Flora and Fauna

We have turned the corner of the winter solstice and the bush is waking up, everyday reveals more and more native plants in bloom. Early spring is supposed to be the time here for wildflowers display, but already with every bush walk we discover new wonders, specially the local floral emblem, the Royal Hakea.

Bird life is also very rich from tiny wrens to emus, with everything in between, parrots, cockatoos, pelicans. There is one type of fauna with which we have been having rather too close and personal contact with : snakes. We know they are mostly shy, but it is unnerving watching them slither off the path, just a few centimeters from our feet. It's no good telling us they are more scared of us than we are of them, THEY are the ones with the fangs and venom, not us.

Baleinophiles

We are devoted to whalewatching. We do it all the time. If we are out on a bushwalk, our eyes are fixed on the ocean, in the hope of a new sighting. We think nothing of walking over snakes in pursuit of our new hobby.

Today we had a special thrill. We headed for Waychinicup as usual, and and although our last visit resulted in hours of peering out to sea, and achieving nothing but eye strain, today it was different. The whales were out in force. we saw dozens, all Humpback whales, which we could identify by their behaviour, for example breaching and tail slapping, and by their peculiar long thin flippers, quite different from the squat paddles of the Southern Right Whale. Humpbacks are essentially black, although covered in white blotches, which close up look like barnacles. They tend to meander about, to our eyes, having no fixed purpose other than Douglas Adams's 'messing about in the sea and having fun'

All of a sudden a quite different animal appeared, unbelievably close below the steep cliffs upon which we were stationed. Three things distinguished him from the Humpbacks all around ; Firstly, he was moving incredibly quickly, and in a straight line, so that he rounded the promontory to our left, and within minutes he had disappeared beyond the cliffs to our right. Secondly, he was a very light colour, light grey verging on blue. When he submerged, he was clearly visible beneath the water, unlike the Humpbacks, which almost immediately disappear from view. Thirdly, he was enormous. The Humpbacks are the largest animals I have ever seen, yet Cecile and I agree that this fellow was between 2 and 3 times as big as the largest of them. We think we have been watching a Blue Whale. I am still excited writing this 6 hours later!

Unfortunately for everybody, I was in charge of the camera during this encounter, and one blurred image is all I can offer you.

Whales

We've been hard at work exploring Albany and its surrounds, or as hard as possible once you have settled into a routine of rising at 9.30.

We climbed to the top of Mount Frankland ( the summit of which is used for firewatching ) via a couple of steep ladders, just in time to be drenched by an intense rain storm. We then drove back to Albany uncomfortably steaming in the car. Between the showers we did a walk at Shellys beach, and were thrilled to see a vague grey shape in the water. It is one thing to see a whale on a specific tour, but we did quite a bit of mutual backslapping at our cleverness -or luck on this occasion.

The following day, working our way through a list of National Parks, we headed for Waychinicup National Park, about 30 kilometres west of Albany. After a half hour walk from the carpark, we followed an extremely rutted track to the point at which it rounded a headland. Armed with our experience of the previous day, Cecile pointed at the sea breaking over a semi submerged rock, and asked tentatively "That is not a whale is it ?" I said "No, but that is !" as a monster surfaced just beneath the cliff we were standing on. All of a sudden there was not one, or two or three whales, but dozens. They were swimming mostly in twos, one large, and one small, and we think that we had stumbled upon a nursery. Every so often, one would hurl itself out of the water, and come down with a loud crash, then two would reverse their position, sticking their tails in the air, and repeatedly slapping the water. To give you an indication of the scene, at one point Cecile and I were focusing our attention on a couple crossing our viewpoint from left to right, and as we stared right, we only became aware of another large one close by on our left when he let out a roar when spouting. Close up, the noise they make is remarkable, like a cross between a steam train and an elephant - and loud ! We sat perched on some rather unforgiving granite boulders, amongst the wildflowers for what seemed like a few moments. A quick look at our watch confirmed that we had been enthralled for over two hours. As we walked back to the car, we stopped occasionally and looked out to sea. There were whales everywhere, a little further out they seemed to congregate in large groups, with great masses of spouts. We both have to admit that our photographs do not do the event justice. We are making plans for a picnic revisit tomorrow.

You know, whaling is big business here, and there is an excellent museum full of exhibits and audio-visual horrors documenting the whaling industry and its demise. Whale watching is a tourist bonanza, with local operators getting good publicity from the media spruiking their cruises. For example it was big news recently when a blue whale was sighted locally. I did however find a small news report buried amongst local government tenders and phone sex offers at the back of the newspaper. Apparently, the captain of a charter boat had been successful in locating a couple of mothers and their calves, unfortunately the arrival of the tourists coincided with the arrival of a pod of killer whales who proceeded to rip the babies to bits, leaving a boat load of traumatised sightseers drifting in a sea of blood. Nature red in tooth and claw, I suppose.

Still Around Albany

We've bought a book called "Western Australia's Natural Wonders" which is produced by the Department of Environment and Conservation. It describes in some detail every National park in Western Australia, and provides information on the features of each . We are particularly interested by its list of walks, and have determined to do as many as we can. In the past few days, we have tackled Mount Clare, Hayward Peak, Castle Rock, and have visited the famous Valley of the Giants, and the Tree Top Discovery walk. I have to admit that after a tentative start, we chickened out of the Flinders Peninsula walk in the Torndirrup National park, after reading the instructional sign at the beginning, and having its message prey on our minds with each step. We are continuing to enjoy our outings with the Nude Bushwalking Group of Albany.