Ah, Albany. This is on the south coast of Western Australia, further east of the Valley of the Giants. It’s gorgeous there, with deep blue skies and white sand beaches. It’s cool and breezy, the winds blowing the clouds across the sky so quickly it’s like you’re sitting in H.G. Wells’ time machine as it moves toward the future.

In this particular part of Albany, we visited the Gap and the Natural Bridge, and the tour guide told us that on days where the seas are stormy, the water from the crashing waves sometimes reaches the entrance to the car park. He advised us to be careful with our cameras, as the spray can ruin sensitive equipment, but we were lucky; the seas were relatively calm that day.

So here’s a view of the Gap, and the Southern Ocean:

And here is the Natural Bridge:

I’m sorry there’s no sense of scale in the last photo. My godmother told me that when she last visited the natural bridge, she hiked up on it and had her picture taken. I’m guessing she’d probably be the same size as one of the smaller rocks on the bridge. I’m really not sure, though. Even with the wide lens, I couldn’t take in more than what you can see—the bridge is that big.

I would have liked to have walked across it and have my picture taken, but I don’t think the guide would have let me.

I have more photos from Albany, of course, just as I have more photos of the Valley of the Giants, but I really don’t want to post all of the nearly 1500 I took during the entire trip. Not in my first week back, anyway. 😉

The photo at the top is my favorite of the bunch, though, because it’s the “widest” and most beautiful view of the place. The lone guy in the red windbreaker is yet another David, a tourist from either Hong Kong or Singapore—I can’t quite remember which, but I’m leaning toward Hong Kong. I met a lot of folks in Australia from both.

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