As we take the drive to todays destination we get to take pictures of Albany in a different light. Today we are off to see Albany's Whale World, set in Australia's last whaling station. We will then take the drive back through Torndirrup National Park.
The museum was originally the site of the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company's whaling station. It was used to turn whales into useable products. It was in operation for 26 years before it closed its doors to commercial whaling, the last of its kind in Australia, in 1978.
The whaling station provides free tours on the hour, so with half an hour to spare, we once more split into 2 groups. Some of us go for a beach walk with a ranger and the others take a walk through the, under construction, new Biodiversity Nature Park that will open in 2013. Here Timna, Boaz, Jack, Andy and Linda get to meet the resident koalas.
These soft and hungry animals are a pleasant introduction for the confronting tour we are about to embark on.
This is on the cutting up deck. A rather gruesome sight. We are taken through all the levels and learn about all the steps from catching the whale to processing it for commercial products. 
This is a skeleton of a sperm whale, the largest of the toothed cetaceans.
This is a skeleton of a blue whale. They can measure up to 25 metres, have no teeth and feed on a tiny shrimp like creature called krill. An adult blue whale can eat up to 40 million krill in a day sometimes eating up to 3,600 kilograms. Odd how the largest animal in the world feeds off the smallest.
The Blue whale is the largest animal to have ever lived. Its tongue weighs around 2.7 tonnes, its heart 600 kilograms and its mouth is large enough to hold up to 90 tonnes of food and water. Despite the size of its mouth, the dimensions of its throat are such that a blue whale cannot swallow an object wider than a beach ball!
Some old style harpoons, when men hunted big whales from small boats. This was before the advent of rocket propelled harpoons.
The Cheynes IV, one of the stations whaling vessels, now decommissioned and part of the exhibit.
Some of the flensing tools used to cut up the dead whales.
Luxurious when compared to the brig Amity!. 
Refined whale oil was stored in large tanks like the one in this picture. Today the tanks have been converted into movie theatres.
After lunch we continue on through Torndirrup National Park. First stop Salmon Holes. The wild beach, not suitable for swimming but apparently, in season, provides eager fishermen with fabulous catches of salmon. Not for us when we returned to fish here though!
Nature at its best.
The Blow Holes were not quite doing their thing today, though we believe them to make a rather impressive sound when they do. The view out to the Southern Ocean was enough to keep us adults occupied and the kids, well, they had their own games to play.
This is the power game. They all represent either fire, earth, air, water, darkness and minerals. Benji was fire, Boaz was water and Ethan darkness.
Not a black and white photo. This is its actual colour, or lack of!
The Natural Bridge is a rock formation sculpted into a bridge shape by the seas of the Southern Ocean. We could have spent hours here, well actually Linda and Timna could have. They got lost in time watching some abseilers drop down the rock face. Timna has now informed us that rock climbing would be a great sport to help improve her strength for gymnastics. She promises us that she will do most of her practicing at indoor rock climbing centres, perhaps waiting till next year to try out this particualr climb, aaggh!
We cannot believe that it is almost 2012. While travelling, we have enjoyed the luxury of not following a calendar. However despite all efforts, new years eve is fast approaching and this date we cannot run away from. Tomorrow we will welcome the new year in Albany with old and new friends. The kids are most fascinated by the fact that our family and friends in Melbourne will welcome in the new year 3 hours earlier than us. So does that mean we get to celebrate twice??????? What a year 2011 has been. This sort of reflection drives Robbie crazy, so this part we will state is written by Linda, but still edited by Robbie of course!!!! We are both starting to realise our little adventure is coming to a close, and this fact is a little scary.
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