We were up early this morning to
say our goodbyes to David and thank him for allowing us to stay in his lovely
new home. Then we packed up one home and
shifted it back to our other one – the caravan.
We called in to say farewell to Uncle Rob, Jiraporn, Daniel and Moshe
and drove off into the sunset – well that is actual wishful thinking… it was
still cool and overcast! We headed south
passing through Bunbury and onto the town of Busselton and checked ourselves
into the Kookaburra Caravan Park, which was just across the road from the
Busselton Jetty. After setting up and
having a late lunch, the kids put on their wheelies and we headed for the
jetty. It is about 1.5kms one way and
leads you out to an underwater observatory.
The kids were having trouble riding their wheelies along the wharf,
although it wasn’t a timber base but instead it was concrete slabs so still
with a gap between them. Eventually they
gave up, took them off and walked – lazybones Sami asking why we couldn’t just
hop on the train to get out to the end.
We had a bit of fun walking on the rail track, first the girls helping
me and then a role reversal where I had to help them. We had a look in the gift shop at the end but
didn’t go underwater, we figured that we’d all seen plenty of fish so far. It was also very cold and windy so we didn’t
stay long before turning around for the return 1.5km trip. Back in town we took a quick stroll along the
main street, calling into Woolworths for a few things before going home.
The next day we packed up our
food for the day and jumped in the car for a day of exploring. We headed west along the coast, being Caves
Road, through Dunsborough and onto Castle Rock.
We read some signs about an old whaling station nearby and were about to
take off for a walk to a lookout when we heard a loud scraping noise followed
by a clunk. A youngish guy in a ute had
driven down and was admiring the view and without paying too much attention,
turned towards the parking area… but he didn’t see the small rock wall on the
side of this ramp and ran over the top of it, getting stuck half way across the
rock wall. Josh was first on the scene
followed by another guy that had a floor jack.
Between the three guys they were eventually able to shift the car
sideways to get it off the rocks, the young guy walking away just a tad embarrassed
with a few additional onlookers by this stage.
We went about our walk and on reaching the top of Castle Rock saw a
couple of whales frolicking in the water, so pretty! We had a bit more of a drive around the
coastal towns and ended up on the northern point of the Margaret River region,
at the Naturaliste Lighthouse. We didn’t
do a tour of the inside but paid the minimal cost to just wander around it. There was a fence and bushland surrounding
the lighthouse so you could only get glimpses of the ocean, thankfully those
bushes broke up the wind a little though.
We took in the sites at Bunker Bay, still just inside the Geographe Bay,
and enjoyed our lunch here. Onward we
drove, this time down the west coast, overlooking the Indian Ocean until we
reached Sugarloaf Rock. It was pretty
but could have been so much moreso if we had some lovely warm sunshine shining
on it (this cool weather is not what I planned for). The kids had been waiting patiently all day
for the next stop at Yallingup Maze.
This is a timber maze with a bridge through the middle and a tower in each
of the four corners and you need to find your way to each (and there were coded
messages in each of the towers hence the funny 3D glasses). The kids were first to find their way to
Tower 1 but that was because they cheated and went underneath the timber
walls. Meanwhile, Josh and I were still
walking separately in what seemed to be circles and getting nowhere. There was only one other family in the maze
and they too had no idea where they were going…. it seemed impossible – but that
was only until we realised that one of the wall panellings is actually a gate –
derr! So eventually we all made it to
each of the towers but it felt like we were stuck in the maze for hours. We headed to their coffee shop, ordered some
drinks and went about playing with all the different games that they had scattered
over the tables. Josh didn’t last long –
his patience wore thin! Zoe and I
entered the maze again and Sami came along as the referee –and we were going to
have a race to see who could make their way to each of the four towers in the
correct order without cheating! I’ve got
to say – I won every one of the towers and Zoe was caught trying to cheat a few
times. Sami had fun on the walkie talkie
to Zoe throughout and we had some laughs and lots of fun playing in here. Further south of Yallingup was Canal Rocks,
our next stop. The boardwalk is under
repair so instead we climbed to the top of the rocks for a better look. The pounding waves from the Indian Ocean have
formed a network of canals into the headland.
We went to leave here and Zoe as usual pushed her way past Sami to take
the lead - leaving Sami upset and crying.
I sat on top of the rocks and consoled her for a while (making feet
shapes) before making our way back to the car, her distress all forgotten. It was getting late in the day so we headed
home back to Busselton. Fortunately
there was a cemetery next door and nobody wanted to join me for a walk of it so
I went alone on dusk and enjoyed the serenity.
The only thing that concerned me was that there was a grave facing the
wrong way… hmm!!
No comments:
Post a Comment