Day 60. Albany

A day for the birds

After an 8'o'clock sleep in, it was bacon and eggs on the BBQ outside under the awning. It was a beautiful morning. We talked about what we would do today over a second cuppa, and decided to give the bird park a go. Both Shane and Scarlett are quite the 'Bird Nerds' now, they love nothing more than seeing new birds and marking them off in their bird book during an evening together.

So first stop was the Albany Bird Park. It didn't look much from the car park, but it was cheap, and the ladies there were really nice. They gave us all a bowl of fresh fruit and vegies to feed all the birds and animals with. The first aviary we entered was packed with the most beautiful parrots I had ever seen. There were Indian Ringnecks, Eclectus parrots, King parrots, Scalies, Rainbows, and parrots we have never seen before. They were so tame, as soon as we came in the aviary they flew over to us landing on the railing and on our arms to sneak some yummy fruit out of our bowls.


What you looking at?



At one stage I had three beautiful parrots land on me, I didn't know which one to feed first. Scarlett was amazed they would come to her as soon as she held out her hand with food in it. She had a heap of birds land on her arm, head and shoulders. We were in the aviary for ages as the birds were so delightful to just feed and watch them.

We moved on outside and found the biggest pig I ever seen. We gave him some food (like he needed any) and Shane gave him a scratch behind the ears. Shane regretted this straight away, as the pig had been rolling in mud and was putrid. Next to the pig pen were a pair of very friendly donkeys. Shane; trying to show Scarlett it was OK to stand with them for a photo, was nearly pulled back over the fence with them trying to get food from him, Scarlett and I found it very funny.

There were little pony's, emu's and two adorable dingo's. The dingo's were so tame, they came straight over to us for a pat through the fence. Scarlett explored further and found baby chicken's, ducks, rabbits and guinea pigs too. We had a heap of fun playing with the baby guinea pigs, they were so small Scarlett would put them in her little bowl to feed them, she had two at on stage, and was trying to come up with a plan to smuggle them out.

I totally fell in love with a caramel coloured baby bunny rabbit, he was soooo cute, I could easily have taken him home. Scarlett spotted a small pellet of poo stuck to his butt, she was disgusted and wouldn't touch him again after that. It suited me fine, as I had him all to myself after that.

We found a second aviary with more parrots, and Shane had one little fella try with all his might to get his sunglass strap off his head. We laughed so much, this parrot just would not leave poor Shane alone. Scarlett and I again provided food, and ended up having a million parrots landing on us. We loved every minute of it.

After a quick ice cream we were off, what a lovely morning. Thank god we did look further than the car park, Scarlett had the best time ever.

About 12km's down the road was the 'Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve' and I had heard it was home to the best bays around this area so we decided to head there for lunch. We had our picnic at the 'Two Peoples Bay' and it was a lovely spot. There was a little bit of wind though, so Scarlett didn't actually get into the water. However, it was so nice just to sit on the beach and enjoy the view while having lunch there she didn't care.

There was another beach just around the corner from this one called 'Little Beach' and hoping it was a little more sheltered from the wind we moved across to there. Let me just say I know I have raved on about many of the bays and beaches since making it down to this part of the country, and said that they have all been the most beautiful, but this one is my new number one!


'Little Beach'

The water was a beautiful turquoise blue and crystal clear. It had the whitest sand and was back dropped with huge rocky outcrops, this one defiantly takes the cake. It was (so far) the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. I have now decided to start a top 10 beaches for this trip, every time I think I have seen the best beach ever, there is another one the following week that takes my breath away.

We decided on the way home to stop at 'Lake Seppings', a wetland conservation area, and do the 3km round walk and spot some more birds. I must say it was a little bit of a let down, the whole 3kms all we saw were a couple of parrots, a Musk Duck, and a Black Shouldered Kite. It was good exercise though!

My two Bird Nerds (hiding in a 'bird hide')!

We ended the day at the pool, with chicken burgers for dinner. Shane is currently drinking with the grey nomads next door while Scarlett and I are watching 'Home Alone' and eating CC's with melted cheese on top. What a great end to a great day.

Scarlett was very quite (NOT) on the Wetlands walk