We leave the Margaret River area to head towards Bunbury. On the way, we pass through Busselton, and think it would be a good idea to visit the famous jetty and underwater observatory at the end of it. No such luck ... it appears that it has only just re-opened after an upgrade and once again because it is school holiday time, all the tours are fully booked.
As we get closer to Bunbury, Neil gives us a call to organise a spot to meet up with us and guide us to our home for the week. Neil had just started getting his lunch ready so we pull over at a rest area to have our own lunch and to wait for him. Neil and Lynne arrive and we follow them to his mate's factory where we set up camp. It is even better than a caravan park. We are in a secure compound with a remote gate, level site and water and power.
Neil and Lynne took us to the Bunbury lookout then we returned to their home for oysters for dinner .... yum! We were picked up again on (Good) Friday morning and we drove to Mandurah for a seafood lunch at Ciccerellos. We then headed inland to Pinjarra to have a look at the house Neil and Lynne are building there. We meet the new neighbours, Lola and Will and then visit a couple of other friends for drinks before heading back to Bunbury. Wow ... that was a late night for us!
The next morning Neil picked us up at 6:30am to go fishing. I don't think any of us really wanted to go after such a late night, but we persevered anyway. It was foggy and very breezy and Neil only caught one fish, so after about an hour we packed it in. Later in the afternoon we caught up with some shopping and then headed back to Neil and Lynnes' for dinner. We had caught a heap of blue swimmer crabs at Streaky Bay so we cooked those up in some curry and coconut cream ... hmmm ... not bad at all.
Sunday was a day of more sight-seeing ... thanks Neil and Lynne! We drove to Australind for fish and chips and sat by the water to lunch in the wind. After lunch we headed to Ferguson Valley to visit Gnomesville. What a funny place!! It appears that for some reason, at some time, someone placed a gnome there and then the numbers grew ... and grew ... and grew. It is now quite a tourist attraction. There are single gnomes, multiple gnomes creating a scene and others that aren't even gnomes at all. We spent around an hour wandering around, but could have spent much longer if we stopped to read all the funny little messages. In the evening we had more oysters and Neil cooked some yummy prawn toasts.
On Monday, Rick did the wheel bearings on the van and carried out some general maintenance chores. Unfortunately, we do have to work sometimes! On arriving at Neil and Lynne's in the afternoon we heard via email about Garry's health scare. We spent the next few hours trying to find out a bit more information, and it seems that it isn't as serious as we had first thought ... thankfully!
Tuesday is Lynne's birthday. Neil and Lynne drove us down to Busselton so that we could visit the underwater observatory that was booked out when we drove through last week. We walked the 1.9km long jetty out to the observatory on the end for some excercise instead of riding the small train. Our tickets covered the train ride out and back in again, plus the entry to the underwater observatory. Even if you just want to walk the jetty or go out fishing it costs $2.50! We decided to have pizza on the way home and by then it was raining quite heavily.
The next day (Wednesday) was my birthday. We drop our car in for a service (we booked it in a couple of weeks ago) and have to leave it there all day. Once again, Neil and Lynne drove us around to do some sight-seeing and we have takeaway for dinner again. Garry's health situation is looking better than at first expected and it appears that he may still be able to go to Las Vegas shortly which is great news.
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| The view of Bunbury from the lookout |
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| Another spectacular view |
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| Gnomesville and one of it's horror scenes |
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