When it Rains it Pours....

It's a rainy day in Albany...but it's quite a relief to some degree.

Chance to catch up on chores and write some blog... We had looked around the town a couple of days ago and decided it was okay but just another seasidy place... so we moved on to find camping for the night. We spent the last few days on various stunning beaches (and rock) one night in a beautiful bay called Shelley Beach where we camped right on the beach for the night.. Just as the light was going, a school of dolphins just skimmed along the shoreline they must have been 20 or more just bouncing and bobbing in and out of the water. Apparently they were chasing all the fish into the corner of the bay where they then just swirl around and have what looked like a very choice feast. It was very special to see them ... taking photographs was quite difficult .... there is a dolphin in this picture!

We spent the night with waves crashing against the beach and in the morning after Dr Fred had explored the boulders we moved on to another campsite which was not dissimilar, except this time we were surrounded by beautiful shaped shady trees.

We could still hear the waves crashing just over the fence - the beach is once again stunning but the waves are very high and it makes me a bit scared to go out in the sea. ... Dr Fred excelled himself by going into the sea wearing his vest, his trousers rolled above his knees... socks and crocs! unfortunately I didn't get a photograph to immortalize this fashionista icon....We wandered up and down the beach in the afternoon sun but fully aware that too much sun burns... I just caught my ankles when I forgot to reapply sun cream after paddling.. diferent kind of itchy feet

This morning we found a stick insect on the van...

we put it in the undergrowth and set off to have a drive around the other side of the bay. From Shelleys beach the other day - across the Frenchmans Bay, we could see this enormous granite cliff on the other side that just plunged straight into the sea and, one of us... was desperate to go look closer...

We had a walk around Stoney Hill -

I even climbed a couple of boulders and we could see the rain coming in.

At the lookout we could see where we had come from over the last week - Bluff Knoll standing out in silouette..

we could see the path leading to Peak Head - the granite cliff - I left Dr Fred to it ... how granite cliffs does a girl need!!!

I had a long chat with a magpie who agreed to pose for me...

the explorer returned - a bit knackered but with another dozen or more crag photos

and the rain arrived.. so we went shopping for food - mundane but necessary....

Alesund

Our final destination stop was Alesund. This is a very pretty town in southern Norway built on a peninsula. All the houses are painted pretty colours and a lot of the architecture is all very Art Nouveau based. This is because the town itself was completely burnt to the ground In 1904 by a fire for which they never found the original cause. The whole town had to be rebuilt and this became a huge National Effort and a lot of prominent and up and coming architects flocked to the town to stick there 20 pence in. Consequently the town is very heavily Art Nouveau which was very fashionable at the time. There is this wonderful Museum just off the harbour which is a very beautiful Art Nouveau house. It has amazing panelling, doors, wallpaper, and it's all furnished with beautiful art Nouveau Furniture. It also house a collection of of enameled Art Nouveau Trinkets,boxes, spoons, jewellery, very very beautiful. There is an interesting collection of old books and paintings a...

Isle of Bute

Another Landmark Trust tick - this time Ascog House on the Isle of Bute - stunning as always... a very comfortable warm accommodation for the usual 8 suspects. This time we had a wee tower house for Dr Fred and myself - a lovely bedroom up the stairs with a big window and a bathroom al to ourselves - having said that all the other bedrooms in the big house were large and serviced by two bathrooms so there was no hardship for any visitors! The grounds of the house were very extensive with ponds and secret passages - hidden paths and we even spotted a deer late afternoon - there were lots of old features - ornate staircases and a lovely hidden door which I did a quick sketch of. Bute provided quite a lot of entertainment as well - the weather was kind and we did a a muddy wander down the south of the Island taking in St Blanes Monastery and Kilcannon Bay. The views were spectacular and it was fabulous to be out in the fresh (and it was fresh on the tops) air and we...

The Blue Dot

Excellent evening spent at the first Blue Dot festival held at Jodrell Bank. Clever use of the radio telescope as back drop for the main stage... there were some major teething issues which hopefully will addressed if this event happens again - mainly access and parking.. it was a nightmare approach to the festival and fortunately as we were only doing one night we decided to ditch the car and chose to walk the last mile and half into the site... what a relief as if we had queued we would most certainly missed Public Service Broadcasting which was one of the reasons we were going.. anyway we caught them and then enjoyed fantastic set by Underworld - danced much of the night away in the rain - my trusty solfest poncho almost kept me dry.. it was a splendid evening and the telescope looked brilliant when lit up when it got dark. There was a rather fab "installation" called a luminarium, lack of site information - another hiccup meant we were really lucky to catch it just ...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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