Australia


25/01/09

Albany, Torndirrup NP, Ravensthorpe

59 days away

Cloudy

363 km / 226 miles since last post

16,045 km / 9,970 miles total

Sarah

Slideshow / Fullscreen


Antipodean Adventure Overview

Antipodean Adventure Photos



Not Such A Booming Mining Town

Our Route (to 25/01/2009)

Not Such A Booming Mining Town

All Photos (Click for larger)

We drove around Albany to take in some of the amazing coastline, including the Torndirrup National Park. There are some great natural attractions here - The Gap, Natural Bridge and the Blowholes. Unfortunately, conditions were not rough enough to witness any great 'blowhole action(!)' - although you could hear the waves crashing beneath the rock and hear the wind whooshing through the gaps.

We stopped at the nearby wind farm, where you can get close to the huge turbines - they are really impressive. What's more impressive is that 75% of Albany's power is supplied by this wind farm - a massive 21.6MW!

It was a shame to leave Albany as it's definitely somewhere you could spend a few days, if you have the time.

We pressed on to Ravensthorpe, a small mining town which has made the news recently due to the impending closure of the BHP Biliton Nickel mine, laying off 1800 staff. There was a hint of Australian humour, even amongst this difficult time, when we saw a sign outside the local hotel reading 'BHP Biliton uniforms going cheap!'.

Once at the campsite we found a wireless network, so were able to catch up on some e-mails. It also meant we could finally book our campervan for our trip around New Zealand! As we'll only be spending 4 weeks in New Zealand, we have decided on a smaller vehicle to our current van. It also works out a lot cheaper too, which is helpful the way we are currently getting through money!