One of the pleasures, or pains, of travelling is the lunchtime dilemma. Often solved on lazy days, by many travellers, with the Aussie obsession with Yankie Fast Food Outlets such as ‘Tuckey Duck or Wacca’s. We have found that these venues are all about long lunchtime lines, noisy vegemiter’s and cardboard food all of which we have come to detest. In effect they are designed for families and a cornucopia of kids. In some venues you even need to line up twice! One for adult coffee and another line for over-sweet bread delights and dry straw chips. These are not joys we seek out.
Albany Shire has long held a reputation for welcoming the traveller. She sits on the middle shores of the Great Southern Ocean in Western Australia. Her beaches stretching into inlets and bays are now the precinct of the fisherman and boaties alike. It was once where whalers and sealers hunted, where emigrants passed by following the coast seeking the path to inland gold, the often sad tears of the sun and where traditional natives feasted and followed their Songlines and sandy trails in an endless cycle of surviving the seasons of the sun and wind. It is a region of immense beauty with tall giants settled into her forests and winding tracks of soft and solid sands offering recreational entertainment for the 4×4 enthusiast. The shire is RV friendly with a number of rest area’s, many that could do with a loo or two, yet she sits proud amongst those coastal towns of WA offering welcome within her region and a myriad of activities and entertainments. 
We headed south of Perth this week, down into the South West corner towards the forests and the Southern Ocean, somewhere I have been wanting to get back to for quite some time. It is a delightful area, tall trees, rocky shores and glorious stretches of sand. Most important though, is the promise of fishing.
Jan Hawkins Author 