Day 2 Albany.

We headed into Albany again, this time to visit the old whaling station. Along the way we called in at another great spot, with 2 awesome attractions. The first one is The Gap. All along the Southern coast of West Australia the thing that stands out, is the granite rocks. They are huge and in places, just dominate. This is one such place. At The Gap they have built a walkway to the top of the rocks with a platform that juts out over The Gap. To look down and se the waves crashing on the rocks below is awesome. Then just a short walk to the Natural Bridge. This is a granite formation where the waves crash onto a fairly flat surface of granite under a natural rock bridge. (Google to read the story about a bloke who got washed off and was rescued during the night.
We then continued to the whaling station. This was a very interesting place with so much to see and do. Established in the fifties by the Cheynes, it continued operating until 1978 when the costs of operating the business made it impossible to continue. They hunted both humpback and sperm whales until humpbacks became protected in the sixties. Sperm whale oil then became their main source of income, although every part of the whale was used for something. They made a very high protein stock food additive (84%) which was probably their next biggest income stream.
We were able to climb all over the whale catcher, Cheynes 1V and even though it looked quite big, I'm not sure I would have liked to venture out over the continental shelf in search of whales on it.
They have much to see at this place, as well as the big winches that pulled the whales onto this big wooden floor where the blubber was cut off before being rendered into oil, they have a room with the most amazing collection of sea shells and coral, also a display of scrimshaw. Scrimshaw is the art of carving and engraving ivory, and whale bone with the most beautiful designs.
We then went to see the whale skeletons. The first one we seen was a sperm whale ìnside this shed with 2 huge whale jaws as the doorway. We thought this was an impressive sight till we turned a corner and were confronted with a huge skeleton of a Pygmy Blue Whale. This thing was gigantic and I could only imagine how big a Blue Whale might be.
The skeletons were all from whales that have been washed up on local beaches and after removing all the flesh they bury them for up to 4yrs, dig them up, number all the bones, and then put them back together, like a 3D jigsaw puzzle.
They also have a botanical garden and a wildlife park. Almost out of time we had a quick look at the animals. The kangaroos are red kangaroos that have some genetic disorder that makes them white, not strictly albinos, but I can't remember what it's called. After grabbing Chinese Takeaway we headed back to the caravan park for a family feast.Read more