Around Albany

I've spent three nights here but am moving on tomorrow. Yesterday, I had a day off the bike, walking around town, doing a few jobs and just taking in what there was to offer. It's not a big place, but its enough of a city to have a presence. It is also the place where troops gathered for departure to Europe in WW1, and the ANZAC Peace Park down on the waterfront is a neat little reminder of that.

There is an old gaol too plus a replica of a brig that brought convicts and a military party from Sydney to WA in the early 1800s. Their mission was to start a settlement, which they did, naming it the Swan River settlement, which we know today as Perth. And the area is an old whaling port, all interesting enough stuff but I've seen so many old gaols and old whaling ports in the past five months that I gave these a miss. 

Then today I rode out to the headland south of Albany. It's mostly National Park and as such, is unspoilt.  And there is a wind farm out there too. They're not that common down here, unlike Europe, and they've made a bit of a thing about it, which was interesting. It supplies 80% of Albany's power, which I was quite surprised about. I don't know if it goes into the main grid or they work some other system here, but its definitely an important bit of the town's set up.

 As well as the wind,the ocean crashes onto the land out on that headland too, the first land it encounters after leaving the coast of Antarctica. 

Australia and Antarctica were once part of the same land mass, the Gondwana supercontinent, but they separated 45 million years ago, and Australia has been moving northwards at the rate of about 5 cms per year ever since.

And I came across what I thought was a lighthouse until I got up close. Well it is, sort of, but its one of the two satellite ground receiving stations in Australia, the other one being at Bundaberg in Queensland. This is where signals from sinking ships or crashed aircraft get picked up - assuming their comms systems haven't been disabled of course.

The coastline along the whole headland is exceptionally rocky, with huge boulders and pavements exposed and erosion has creating some interesting features, such as a natural bridge, a gap, and blowholes. It's all a bit nerdy but I like that sort of stuff and am always impressed when I see  bent rock strata, block erosion, uplifted rock beds and such like. And I take pictures, especially when the sea adds drama by crashing over the rocks with a deafening roar every few seconds. So here you go, geeky pictures....look away if you're offended.

eroded boulders

The Natural bridge

The Gap

The blowholes - water gets forced up through the cracks and roars as it does so