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April 22 - 26th. Albany. ...It's a work in progress
We drove down the mountain, through Denmark and onwards towards Albany. Three Op (charity) shops and a hidden away cafe later I bid farewell to Taj and Sahyma on the doorsteps of Bayview YHA, 2 cheap books and the memory of an amazing cup of chai the richer. I hadn't actually made a reservation with the hostel so it was a relief when I got a bed with no hassle, there are plenty of other hostels in town but I wasn't overly fond of the idea of lugging my pack all around the place. Turns out the hostel was half empty so I needn't have worried...its like summer ended 2 months ago of something. After twice being given the wrong room and the staff having to run after me with a new key I settled into my dorm...I've been away from them for two and a half weeks but I guess the return to hostel-land was inevitable. I'm relieved to discover the time away had dimmed my jadedness...but I still found myself pining for my own room or even tent occasionally!
After the odyssey that was my last blog entry you'll be relieved to hear there isn't a great deal to report this time. I'll try and pad it out with pointless sentences that add nothing to the narrative and pretentious stand alone phrases. Your welcome.
First thing I did was have a wander around the town, its bigger than I excepted and there's tonnes of shops up and trailing away from the main street. I brought myself some chocolate and energy drink as part of my retox from the shockingly healthy lifestyle I'd been living over the last half month. The KFC was, in retrospect, taking this sadistic idea too far and it was a good thing the toilet wasn't far from my dorm, although thankfully it never came to that! There's a staggering amount of building work in progress along the shoreline and many posters bragging about whats being built. So it looks like Albany will have a lot to offer (that or being hopelessly touristy in the worst possible way)...in a couple of years time...that's all well and good...but it doesn't really help me now does it!
I had a look around the old Gaol, which was where prisoners were held at one point. Albany was actually the first place colonized in WA, so has a fair bit of history behind it. The Gaol made for an interesting 45 minute wander, its interesting to think back to people living so differently not really that far into the past. As I've earlier indicated if you want facts and trivia google is but a web-link away. This blog is about ME - not facts! I had fun. Enough, move on.
I took a long scenic walk out to Ellen Cove on the Saturday, this took about an hour and a half each way moving slowly and took me through some thick forests and past expansive cliff views. Pity I didn't take my camera with me really. Oh well, no problem, I'll just do the whole thing again on Sunday and remember it that time. Thinking back I could probably have found someplace different to walk to...but that would have involved looking at a map...and that was all the way in my bag...
Sunday was ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Armed Corps) day and as coincidence would have it I went right past the march as I began my second Ellen Cove mission. There were many different sections starting with army vehicles and veterans progressing through to lots of different local schools at the end...I wasn't sure what their relevance was excatly but I thought it would probably be rude to ask. A healthy crowd lined both sides of the street waving tiny plastic Australian flags and then followed the procession down to a church service by the shore front.
...told you this would be a short one! In a way Albany proved to be pretty boring but I had been doing a lot (in days if not actual hours) of work the two and a half weeks before so a brief spell of nothingness wasn't the end of the world. Next I'd be heading full circle back north up to Perth, right back to where I'd left two and a half months ago...and hopefully to some better weather too...
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