A long drive down the middle of WA to Esperance awaited us on Day 4 but we got up early and took again to our travels.
The drive wound through a very interesting part of the state of WA passing as it did through mining towns like Norseman. The town named for it's rather famous horse who kicked a clump of soil and apparently discovered the nugget which lead to a gold rush. Needless to say the horse now has it's own statue which stands proudly in the town park.
All the way down we passed signs pointing to the various mines and we could see even from the car the obvious signs of mining occurring at a rapid pace.
Closer to Esperance we passed the Pink lake and several other smaller lakes like it - all colored a strange pink color having taken on the red of the soil and chemicals around them.
Around lunch time we arrived in Esperance and drove around searching for our digs. At first we were looking for a conventional hotel called the "Dodropin" with some trepidation I might say thinking of the jokes associated with such names. Amazingly it turned out to be a well hidden bed and breakfast in a self-contained apartment set up in the nicest Dutch Barn style building.
After settling in we took off to explore Esperance which turned out mostly to be a nice beach side village. A nice place for swimming and fishing in the hot whether but not that much to see thats unique or noteworthy. We did manage to find a rather good town museum to while away a few hours and also found an interesting jetty to look at. Other than that though there was not much to do in Esperance.
Next a very, very long drive to Albany (480 km)...
We got up very early the next day and departed the Barn for the former Whaling town of Albany.
Prepared for a long day in the car we were actually quite surprised to reach our destination by lunch time.
We found our hotel and settled in. Then off to explore Albany.
Albany turned out to be a really nice place that we were looking forward to spending 2 days in. Lots of nice interesting looking shops and eating places in the main street. Our first stop was to find a nice place to have lunch after the long drive. This we did at a nice place called "Venice Restaurant" where we had garlic squid with chips and salad.
After lunch we went for a drive. First thing we encountered was the museum built around the ship Amity a replica of the original square rigger that brought the first convict settlers to Albany.
After looking around the Amity we went for a drive up Mt Melville to the look out which was amazing for the view it gave of Albany harbor and King Georges Sound. We then found that there was a restored military fort called Fort Princes Royal on Mt Melville. Here we discovered some interesting history. Apparently Albany was the meeting point for the Imperial Expeditionary Forces - the ANZACs and the 26 ships that carried those troops to the middle east left from here. We had a great afternoon exploring.
Tomorrow more of Albany including Whale world ...
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