Perth Trip Dec 09 (Part 2)

Day 2

I bet you guys are eager to find out where little Frodo had gone today. We woke up early and headed south, on our way to Albany via Albany Highway. It takes 4 hour to reach there and I have to say that the journey was very long. However we got an extra virgin Toyota Corrola with only 1000KM in and it was a spanking smooth rides. It got auto cruise and rented GPS navigator. I enjoyed the ride very much. If only it could drive itself like Bumblebee and kick Decepticon arse while at it.

On the way, we passed through Mount Barker and stopped by a Cherry farm. The lovely madam showed us around the farm and thought us how to pick cherries. You will be suprised that there is an art on picking cherries. If you pick cherries, you shouldn't accidentally nip the bud otherwise it will not grow cherries the next blossoming round. We came in with the intention to pick the cherries ourselves, but we weren't allowed to because of this reason. The farm lady was very cheerful and friendly though and we bought about 1kg of cherries from her.

Next up we went straight to Albany and checked in to the Albany Discovery Inn. Lovely place with good interior deco. Do check out the pics. The innkeeper was friendly and helpful and recommended a fish and chip place at Emu Point. Yum yum, the fish and squid is delicious and fresh, made using locally captured fish and squids. The squid just melt in your mouth like butter. I can't explain it better, you just have to taste it yourself. We went to go for a lookout at Melvin Road, on one of the highest peak of Albany overlooking the city just after sunset. Marvellous view. You can even see the Albany Wind Farm, which we are going to go tomorrow from afar.

Day 3

The next morning we went straight to the wind farm at Sand Patch road. It's kinda cool, cos when I studied in Imperial, my final year project is regarding the wind power turbine. I consider myself a Gaia Capitalist (thank you Richard Branson) and very pro environmentalist and idolises Al Gore. I believe I'm the only person in my office who make it a point to print on unused side of recycled paper. This trip really excites me. There are 12 wind turbines operational in the farm with total power generated around 20MW enough to power 15k Western Australia (WA) homes for 20 years (yes I memorised it, and yes I'm a geek). I didn't get a chance to go to a wind farm in UK so this trip meant a lot to me (we did planned to go but there was no takers. As you would have guess, students are always broke and they rather spend their money buying beers rather than looking at some giant windmill).

After that we went and tapau some lunch at Squid Shack. We went to the Gap and Natural Bridges along with the Blowhole and Salmon Hole in the Torndirrup National Park. The Gap is actually a beatiful rock formation at one of the coastline and the Natural Bridge is a natural stone bridge that connects a "gap". No, the Blowhole is not what you think it is (notti boy), it is actually a gap on a rock formation blows jet of water as big waves crashes on the rock, and the water get force into these natural tunnel and gushes up in the air. Try to imagine the top of a whale which sometimes blow jets of water up in the air, but on a rock instead. Sadly it didn't "blow" today as the waves did not pound against the rock hard enough. That's just sound weird, hehehe..

Lastly, the Salmon Hole is not exactly a hole, but a quiet and nice beachside kinda like a lagoon where the salmon sometimes passes by to look for shallow water. Alas we didn't bring any spare short and shirt so we didn't go for a dip. After that we went all the way to a blueberry farm in Denmark (no it's a place in Australia, not a country in Europe) and just make it there around 3.30pm before it closes at 4pm. This time we got to pick the berries ourselves and even get a discount for doing it. I bought my lovely wife a jar of blueberry jam (wait for it honey).

Later that evening, the town centre of Albany is having a Christmas Pageant (read: parade). It's kinda nice for them to organise it, kinda like a small community activity in the suburban area. We stayed and watched for a bit before going back to the inn. I still have like 4 hours worth of free internet coupon and intended to use it tonight as we're checking out tomorrow. That's the reason I'm putting up this post now. Anyway, I shall update again as I go along and till then Adios Mate!~~