Busselton

It was wet, wet, wet when we stayed at Busselton. We have not seen so much rain for a long time. A drive around the district was the best way to get about between showers. Busselton is a nice town on the coast in Geographe Bay. The pathway along the beach goes forever and is a great way to walk Beemer. It is a very busy walkway with people walking, running and cycling in all weathers and times. The wharf is very long but because it is not dog friendly we didn't do the walk.

The park and Wharf at Busselton

A trip through Dunsborough to Yallingup to see Cape Naturaliste was really good. The coastline is very pretty with rocky coastline and sandy beaches.

Augusta is not far so a day out was great. It is a quiet little town with a nice walk around the inlet. It was strange to see the back yards of the houses open onto the walkway.

We were not very impressed with Bunbury as it is a busy city. We prefer smaller towns that go a bit slower. There is a Rotary Lookout which gives you a 360° view of the city and coastline.

Bunbury from the Rotary Lookout

 

 

Esperance

The view from The Rotary Lookout 

Esperance from the lookout

More from the lookout

 We spent about a week at Esperance and tried to see as much a possible. There was a great lookout almost in the town on Wireless Hill called Rotary Lookout. The views were fabulous . The footpath/bike path around to Twilight Beach was great. We only walked a small part of it but the views of the rocks in the sea and beaches from the path were really spectacular. On Twilight beach we found some plaques on rocks which were interesting. The beach was lovely with huge Rocks and islands off the beach.  

Plaques we found on rocks at Twilight Beach

Twilight Beach

Peaceful Bay

After at least 6 weeks staying at Peaceful Bay we have managed to have a bit of a look around. Not far from here is The Valley of the Giants. There is a tree top walk, about 600 metres long and up to 40 metres above the ground, amongst the top of the tingle trees, which are really tall. There is also a board walk around the “Ancient Empire” where you can walk around the trees and right through one which is completely hollow at the bottom. There is a picture of one with an old car in it, it is so big. The tingle trees grow up to 70 metres tall and a circumference of 20 metres.

Beemer and I enjoyed our walks around the town on a very good footpath. It was about two and a half kilometres long. we often felt like we were being watched by the kangaroos that were in the bush and around the town. The kangaroos would hop down the streets in the evenings. It was strange to here them.

Beemer on our walk around the village

We were being watched on our walk



The view looking towards the inlet where Mark went fishing

Mark fishing on the beach

His first fish. He didn't keep it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A great plate of herring Mark caught and smoked

 

 As you drive from Peaceful Bay to Walpole there are signs where hikers cross the road on the Bibbulmun Track. The track is 1000 kilometres long and starts in Perth. It follows the coast all the way to Albany. You often see back packers walking through on the track which goes through Peaceful Bay from Conspicuous Cliffs towards Denmark. There are canoes left at the inlet for the hikers to get across on the track. It is said the track was travelled by the local aboriginals many years ago.

 

Part of the Bibbulmun Walk

 

A beautiful flowering gum

Peaceful Bay

back on the road again in 2014

We left Nowra after spending Christmas with our family and catching up with friends. We did manage a quick trip to Mullumbimby to see Steve.

Beemer lazing about at Steves

There were lots of mangos on the trees

Some staghorns on Steve's trees

We had to wait for Mark to see the Doctor to get a cancer taken off his chest. We left the next day for Tocumwal via Gundagai where we caught up with Lauren and Todd and the kids.

Marks scar with stitches

It's all good now

We had a great break at Toc until we heard from the Doctor that they had missed a bit so we did a quick trip to Nowra where at last it's all gone. Mark had the all clear a week later. By then we had moved on to Shepparton where we had a bit of work done on the van.

On the road to Western Aus

Are we there yet?

We called in to Perlubie to catch up with Rod and Simone, Mya and Indi. One of the trips we did with Rod was to swim with the sealions and dolphins at Bairds Bay with Trish and Alan again. We had a perfect day.

 It was lovely to catch up with them and meet their new arrival, Indi.

At Ceduna we made sure we had everything ready for the crossing of the Nullabor Plains. Our first stop for petrol was to Nundroo. As it turned out there was no diesel there so we didn't stop again, except for Beemer, until Nullabor.

The Penong windmills

Our next stop was the quarantine station on the border. We eventually made it to Western Australia where we have the next couple months to enjoy and have a good look around. Our first stop was at Eucla, then on to Fraser Range station. It was a nice quiet spot, with emus and kangaroos wandering around the paddocks.



The road just went on and on 

The magnificent cliffs of the Great Australian Bite

Some wild life we found on the way

Sunset at Flinders Ranges Station

Then on to Esperance where we have a week to have to have a good look around.