Heading into the South West 20/11 to 25/11

Saying goodbye to Chas & Shirley at Mandurah we headed of in a southerly direction. We stoped for lunch at Australind before continuing on to Bunbury. From Bunbury we travelled inland through the hills to Collie and Donnybrook enjoying a couple of different overnight free camps along the way, and returning to the coastal region at Ludlow, staying in a free camp in the Tuart Forest before travelling into Busselton. The very friendly Kookaburra caravan park is a great place to stay in Busselton because it is within a 2-minute walk to the centre of town and about the same to the famous jetty. We enjoyed strolling around town and really enjoyed one of the best ice creams we have ever had, home made Italian style, just great. The sign out the front said “Best ice-cream in the world” and we would say that it is pretty accurate. One of the main attractions at Busselton is the jetty, which, at nearly 2 Km long is the longest timber jetty in the southern hemisphere, if not the world. Unfortunately at the time of our visit the jetty for the most part, was closed and undergoing substantial repairs after a disastrous fire. It is planned to reopen in early 2010 but judging by the amount of work to be done we suspect it will more likely be the middle of the year at least. Of course this meant that the renowned underwater observatory at the end of the jetty was also not accessible, much to our disappointment, oh well, never mind, it just means we will have to come back again.

Leaving Busselton we travelled through Dunsborough and then out to Cape Naturaliste where we did the walks around the headland and were rewarded with fantastic views and, surprisingly, the spectacle of passing humpback whales. Further down south brings you to the Leeuwin-Naturaliste N.P. that protects a long stretch of coastline to the east of Margaret River and all the way to Cape Leeuwin. We stayed several nights in the N.P. campground at Contos Field, from where we explored the Margaret River region. There are almost 100 wineries in the area and I reckon we drove past most of them; this almost certainly is the lifeblood of the district. However the highlights for us were a visit to the Bush Shack Brewery at Yallingup, lunch at the organic Wild Thyme café in Margaret River and a total pig-out at the Margaret River Chocolate Factory.

Southward again brought us through Augusta on the way to Cape Leeuwin which is where, theoretically at least, the waters of the Indian and Southern Oceans meet. We had a look around the lighthouse precinct and inspected the calcified remains of the old waterwheel that was used to pump water up to the lighthouse during it’s construction and then later to supply the keepers and their families with fresh water. After a good look around it was time to start heading east and now, after being fairly close to or on the shores of the Indian Ocean for the last several months, we took our last glimpse of the clear sparkling waters. For the next few months at least it will be the great Southern Ocean that will be in our sights.