Thurs 9th September, 2010 - Day 104 - Albany

Today it was Grandee's birthday. After many text messages, e-mails and phone calls we left the caravan park and headed to Emu Point for a look around then continued onto Two Peoples Bay, to find that it was closed and only opened on the weekends.

Albany: Australia's ANZAC capital. Albany was selected as the departure point for ANZAC troops due to its important coal and port facilities.

The first convoy to Gallipoli in 1914 took 30,000 Australian & New Zealand troops, 7,500 horses and supplies on a fleet of 40 transport ships and five naval escort vehicles.

The fleet sailed out of King George Sound early on 1st November, 1914. Albany was the last sighting of Australia for those who fought and died at Gallipoli, in France or in the Middle East.

After a later lunch at the caravan we went to visit Betty & Les, friends we met at Exmouth who live in Albany. Betty & Les only arrived home from Exmouth the day before. We had afternoon tea with them then they drove us around Albany showing us some of the sights. One place we visited was the The Desert Mounted Corps memorial situated at Mt Clarence. It features a statue of an Australian mounted soldier assisting a New Zealand soldier whose horse has been wounded. This is the ANZAC Light Horse Memorial to the Gallipoli Warriors. The base of the statue bears bullet marks from the Suez crisis in which it was damaged before being relocated to stand overlooking King George Sound.

With the tour over we all had dinner together at the Manor House and then back to Betty & Les' house for tea/coffee.

Grandee did enjoy her 'special' day.