We lived in Albany for a year (97/98), so returning here was “coming home” in a sense. Right from the start things seemed familiar. Driving the 500km along the Albany Highway did not seem to have changed. There was still no traffic; from the edge of metropolitan Perth to the beginning of Albany we pass through three towns. Williams has a population of 1000, Kojonup has a population of 2000 and Mount Barker has a population of 2500. I think we saw about five cars going in the same direction as us. There is a lot of space in WA.
The town itself hardly seems to have changed (and the friends we left behind do not seem to have aged either). It is real small town Australia, with big wide streets and a laid back charm.
York Street - the main street (view north)
York Street (view south) on a Saturday afternoon
In the centre it has an old world feel (well for Australia) since many of the houses are early 20th century. The climate is described by West Australians as “cold and wet” but for us temperatures in the mid 20s and a very occasional shower were perfect. (I think we used our rain coats once). The setting is magnificent with granite hills and white sandy beaches set amid grey-green bush. We caught the end of the wildflowers, missed out on the whales who left about two months ago and decided that its still too cold to swim in the Southern Ocean. In Albany the next land to the south is Antarctica. Both the beaches and the bush are also empty – may be its because its still school term here, but even at weekends it would be rare to see more than a dozen people on the 3km long Middleton beach.
Middleton beach
There are spectacular coastal and bush walks and that is how we spent much of our ten days whilst not socialising. We have had ten days of good meals with old friends, including Moray and Jenny with whom we swapped houses and jobs in that year away. In fact despite our intention of cooking for ourselves we found we only did that once.
We gradually re-acclimatised to Australia and now say things like “She'll be right” or “Stick it in the eskie mate”. However we still shudder when shop assistants say “Catch you later – or phonetically – “cadge yer lader” which brings out a desire to say in our best English accents “I'm so sorry we won't be around later to meet up with you”. We decided to consolidate the acclimatisation by going to the cinema to see the new Australian blockbuster, called “Australia” . Its billed as a big screen epic romance. However to us it seemed more like “Carry on up the Kimberley” rather than “Out of Africa”. I won't say its the worst film we have ever seen ... I could say something about turkeys at Christmas.
And yes we are running up to Christmas. We went to the Albany Christmas pageant, which contained floats with Surf Life Savers in their “bathers” (translates into English as swimming costume) and the Albany Philippino Club in their sarongs.
Christmas pageant - led by olympic medallist
Christmas pageant - scottish pipers (?!)
It was a warm evening, so we finished off with chilled glasses of alcohol – a very different experience from an English Advent Market.
We head back to Perth for a few days before setting off on another train journey – after being land based for so long we are missing the trains.
Here is a view from the boardwalk - just a little way out of town
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