Our new hire car, hereafter to be known as 10boop (because it takes 10 touches of the touchscreen dash to turn off all the oversensitive driver assist shit that gets in the way of actually driving the fucking thing) is spacious and very comfortable. It does not like doing the 40zone speeds popular in a lot of the suburban areas of towns in WA, and is gradually convincing us we do not ever want to buy a new generation Kia Ceranto C4. (Yes, we are soon to be in the market for a new car, so are trying things classified small cars to see what we like)
On our way to Margaret River, we took a rest stop at Mandurah, looking for one of the many timber sculptural “giants” that have been scattered around this region by an artist. Lovely expressive thing, so full of character. Not sure if we will have time to hunt down any of the others as they tend to be placed in out of the way places.
We then headed further south and overnighted in Bunbury, to break up the distance a little. We stayed on an oceanfront apartment with the most amazing ocean sunset view …only because they fucked up our booking and so offered a free upgrade. As transit stays go it was very comfortable.
While in Bunbury we shopped for provisions at the “Bunbury Country Markets”, an amazing produce spot (not a million miles away from our own Harris Farm Markets) with exclusive produce, lots of gourmet things made in house and some beautiful fruit, veg, bread and the like. We ended up improvising a delicious dinner of Pumpkin gnocchi with fruit and cake for afters. Yum.
Next morning we got going fairly early as we needed to be at Busselton for a booked tour, so our pack-up and leave routine worked well, even though we are both a little fluey (the weather has been really variable, cold and that lazy wind takes some getting used to) – we seem to be on the mend however. Along the way we chose the “Tuart Forest drive”, a lovely scenic bit of road that weaves among giant Tuart trees. I am drawn to tree-lined roads and this was just wonderful. Scattered among the trees were Arum Lillies, thousands of them that looked magical. We later learned the Arum Lily is an introduced invasive species and a real pest as the only way to get rid of them is to dig them up. On this scale, that seems impossible to eradicate.
We navigated towards the Bussleton Jetty, found parking and walked over. It is impossible to comprehend the length of this jetty, it curves out into the harbour further than the eye can see. Originally much smaller, always used for cargo loading and unloading, it got extended as the size of the docking ships increased. It is currently 1.8km long, and used to have a steam/diesel train system that took passengers/cargo out and back.
After the community adopted the run down and damaged jetty, and restoration began after fires and cyclones did their thing, the current jetty now has a solar powered passenger train and an underwater observatory near the end.
We had booked the train/observatory tour, so got on board, later realising the train is really only going as a quick walk pace – still, 1.8km there and back in a ferocious wind was not something we wanted to walk so enjoyed the twee train ride out.
The underwater observatory was a real surprise, with an artificial reef forming naturally among the old pier timbers, we descended to the sea floor and were amazed by the richness of sea life that chose to live there. The oldest timbers were mature reefs, with corals and sponges, and the full range of attendant fish. A massive school of herring had taken up temporary residence creating moving walls of silver, quite mesmerising. Such rich marine life that has chosen to colonise the visible spaces.
Suitably impressed, we waited for then boarded the return train, taking us back to the shore. It is a brilliant example of what a community led project can do to hold on to heritage, provide volunteer opportunities and just enhance the local area.
Hungry and a bit windswept, we headed to Skelter Brewhouse on the foreshore and had a leisurely light lunch,feeling grateful to be out of the wind. I am finding some delicious local ales, I particularly enjoy hazys.
After lunch we walked the “arts precinct “, in and out of historic buildings, galleries and shops. We then headed to Coles for some essential provisions before turning towards Margaret River, our new home for the next 8 nights.