Beachlands Holiday Park Busselton

... so cute.<br><br>We stayed at Mandura on Wednesday night, a pleasant coastal town with lovely beaches, and then moved to Busselton for two nights. This part of the coast is so unspoiled. The beaches are pristine and almost empty. We've been into the Naturalist national park today up to the edge of the cape. I can't manage to download pictures here, but it is real wilderness, we've enjoyed sitting on the rocks watching crabs and birds with the place to ...

... correctly. The jetty is for the next day: this is a wooden pier, going kilometers in the sea (the longest in the southern hemisphere). http://www.busseltonjetty.com.au/ There is a play garden connected to it. When we come home, mum and dad already arrived and we play the game whose name shall not be used all together. This is the winery and sweet day. We start ...

... we settled into a caravan in the campsite in town. The caravan is here permanently and despite it's size constraints, is definitely a lot more homely than our van was. So despite the overdose of brown formica, we've managed to cosy it up a little with fairy lights & soft furnishings. Of course Dave managed to find an 80cm TV for a bargain too, so we have a little movie room which has gotten us through many a slow afternoon. We're making our way through all of the Sopranos ...

Day Thirty-four: - Margaret River - Dunsborough - Busselton Margaret River turned out to be a bit of an oddball. Ask anyone and they'll tell you: 'There's so much to do here, you'll need a good couple of weeks at least.' I reckon I saw more of Margaret River by leaving than I would have done if I'd stayed. It's vastly sprawled out and unless you've got a motor it's easy to find yourself at a bit of a loss ...

... will be in a couple of months. We dropped off our nice, new blue Toyota Camry and flew across Australia (would be the equivalent of flying from New Yok to L.A.) to the West coast. Approximately 2 hours south of the west coast's largest city of Perth is the town of Mandurah where we will reside for the next week in my time share unit. It's a 2 bedroom, 2 BR unit with a full kitchen, washer/dryer and a little balcony. It has an indoor/outdoor pool, tennis courts ...

... nearly a mile long; it used to be used for the boats which moored here with provisions before the road network was good enough. Remember that Oz is a VERY young and MASSIVE country, so its road and rail infrastructure isn't great now, let alone back then...<br><br>We timed our arrival at the pier perfectly, as ...

... waited for Ash to fly in the next day. Any Kath and Kim fans out there? Well, if so you might remember the episode when Kath and Kel holiday at Melbourne's airport. That's pretty much the same as what Seb and I did. We ate in the airport eateries, people-watched at the baggage claim (and got concerned that the customs beagle would sniff my blueberry muffin and we'd be prosecuted for bringing fruit into WA), drank beer at the airport bar, washed in the bathrooms and bought Ash's ...

... for about 20 minutes and was now dead and the rescue services were attempting to retrieve the body. However conditions were so bad that they could not lower anyone into the water or send out a boat to get the chap. Unfortunately he was dead and his body was not collected that day, the operation being called off as the light failed. We do not know if the body was found the next day. Recommendation - this is a beautiful part of the planet, quiet unspoilt, so come see it now.

... out here and pottered around the town. In the evening we stayed at the hostel with pizza and drinks, and ended up playing a hilarious drinking game....this resulting in us girls deciding to hit the town! We had a fab time and really enjoyed ourselves but certainly didn't enjoy the following day in the heat with hangovers! This was Sunday, and we climbed up a cool lookout tower which had amazing views. I then went to the Dolphin Discovery Centre ...

... Silvio I had seen a large animal (was not sure what) and started running back towards shore to see what it was. It turned out to be a large dolphin. We had a great view from the top of the pier, especially when he lay on the surface. Tried for a couple photos but it was too dark and he was too fast. After watching here for some 15 minutes we left (Silvio tore me away as he was getting quite cold). Had a wonderful stir-fry dinner back at the camp and then went to bed.