Continuing the Denmark trip post.    On Monday we went on a 4WD trip down to West Cape Howe (not the winery), which is the most southerly point in WA and a completely different coastline to places 20 ks either side.   The trip down to the coast was a pretty rough drive, mostly through sand dunes, some around 20 m high.   In many places the dunes were protected by old conveyor belt or proper matting.   There were five vehicles in the convoy and we had to hang back as the last vehicle was fairly slow and at one point I thought we might have to reverse to pull them up a hill but they eventually got up it themselves.

When we got to West Cape Howe, we were all taken aback by the 80m high granite cliffs and the ocean.

   The pictures don’t do justice to the scene or the wind that was whipping in off the Southern Ocean! 

On the way back from WCH we visited a wind farm on the outskirts of Albany, I’m not sure just how effective these units are, particularly on low wind days but as structures they are pretty impressive.

   The management of visitors has been done very well with access paths and information boards everywhere.   I didn’t realise it but the tip speed of the vanes is around 260 kph, which is pretty quick and probably explains the little winglets at the ends, similar to aircraft, which prevent the air from sliding off the wing tips and causing  turbulence.  

   The next stop was a beach where Karri trees used to be loaded onto ships to be used in South African mines.   These days it is frequented by salmon fishermen in season, they are licenced to net the fish in this bay and use a system similar to the purse seinersin the N Sea.

   Another great day out.