Monday – March 24, 2025
Albany, Australia
Who says you can’t walk 120 feet above ground? Of course you can if you have bridges that are that high. The tingle trees near Albany grow to over 200 feet so even if you are on the walkway, the red tingle trees are towering over you.
Prior to leaving on today’s excursion we had time to converse with Jason and Stathie in the theatre. They live on Cyprus where Stathie’s family has a farm with olives and grapes (the wine kind).
Our guide today is Barbara – driver is Todd. They are going to take us to a forest with really tall eucalyptus trees, a seashore with lots of sand and rocks and two wineries – one of which will serve us lunch.
First stop of the day is Valley Of The Giants Tree Top Walk in Tingledale. If you read the info in the link above, you know that the tingle is a type of eucalyptus tree that grows to a height of over 200 feet. At the Valley Of The Giants a walkway was constructed to elevate the viewers to a level 120 feet above the ground. There are limits to the number of people who can be on each section of the walkway and when you walk you can feel the structure sway. That feeling is somewhat disconcerting when you are that high in the air. Today was beautiful weather and we had a great time exploring the tingle trees at that height.
From tall trees we went to sea level at William Bay National Park. Today must have been some type of holiday because the parking at the park was full – our bus had to drop us off and find a place to park about a quarter mile away. This park has a nice beach with lots of sand and rocks offshore to break the waves coming from the Indian Ocean. On the way to the bus Kelsey paused by a take-away sushi trailer. Not to worry – she hasn’t developed a taste for seafood.
We headed to our lunch stop – Duckett’s Mill Wines and Denmark Farmhouse Cheese. Turns out there were several people on this excursion that would also be going on the extended Australia excursion with us in three days – Olga and Simon. We had a nice lunch with wine, charcuterie boards and desserts – delicious desserts. You can see a photo of the items on the boards. The two desserts in media were a blueberry carrot cake and chocolate brownie. Kelsey is normally one to finish her dessert – she could not – so she took hers “to go” and gave the “full” sign outside the restaurant.
On the way to our next stop we spied a place that Jan’s brother Jerry might like – Wild West Bowling. If he is ever in the area he might need to look them up. We weren’t sure why they had to specify 10 pin bowling – maybe they use a different number of pins in Australia.
Our final stop of this excursion was at Wignalls Wines for wine tasting. Jan and I were full from lunch and didn’t try what they had to offer but others seemed to like the selections they offered for us to taste.
Driving from the winery to the ship we transited the largest of the 57 traffic circles in Albany. There is a video in the media that shows us going around that traffic circle. In a city of 140,000, there are no traffic circles in Albany – just lots of traffic circles.
There is a “sail-away” time lapse in today’s media. As you watch you will see a pile of white “stuff” and a pile of brown “stuff”. The white is silica and the brown is wood chips. Both are exported to make glass and paper. Albany’s largest export is grain – the largest amount in Western Australia. In this area they also grow many apples, potatoes and grapes. The climate is similar to the Burgundy area of France.
Following dinner we were entertained again by Nina Ferro with the show “Lady Be Good” – a tribute to some of the world’s most iconic jazz divas.
All in all a full day with great weather, interesting stops, good food and an engaging guide.