This morning I folded up my freshly washed clothes, did my stretches and enjoyed the hostels free breakfast. Admittedly it was only bread and jam, but still enough to suppress my hunger.
It was raining most of this morning, so I spent this time inside getting all my gear ready. It's been very annoying with the weather as I haven't had a real chance to see much of Albany. As the morning passed the rain cleared up, or at least to a level tolerable for walking outside. The Taiwanese fellas and I headed down to another local farmers market. This farmers market was double the size of yesterday's and undercover. It was a great way to spend the day, enjoying few taste testers and sitting down listening to local music artists.
Following the market I went into the informations office to investigate information on the Aboriginal culture in the area. I received the same response as in Esperance, and the small towns on my way to Albany. They knew nothing, bar that "Surrounding towns are named after Aborigines", as if bearing some pride on this. Nobody could explain what the town names meant, and I realise just because every town ends in "up" they identify them as Aboriginal (Jeramunjup, Manjunup, Narrinup etc). I know from previous studies that many town names bear Aboriginal origins, but the origins sometimes originate as far as 500km away. These can be completely different Aboriginal nations to that of the towns traditional custodians. I would think that's not the case here but would be good to at least find some information on it.
I met up with the Taiwanese people again and said my farewells. I decided this morning I'd head to Denmark, 60 odd km's away along the tourist route. There is an inland route ten km's shorter but I have no time constraints and prefer to enjoy the beauty of the local environment.
On my ride to Denmark I have been in awe by how beautiful the landscape is. A lot of the landscape has been farmland, yet it's small scale enough to retain the beauty of the natural environment. Despite the fact it has been raining, and grey sky's, this has been perhaps the most enjoyable ride I've had on my trip so far. I was entertained by surprising and scaring the cows as I rode by, and also by the vast amounts of parakeets flying up above.
Pulling into Denmark I have been even more impressed. The town has a eco-friendly feel to it, perhaps spurred by stories I've heard from other travellers as well. I have no plans of paying for accommodation, so when pulling into town I kept my eyes open for a hidden area for my tent. I asked some locals and they couldn't recommend anything close by. I was selective with who I asked as I didn't want to inform the whole town that I'd be sleeping in my tent, in a public space. I saw a van parked in a park area and straight away identified it as some other travellers. I managed to find them, then asked where they've set up. They were sleeping in the park area and said it was hidden enough to not get caught. I've set my tent up at the back, on some discarded basketball courts.
Next to the park is a river, which contains much beauty for both its vegetation and bird species. I couldn't resist swimming here so I jumped straight in and had a good wash. The water was brackish, yet still quite clear, making me realise it possibly contained salmon and other tasty fish. Hopefully camp out around here for the next few days, spend my time making a spear and get some spear fishing in, whilst also enjoying the surroundings. This place really is incredibly beautiful. When gazing upstream of the river it looks just like a painting.
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