van wyk journeys October 22 – Albany
Albany – we arrived at ~9 am and looked out to see we were once again in a working port. This seems to be the norm for the smaller cities/towns that we have stopped at. At some, we were able to walk off into the city such as Darwin, Freemantle/Perth, and Albany while others we were required to ride the shuttle as they were considered “working ports” with working piers. With Broome, it was debatable as to how much “work” was being done but given the state of the causeway attached to the pier it was probably a good idea that we took the shuttles. Plus, it was very hot around 33C so hanging around outside or even walking into town did not seem like a good idea.
Southern Wineries and sights is the title of our tour.
Travel along Stirling Terrace, through downtown Albany, to enjoy the mixture of renovated historic buildings and the contrasting newer shops and central business district. Pass the Courthouse, rotunda, and the old Post Office, which now houses the Albany Branch of the University of Western Australia. Drive past Middleton Beach and Dog Rock–a large granite rock in the shape of a dog’s head which we cruised by making taking a photo impossible. As it was the majority of my photos were from the moving bus. We did finally see 2 “herds” of kangaroos but as they were not stopping places limited photos are available.
This tour has 2 wineries that we stopped at with the first being the Oranje Tractor which was an organically certified winery. Quite a rustic winery the staffed the owners as well as a couple from Romania.
Next up was a whirlwind wine tasting event at Wignall’s Winery, set among manicured lawns and outstanding gardens. Wignall’s winery is the perfect setting to enjoy a wine tasting and listen to the winemakers tell you about their passion. While this was the by-line our tasting was a very quick line up, get a glass and slam the sample back then do it all again with up to 9 different samples available. Most people only tried 4 or four as we were extremely limited on time. But even though there was a time limit at least ½ of the group managed to get off in the town center for a quick look around there that included a stop at the elusive Dan Murphy’s for a top-up of wines for consuming on the ship and a short stop at the IGA store for some treats.
