Wed 30 Oct 2013 – Whaleworld at Albany

As this caravan park has a special on, $20 with power, we decided to stay another night because there's a lot to see in Albany.

Our first visit was to the old whaling station, which now tells the story of whaling in this area. We arrived just before the guided tour at 12.00pm and it was very good, explaining the process of catching, flensing and processing whales. This was the last whaling station in Australia and it didn't close until 1978.

The huge oil storage tanks have been converted into movie theatres, where you can learn more about whales, dolphins and sharks. 

There is also an old whaling ship, called a "Chaser", that we went aboard and looked around and lots of old photos.

Captain's state room

relaxing in the Captain's bunk

We enjoyed it all so much that the time flew past and we suddenly realised we were the only people left and it was 4.30pm! We revived ourselves with a coffee and a hot chocolate in the cafe.

We saw some examples of scrimshaw work by two artists – beautiful etchings on sperm whale teeth.

The whaling station is out on an arm of the harbour and about 45min drive from Albany. This was good, as the whaling station used to absolutely stink! Also on this arm are a couple of natural attractions, a rock bridge, blowholes and a gap in the rocks where the waves come crashing up. 

Rodger on the Natural Bridge

Luckily these don't close at 5.00pm, so we were able to see them on the way back to the camping ground - it's good we decided to stay another night!

We went to the camp kitchen to make dinner and, learning from last night, covered ourselves in mozzie repellent first and went over there boldly. While I was cooking, I killed at least 30 mozzies and Rodger as many, but when we sat down to eat, they just wouldn't leave us alone so eventually we couldn't stand it anymore and, admitting defeat, we retreated to our van, behind our fly screen. No wonder it's only $20 a night!