Albany to Collie

We woke up today to a very grey, rainy day – in fact it was so grey that we couldn’t see across the harbour. Great day for packing the car and moving! It turned out that we got everything in the car between showers, returned the key to the information office, where we had booked the cottage, and headed off to Collie.


On the way we stopped at Kojonup for an early lunch and a visit to the Kodja Centre, which is the information office and a display of artefacts from the early days, aboriginal and European. It’s an excellent place to visit, and I’d recommend it to anyone who is coming this way. We spent quite a while in there. We had called in on our way back to Perth from the tree-top walk on our first day here but didn’t have much time for a proper look. They also had a Sandakan exhibition which was interesting. There is a rose maze outside the centre and we had a bit of a walk in there but didn’t stay long as the rain was threatening again and we just made it back to the car before it started. The maze has over 100 varieties and over 1400 plants, beautiful sights and scents everywhere. There are also the stories of three women, one Aboriginal, one English settler and an Italian immigrant – fictional stories but representing real ones.

We’re staying in Collie for two nights, this is a coal-mining town, definitely not a mecca for tourists, so it will be interesting to have a look around tomorrow at the sights. The tourist office people were very helpful as always, and we have a good map to use when we’re deciding what to see. That will depend on the weather too, it’s quite cool and wet now so it it’s like this tomorrow it might be a good day for a drive rather than a walk.

We’re staying in a motel, we had a look at the only caravan park and thought that it didn’t look too flash, and it’s right out of town, so opted for the Collie Motel. It’s OK.