Our over night trip from Fremantle was to arrive by 11 AM in Albany. Mother nature had other ideas and we arrived an hour or so later than expected because of wind and waves. We certainly noticed the seas during the night but I think we are becoming accustomed to the bumpy ride.
Here’s an interesting note. We were advised to adjust our watches one hour ahead last night, which we did. When attempting to convince my computer to adopt our current time it turned out that the selection was to be Eastern Indonesian Time. I investigated further and it is also Japan Standard Time or Palau time. There appears to be no area of Australia sharing this time zone. My iPhone seems willing to adopt a time associated with Eucla, Australia which is 15 minutes behind Eastern Indonesian Time. Incidentally, Eastern Indonesian Time is also Irkutsk Standard Time although this region appears to be at least one and a half time zones west of Indonesia. Ah, the trivia one learns.
We waited in the theatre for the ship to be officially cleared for us to go ashore and then we were off to our coach. We were taken to Emu Point where we boarded a small boat for our tour of Oyster Bay and the Kalgan River. It was quite cool and fairly moist, particularly at the front of the boat. Never-the-less it was one of the most enjoyable tours of the cruise and perhaps one of the best ever, thanks to the 24 year old operator, navigator, tour guide, raconteur, cook and Captain, Jack Jones.
For the first part of the tour he manoevered the boat around Oyster Bay as he described the history and geography of the area from Captains Cook and Vancouver up to the present. The bay was used to farm oysters and mussels and a small very green island served as a nesting area for pelicans from a much wider area than the bay and river. Jack punctuated his narration with folksy poetry of his and his fathers and stories about the flock of pelicans that greeted us as we came aboard. The heroine of the pelican stories was Percy. Yes, Percy, a female. He named the bird as a youth before he could tell the difference. Percy would dance on command, doing circles in the water for her waltz. Jack would present her with a small fish for her efforts. The bay and the Kalgan River was populated with many species, the birds being the most visible on this day and Jack seemed to know where they would be. Spotting them was quite easy, getting a picture was more difficult but we got a few.
Shortly after Jack took the boat through an area containing ramps and buoys marking a competitive water skiing area he grew up to a small dock and extended the boarding ramp. This was our wine tasting stop. We were escorted up a steep his from the river’s edge to Toyota minibus then driven up more steep hills to the Montgomery’s Hill winery. There were a surprisingly diverse selection of wines for tasting and the five I sampled were all worth a second taste. Unfortunately, I doubt we will see the label at home anytime soon. The minibus returned us down the hill to the boat ramp where we waited a few minutes for the return of Jack and the Kalgan Queen.
Waiting for us on the boat was hot tea or coffee and slices of warm damper, a yeast-less but very tasty bread. As we returned down the river to Oyster Bay Jack continued his patter of humour and history. The light was fading quite quickly as the tour was ending nearly an hour later than planned because of our delay arriving in Albany. We ran at full speed across the bay with the plastic side curtains pulled down to minimize the spray. Percy guarded us all the way back to Emu point occasionally taking a fish from Jack’s hand as she glided beside the boat.
The coach met our arrival at Emu Point and we returned to the ship via the centre of Albany. The driver did narrate as he drove and I am sure everything he’s described must have been there. Being dark by this time, it was a bit difficult to confirm and impossible to photograph. As we boarded the ship just before 6:30 PM the dock was very quiet. We believed we might have been the last to return but a few did not return for yet another hour.
The Captain took us out of the harbour and soon the ship was rocking and rolling through the Great Australian Bight en route to Adelaide, the only remaining port before we disembark in Melbourne.