Alan & Lyn's Huge Adventure: 6/4/16 Albany Anzacs

Ah what a good night’s sleep , nice and quiet , although for a road that only goes to a couple of properties and the bay , there were a few vehicles using the road last night and early this morning - fishermen maybe ??? All irrelevant anyway .

Off we go , into Albany , calling in to a shopping centre on the way - we found a Chemart and decided to get the flu shot , couldn’t have been easier , and $64 later , we wandered away with a piece of tape and a cotton ball attached to our arms - flu jab done !!

It was still early , only 10:45 so we drove into Albany and turned toward Emu Point - a suburb at the eastern end of town beside the beach and Oyster Harbour . The harbour is separated from King George Sound by a narrow channel - maybe 100m wide . King George Sound is the area outside Princess Royal Harbour and Oyster Harbour . Princess Royal Harbour is Albany’s harbour and is on the southern side of Albany , Oyster Harbour is on the northeastern side of Albany .

There is a park and swimming area at Emu Point , there was a bus load of school kids learning CPR and rescuing drowning people etc - good skills to learn . We did feel a bit sorry for them thouhg , it was only 17 degrees and there was also some wind chill - must have been murder coming out of the water !!

We thought it may have been warm enough for shorts & thongs , slightly miscalculated there !!

We headed around to the marina and parked , there were a lot of car & boat trailer parking spots , but everyone else was parking in them , so we checked the sign and parked in the section on the other side of the sign . We joked that we should have parked at the top of the line , go away for lunch & come back shouting someone had stolen our boat & trailer - it was funny at the time - you probably had to be there !!

We did have lunch though , at Squid Rings Cafe . I had a feeling we were going to be surprised , I wasn’t disappointed . We had fish , salt & pepper squid and chips , and it was awesome !!

It was an early lunch , but that was fine as we beat the rush .

The major destination for today is the National Anzac Centre , so we headed up there . It is on Mt Adelaide , above the harbour , at Albany Heritage Park . We parked and headed in , paid our admission $24 each , they gave us a brief explanation on how the audio pen worked and then gave us a card with a picture and the name of a soldier to follow through their journey . We walked past the video wall - soldiers were marching relentlessly to the boats .

This is the last Australian Port they left from as they headed off to war . There is so much information on offer , interactive screens that show what your soldier did , videos running and displays of relics , uniforms , guns & stories of courage and bravery under the most trying conditions .

There are windows looking out into King George Sound , this is where ships were anchored and lined up before heading off to war , quite an impressive view .

One room has a sculpture of a soldier giving his horse a drink of water from his helmet .

Another room has a water feature - in the water is a video screen that continually rolls the names of all 41,600 soldiers that left through Albany - certainly a lot less returned !!

My Soldier was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery , unfortunately he died on a hospital ship after throwing bombs at the enemy , he lit the fuse on one too many and it went off , blowing off his hand and damaging his head and losing one eye . He was buried at sea . Lyn’s soldier made it back home , dying in 1956 of natural causes , but mentally scarred like so many of them . They didn’t have PTSD back then , they were thought to be ” weak of mind !!! “

The centre is housed in quite a remarkable looking building .

From here we walked up Mt Adelaide to the gun placements & bunkers at the top of the hill. There is a viewing deck to sit and contemplate , or soak in the view .

We didn’t stay long , the breeze was cutting straight through us . We wandered around a gun turret and an ammunition bunker . The 6 inch cannon could fire a 45 pound projectile , up to 8klm away . There were still some projectiles lined up in the bunker .

Back down to the carpark and we found some hotrods parked nearby , all three of them were immaculately prepared and finished , chrome and paint shining .

Next we went up Mt Clarence to Padre White Lookout and the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial for Australia & New Zealand . Views were spectacular !!! On the way up there were several plaques with inscriptions , one of them really seemed to be pertinent to the situation the soldiers were put in, it still didn’t make a lot of sense , but wars don’t make sense either !!!