Bremer Bay's Apex Predator

 Hitting the Road, Summer 2021

Part II Bremer Bay, Albany & Denmark 

Early Start to Bremer Bay

In order to make our orca tour in Bremer Bay, this required the alarm to be set for 2:40 am for the next leg of the road trip to get to the next town. Just for a bit of reference driving from Esperance to Bremer Bay is the same as driving from Minneapolis to Madison but in Western Australia there is nothing in between. Well... that's not entirely true. We were on the the road before 3 am and were obviously driving in the dark, but once the sun starts to rise... this is when the fun begins. We had been joking about all the kangaroo signs posted all over Western Australia over the past year, but it wasn't until this morning that we saw the purpose. 

With the first sign of light came the first wallaby perched on the side of the road and you never know when they are going to dash out in front of you. Mike proficiently avoided all marsuipials; we lost track of all the wallabies and roos we spotted. At one point an echidna made a beeline across the road and we pulled over to get an up-close view of it. We were suprised at how fast they are capable of running but then how they like to play possum if scared.

We made it to Bremer Bay in plenty of time and thankfully with no roadside incidents. Bremer Bay has a whopping population of 231 people. To say it was a sleepy town is an understatement. 

We boarded a 2-level boat vessel with multiple viewing platforms and made ourselves at home. It wasn't too long, and we were underway for our destination to "the patch." It is a one hour journey due south from Bremer Bay. The patch is a very nutrient rich area and makes for great hunting and foraging grounds for multiple pods of orcas. There is such a consistent population of orcas here that they guarantee sightings from January to March. The patch has underwater canyons that go between 600 and 900 meters deep. Right behind this is the continental shelf that plummets to thousands of feet deep. In this specific area the orcas hunt giant squid as well as beaked whales. 

I had not given the boat ride one thought as we started the journey. Instead of saying it was a rough or bumpy ride, I'll give the visual that it was comparable to an hour long ride at Valley Fair. The swells were enormous and you had to hold on to something before attempting to walk across the lounge or out onto the deck or you would find yourself in someone else's lap. Ethan thought this was the best thing ever and we found he had the most amazing sea legs. He would jump to try and get zero gravity before the boat would fall off the back side of the roller. Everyone started asking us where we were from (since we clearly had been on lots of ocean vessels) and it got a good chuckle when we said Minnesota. It did not take more than 10 minutes of these conditions before the mood in the lounge area took a turn for the worst. I looked across the way and some poor woman started getting seasick... Instantly one of the crew members was there to give a bag and pat on the back. It wasn't much longer before most people around us were puking. Not sure if it's our stellar Scandinavian genes or what but our whole family felt fine, thank goodness. I have to mention here how impressed I was at the professionalism and kindness of the staff with Whale Watch Western Australia. They were doing whatever they could to help anyone that was sick by bringing out tea, biscuits and offering advice. 

After getting to the patch, we settled on the upper deck and found the orcas straightaway. We watched 2 pods of orcas over the next 4 hours. We learned different pods prefer and source out different food. This family's favorite was squid. One pod (located elsewhere) preferred penguins. Yes, I thought this was a bit odd too... Two days before our whale watch, the same boat and crew witnessed 4 pods working together as a team to take down a beaked whale. They can only bring down a whale if enough whales are working together and there was about 40 orcas involved. The males were obvious with their long straight dorsal fins while the females had smaller dorsal fins that had a slight curl. 

The females and calves would group together, and a large male wouldn't be too far off. The highlight of our day was watching two calves that happened to be born at the same but but were not related, tear away from their moms to come check the boat out. They porpoised to the front of the boat side by side and then turned their heads to check us out as they swam the length of the boat and popped out behind the boat. These two were clearly little troublemakers but returned quickly to the pod after their brief adventure. 

The crew really was fantastic; they actually let both kids go up on the bridge once we were in the patch. Ethan made fast friends with the captain's dog. We were told the dog usually wasn't very friendly... I'm not sure I believe this one!

A month later our same vessel witnessed numerous pods of orcas that tried unsuccessfully for four hours to bring down a humpback whale (which is considerably larger than a beaked whale). I have heard lots of comments about feeling bad for the whale, but honestly this is what happens in the ocean. People just usually don't get to witness it. The diving capabilities, hunting skills and communication between different pods of orcas was really incredible to witness. They are the apex predators and I can see why they get nicknamed the wolves of the sea. 

Albany 

Our windburned family made it to Albany an hour and a half later after we got back to shore. We did not have to talk the kids into going to bed early that night. We woke refreshed and ready to explore another town in Western Australia. We headed straight to The Gap (nope, not the clothing store!) and The Natural Bridge which are fairly close to each other in the Torndirrup National Park. 

