Albany and Denmark (and a whinge about Ford)

The highlight of Albany was the fish and chips at the Three Anchors Tavern.  Jenny had it the first night we were there and despite trying to be budget conscious, she insisted that we go back the next night too so we could all experience this culinary delight.  We did and she was right, it was awesome fish and chips and I suspect their batter has some magical ingredients that we will never be able to identify.  The only downside of this is that we usually try to be health conscious and get grilled fish for Ben but after this meal he said “I never want that other fish ever again.  I want this fish with the yummy ‘skin’ on it”  Doh!

Dog Rock was also pretty cool.  It just sits in the middle of town, looking like a dog.  Here it is with Blake's undies.

Ben with Blake's undies at Dog Rock.

We were going to stay four nights in Albany and do some day trips but we met a couple in the caravan park who strongly recommended a park in Denmark, so we decided to spend two nights in each town.  Denmark is indeed a lovely place, however we arrived right after some rain so our riverside campsite came with a free manky river odour.  This was compounded by the stinky river mud that Jenny and Ben brought back on their shoes and shorts after going exploring.  We got used to it after a while and had a lovely stay.  We had interesting chats with people in the camp kitchen and Ben made friends with some German boys he met in the playground.  I asked him what their names were and he said "I don't know.  I can't understand anything they say and they can't understand anything I say."  It didn't seem to matter, pointing, smiling and laughing seemed to do the trick!

Repairing the windscreen chip from Esperance wasn’t going well and we were starting to think that a Jeep or second hand Landcruiser might have been a better choice.  The chip was on the driver’s side of the windscreen about a quarter of the way up and towards the middle.  It was the size of a 10c piece with star cracks radiating out from the centre and everyone we spoke to said it would mean a new windscreen. 

 This wasn’t too much of a worry at the time as we have cover and when we called the insurance company they advised that we can just get it fixed anywhere and pay the $100 excess.    It wasn’t until we started ringing around and then contacted Ford that we discovered the model of Ranger we have is so new that THERE ARE NO WINDSCREENS IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY!  That’s some really great forward planning, Ford.  It’s a 4WD favoured by off road travellers and tradesmen.  Did no-one in the spare parts division consider that those demographics are highly prone to windscreen damage and that they should probably stock a few spares somewhere??! Morons. 

There is apparently a shipment of windscreens due into Melbourne at the end of April (by which time we will be somewhere around Broome) and we were helpfully informed that if they freighted it to Broome it would take several extra weeks and “would probably get smashed in the truck on the way”.  Thankfully, we ended up speaking with a super helpful guy at National Windscreens who recommended a company in Albany who could repair the chip (invisible filler – it’s awesome).  It was their only option really since there was no way to replace it and we weren't going to wait around in Albany for a month or more.  So, it is patched up now (and safe) and we are now hoping like hell that we don’t have any major windscreen issues until we are back on the Eastern side of the country or we might end up stranded in the middle of nowhere.

“Hello my darling!”

We highly recommend Denmark’s ‘Dinosaur World’, which also has a reptile house and many awesome birds.  We went for the Dinosaurs and were very pleasantly surprised to find that the owner, his reptiles and his entertaining parrots are the highlights of the establishment. As you approach the entrance from the carpark, you can see a number of high trees over the fence and a parrot sitting high in the branches greets you with a loud “Hello my darling!”  Ben answered of course, “Hello my darling!” and a love affair began.  I wish I had a dollar for every “Hello my darling” I heard that afternoon (and most days since!).

At the front desk we were greeted by the owner, who is an older Englishman.  If I hadn’t been looking at him, I would have sworn that we’d been greeted by the actor, Michael Caine and every time I heard him speak for the rest of the afternoon I found it slightly disconcerting.  The dinosaurs are great – replicas of the real fossils from some of the most famous museums around the world.  But, the highlight was definitely when the owner brought out a carpet python and three lizards for us to hold.  Ben was awesome and stood happily as the python was draped around his neck and then again later when the owner plonked a huge lizard on his head. 

Ben with 'Monty' the python.

We also went outside where there are many aviaries and free flying birds on perches.  The red tailed black cockatoo in particular was happy to sit on our shoulders and the smaller birds chattered, sat on us and were very friendly.  

After digging a worm out of the ground, this guy tried to eat Ben's shoe.

We also went to see the enormous trees in the Valley of the Giants.  The treetop walk is the highly advertised draw card for the area but for the $19 each (Ben free) we found it a little underwhelming (perhaps as we have done similar treetop walk in Tasmania so it didn’t have the ‘up high’ wow factor).  The trees are definitely magnificent but we found the free walk at ground level through the Ancient Empire much more interesting as you can see and walk right into the burnt out bases of the trees and everything is much closer. 

We passed a roadside veggie stall on the way home and it was great to pick up some super fresh local produce and explain to Ben that carrots looked deformed because they are real farm grown carrots, straight out of the ground and not bred and inspected to pass a supermarket’s attractiveness test. We bought some Indian corn to try (it does say you can eat it) but it obviously needs to be cooked some way other than how we did because it was like concrete and was totally inedible.  Decoration is probably the better use for it!

Note:  Cannot be eaten!  Can be used to bash in tent pegs.