Bunberry to Busselton

Posted on September 12, 2026 by wonko

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.

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Rottnest Island

Posted on September 10, 2026 by wonko

The “Rats Nest”

Rottnest island apparently got its name from Dutch explorers who saw all the Quokkas, thought they were rats and that the place was infested. “Rottnest” is old Dutch, but the islands rats are actually the cutest little marsupials you are likely to meet.

We had booked the shuttle bus to the Rottnest Island Ferry meaning an early morning start, having tightly packed (2 suitcases, a pantry bag and an esky), we set off to the transfer rendezvous point in good time. At the ferry terminal we affixed ID labels with our Rotty cabin number on them to our 2 suitcases, pantry bag and esky bag (apparently they deliver them up to the cabin), handed them over then boarded the ferry to Fremantle. After an uneventful trip we had to transfer to “Quokka 1”, the Island ferry. The seas were big, it was a pretty rough trip out from Fremantle to the main harbour on the island. Thankfully the Kwells helped me not feel seasick.

We arrived on Rottnest Island fairly early, and knew our accommodation would not be available until around 2pm so we had time to kill. We did let the accomodation people know we were here, checked in etc so if things got going earlier then we were ready. 

We checked out the main settlement briefly (mainly scoping where we would go for lunch later) before heading off for some diversionary walks around the immediate environs. We visited the General Store and found it very well stocked, a really decent range. Although you pay a premium we did not need to bring so much from the mainland, we could have easily provisioned from there. There was a range of eateries, cafes, an extensive bakery, this all surprised me as I thought we would be in the wilderness.

We headed towards Bathurst Lighthouse, the closest of the 2 lighthouses then on towards Pinky Beach, had a welcome island drink before heading back to main settlement for lunch. The overcast day turned to rain and fortunately we found a spot undercover to eat. I am not sure I like the main settlement that much. Apart from the large concentration of tourists, there are scrounging quokkas and mobs of aggressive seagulls and crows swooping for table snacks. Signs everywhere saying do not feed the animals seemed largely ineffective. We saw a number of quokkas here, mostly scrounging for snacks and digging into peoples bags. Some carried joeys, others had joeys following them, all very cute. All the shops have quokka-height barriers at the door to exclude the marsupials as I am sure they would make a mess if left unchecked.

After lunch we explored the local natural history Museum, learning a bit about the dark past of the island, and found the transport hub to get our accommodation shuttle passes and enquire about the hop on hop off service we would be using tomorrow. All that seemed pretty straightforward, which is always a good thing. 

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Perth (Part 2) & Fremantle – Mint, Museums and Public Art.

Posted on September 4, 2026 by wonko

On Saturday we had a bit of a lie in, Jo had sensibly booked a tour of the Perth Mint for mid-morning so we did not need to rush. Add to this we were in close walking distance to the Mint it made for a nice relaxed morning.

We registered and had a brief look around at the many shiny expensive things on offer before joining our tour.

It was refreshing to be taken around by a young enthusiastic tour guide, we ogled at millions of dollars (Australian dollars, don’t get too excited) of gold, and the largest gold coin being kilograms above anything I could even move. She told us of the gold strike/rush period and the effects on the state, and were shown gold and other precious metals in “nugget” (or naturally found) form.

We were then invited into a melting room where an enthusiastic young chap used an electric induction kiln to melt a crucible of pure gold and then proceed to pour a bar. Explaining the perils of hot metals and human flesh, as well as the processes of assaying and marking the bar with weight, purity and other verification methods. All very entertaining, polished and well done.

Exiting through the gift shop, one cannot help to be a little struck by all that shiny. No wonder that when it was found out in the wild it created a sort of fever for instant riches.

After we were done in the Mint, we walked to a blue cat stop and traveled around to Elizabeth Quay for the start of the public art walk. We have been impressed by how tidy the city is, and how much public art there is around. Jo found a trail, so we began zigging and zagging across cbd.

Our art discovery walk wended around the city and we broke it to visit Momoto for sushi lunch. Suitably recharged, we continued the art trail after lunch – fortunately it terminated near a bus stop we then used to get home weary but satisfied by a good day out.

Sunday was a scheduled rest day, with time to catch up on washing, meal prep and provisioning. Living out of suitcases requires a special type of organisation and I think we have hit our stride when we know where to find things.

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