I realised it is Friday and therefore it is Friday night drinks.

Anyway the drive here was very pleasant with green rolling hills, good dairy country, interspersed with dense forests.  

As an observation, I have noticed that West Australians haven't got into that stupid Victorian habit of reversing into carparks in shopping centres, council carparks etc.  Do you know what they do here?  They drive into the carpark they see a spot and they drive into it, when it comes time to leave they back out of the spot do a little turn and drive away.  How easy is that, nobody gets held up while a driver take fifteen attempts to line up the parking spot to reverse into leaving drivers on both sides fuming and marvelling at the stupidity of some folk.

Looking forward to a couple of days in Albany with a vist to the ANZAC centre on the agenda (naturally) and the whaling musuem which apparently is very interesting.