School holidays started on the weekend and the town's already awash with "No Vacancies" signs.
I love all the tourist seasons but especially winter when you can wander down the main street and play Spot the Visiting Sullen Teenagers.
These are the ones who'll be making their way through the horizontal rain that's hammering the pavements, pretending they're not related to the man and woman walking directly in front of them.
They will be mobile phone-less because their dads will have said, "We didn't drive 400kms so you could spend all day texting your mates."
Shortly they'll be herded into family cars and driven off to look at The Gap and The Natural Bridge, where they'll consider throwing themselves off.
But before that, Mum's going to make them go into every single gift shop on York Street.
When they get to Wombat Lodge, which is total kitsch heaven, they will find the Dog Rock snowdome pictured above.
I love this snowdome so much, I've bought it many times for family and friends. It costs $10 and was made in Sydney. The "snow" is glitter. It's breathtaking.
Above is a picture of the real Dog Rock, which comes courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.
I had every intention of driving down Middleton Rd and taking a picture myself but it's pouring down at the moment, plus it's also blowing a gale and the temp is 12C.
The real Dog Rock is a huge granite outcrop in the shape of a bloodhound's head. See the cute collar someone's painted on it? I think that's what probably did it for the Sydney snowdome-maker. I think he saw that and couldn't contain himself any longer.
Luckily, his loss of control was our gain. I don't think you could find a finer souvenir.
6 comments:
That is by far the BEST souvenir EVER! :P I'd handle not texting my friends from 400km away to get that snow globe and take a picture of that rock... which I didn't see as anything close to a dog until you told me what it was.
Yay for holidays! Get to drove for some amount of hours to get to somewhere I've never been before. Holidays... for some reason seeing a new bridge or rock just becomes so much more fascinating when it doesn't involve being home.
Ah memories of Albany and Dog Rock, I used to visit there when I was a teenager. Yep you got it right, parents drag us through all those places, Hey its like nearly 30 years since i've been there.
I do hope you don't mind but I put you up for a NENO award for positive blogging
I know I won't make any fans, but don't you just want to slap their sullen, smug little faces into next week (or maybe the one after and then they'll be back in school again).
Love dog rock - what do think he's trying to say?
Bilby, Dog Rock is an Albany icon. It's absolutely huge in the flesh (so to speak). It's also alongside the entrance to Woolies carpark so you run the risk of running over a little Japanese tourist every time you do your shopping.
Birgitta: I'd say it's about time you headed back down here then. It's a beautiful place.
Fly: Thank you, I'm thrilled, especially with the positive bit (I just looked at my labels and noticed there were more posts under "pains in the arse" than anything else).
Gail: Short answer: yes. Re Dog Rock I think he's trying to say "Help!" (his previously pleasant view is now a carpark, full at the moment with sullen teenagers and their parents).
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