January 19 – Albany and A Whaling Station

We were in Albany a year ago on our Crystal Cruise and saw some major highlights.  So this trip we are hitting a few more.  This morning we headed out first thing to the Whaling Station Museum.  Albany was a major whaling port from the 1930’s to the 1970’s.  They have preserved the whaling station as a very informative museum.  

We got there a bit early and the first room we went into housed the lifetime shell collection of Hilda Hotker (a local Australian) …and it was amazing and very well displayed. 

While waiting for our tour we tried photographing some banksia.  Hard to do with the wind blowing and the flowers bouncing around.

We then caught the 10:00 tour that was very informative.  Included in the tour and museum were some of the buildings and operations,

the full skeleton of a sperm whale,

the full skeleton of a pygmy blue whale,

the jawbone of a blue whale,

and the restored Cheynes IV, one of the original whaling vessels.

From there we headed back into Albany where we saw another large painted silo.  The silos were at the major shipping port in the harbor.  This one had sea dragons on the side.  Very graphic and colorful.

We stopped to see the Brig Amity, a replica of the original vessel that brought the first British settlers to Albany.

Adjacent was the Museum of the Great Southern that included a wide variety of buildings and exhibits.  There was a very interesting exhibit on the pearling industry in the area and

a lens from a lighthouse.

We also stopped at the Old Gaol (jail)

where we saw a King Skink lurking around.

Albany was established in the mid-1800’s and there was a lot of Victorian architecture…

and couple of very pretty churches in beautiful red stone including St. Johns’

and the Wesley Church

and its Manse next door.

Before heading to the hotel we took a drive out of town to yet another beautiful white sand beach, Little Beach.

Dinner tonight was at a very nice Italian restaurant.  We both enjoyed our food but a couple of the pizza’s had some very unusual ingredients…bananas and avocado.  Not sure about that.