Sightseeing around Albany

Manda writes:

A bit of a mishmash of a day today. We wanted to mix sightseeing and get a few outstanding tasks done. Ian had scribbled down a list of essentials which I found and added one final item to:

• Buy a paintbrush (to give Ethel's pop-top a new lick of paint)
• Go to Mt Melville
• Go to Mt Clarence
• Get Ethel's wheel checked out
• Find camcorder repair place
• Don't forget to have some fun!

... after all, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Mt Melville

With the first item crossed off almost straight away, we continued up to Mt Melville lookout. There is an observation tower here that is unmanned and free-of-charge. From the signage, there used to be a souvenir shop and café here too but these have long gone. It looks pretty scruffy close-up, but who's actually looking at the tower? The idea, of course, is to climb up it and then look out over the town and bays beyond - both of which look lovely. From the observation tower, we could see the entire town centre, Mt Clarence, Vancouver Peninsula, wind farms and the Southern Ocean. Albany is a truly beautiful place. Some aspects of it reminds me of Auckland in New Zealand (albeit at a much smaller scale) with its mini mounts protruding here and there around the town.

Mt Clarence as viewed from the top of Mt Melville.

Ethel's Wheel

Two down, four to go ...

Over the weeks, the old girl has been leaking grease from her front wheel. We had initially thought that it was brake fluid which was a bit of a concern (even if it hasn't affected braking). But today the mechanic told us that it was definitely grease and that it wouldn't cause a problem. We just need to seal it. That's a relief!

Ian dropped the camcorder (not literally although he had done many times before which explains why it has come to this) in to the repair shop. The repairer told us he'd look into it and phone us to let us know whether it was fixable or whether we'd need to buy a new one - as it turns out, replacing the tape movement mechanism, or whatever its proper name is, could be more expensive than buying a new one. Mmmm, difficult choice!

Mt Clarence

Mt Clarence is home to a war memorial to the Australian troops who died in Gallipoli during the First World War. Like Mt Melville, Mt Clarence offers great views over the town and to the other mount across the way (hello Melville!). If you've been to the top of one of these mounts, you don't need to go to the other - it really is like getting a different perspective on the same picture, but Mt Clarence offers more views over the waterways.

Vancouver Peninsula.

Once we had finished taking the views in, we walked back to the car park. Since it was a clear, dry day and we were still waiting for a phone call from the camcorder repair guy, Ian decided to kill two birds with one stone and started to paint Ethel's roof while waiting. With a new lick of paint, Ethel was looking even better than before - it looked like the fibreglass roof had not had a coat of paint in many years. But literally seconds after Ian had put the paintbrush down, a curious magpie flew over to take a closer look. She landed on the freshly painted canvas and, treating it like a catwalk, walked the entire length of the roof, slipping up once on a particularly fresh application of weather shield, before flying away with newly whitened feet. Ian had to paint over a whole raft of bird footprints, closely watching the naughty magpie who was still pacing around near the van. I bet he wished he could swap the expression around to 'killing one bird with two stones'!

The Gap and Natural Bridge

On the road from Albany's centre to Frenchman's Bay are a number of natural lookouts. We made the short journey down the peninsula, and over to The Gap and Natural Bridge. Both natural coastal features are absolutely huge and if we took a picture of them alone, you wouldn't get a sense of proportion. So we did one better than that - can you see Ian on the bridge?

So, we had done the sightseeing that we'd aimed for (and more that didn't make it on to the list) and crossed the other tasks off the list. We even managed to pick up the camcorder from the repairer, all fixed and cured of its grinding noises. But what about the last item on the list? The having fun part? Check!