The Gap is a platform built 40 meters above surging seas which showcased how powerful the waves can be as they slammed against the granite rocks and sprayed straight up. 

The Natural Bridge is a natural rock formation with spectacular views of the Southern Ocean. It can look inviting to climb out and around these rocks, but warnings are posted everywhere. Rogue or king waves can suddenly appear and many people have been swept out to sea. With 6 deaths and 5 serious incidents between these 2 areas since the late 1970's we were all sure to stay on the footpaths. 

 Brig Amity

There is a surprising number of museums and other interesting attractions in Albany. We packed in as much as we could over the next couple days. We toured the Brig Amity which is a replica of a tall ship from the 1800's. Crouching down walking through the belly of the ship really put it in perspective of how cramped the quarters were for all the sailors. The provisions would often be crawling with maggots while making a voyage. The fix for this was to throw a dead fish into the flour or biscuit mix and the maggots would then go to the fish then eventually replace the fish until the maggots are gone. Problem solved but yuck!!

The Old Gaol

That night we went on a historical/ghost tour of the Albany Convict Gaol (jail) which was built in 1852. While waiting for the tour to start outside the prison we saw a couple rat-like critters run along the building. I was completely grossed out when an Aussie chuckled and informed us that they were bandicoots. A new marsupial to add to our list! It's really kind of funny that after I'm told it was a bandicoot then I thought they were cute. 

We heard the history of the goal and the usual ghost tales of people hearing babies cry from the women's ward, hearing footsteps when no one is there and being pushed while in the cells. It's always a bit more chilling at night with a cool breeze and when being led by candlelight. In one of the cells, we were shown the oldest Aboriginal prison art in all of Australia from the 1870's. Mass murderer Frederick Bailey Deeming was also held here and at the time was thought to be Jack the Ripper from the infamous Whitechapel murders in London. Honestly, what I thought was the scariest bit was that in one of the back rooms, a Nazi flag and other WWII memoriabia were being displayed in a cabinet. Wtf. No idea why. For how strict the government is on so many issues in this country, this completely floored me. 

Albany's Historic Whaling Station

We checked out the Historic Whaling Station in Albany the next day. The whaling industry is obviously prolifically sad. But this museum did an excellent job of showing both sides of the story from the whaler's perspective to the Greenpeace protestors. The museum grounds were fairly large, and it took several hours to walk through all the buildings. 

One building contained numerous species of full whale skeletons that were suspended from the ceiling. Other buildings showed the processing and barrels of oil, others showed collections of photographs and artifacts and still other buildings were redesigned as little theaters playing educational movies and actual footage from whaling days. A whaling vessel was also available to walk through. 

Around 16,000 whales were processed  over 26 years in Albany before it was shut down in 1978. This hands-on learning experience was more impressive and valuable than any textbook. 

Shark bait!

Denmark 

Elephant Rocks 
Do you see the herd of elephants walking?

We left Albany for our last leg of our journey towards Denmark. Two natural areas are the highlight of Denmark: Elephant Rocks and Green's Pool. Elephant Rocks contain these massive granite rock formations that extend out into the ocean. They are so cleverly named because they do look like a herd of elephants marching along. Lots of people were swimming out to the rocks and jumping off. These massive boulders were also perfect to climb and go exploring. Walking down 10 minutes or so, we came to Green's Pool. This area is great for snorkeling and swimming, albeit the water was chilly. 

Green's Pool

Ethan and Mike went for a hike around the rocks later, and they came across a snake. It happened to be a dugite which is one of Australia's deadly varieties. The scary thing is that they were walking on a large tabletop granite rock next to the ocean where scrappy vegetation would grow in cracks. This snake decided to take a nap and was curled up in a plant. Someone could have easily stepped on it... You always need to watch where you are walking on hikes, or anywhere really in Australia. 

Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk 

Our last stop on the way home was at the Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk. Here we walked 600 meters along a walkway suspended 40 meters above the ground through a canopy of trees. The views were invigorating as the walkway would sway slightly with the breeze. All around us were giant tingle trees which is a type of eucalyptus tree that is only found in this area in the entire world. Some of the trees are 400 years old and were just stunning. Being in a forest made me a bit homesick as we are mostly in an arid climate in Western Australia, and it was very refreshing. 

The end of the walk led straight into the Empire Walk which was a hike along the forest floor and we were able to walk through the middle of some of the giant tingle trees. Tingle trees are ranked in the top 10 largest tree species in the world but the sequoia still takes the win. This was a great way to finish up our trip although we still had a five hour drive to get back to Perth. 

We have been fortunate to be locked in a state that is roughly the size of one-third of the United States which has left us lots to explore. Cities and towns are few and far between and we have been delighted by all the natural beauty that Western Australia has to offer.