After surviving the very turbulent flight back from KL (no more about that, I’m trying to block it out from my memory!), we returned for 3 lovely days at Fremantle Prison YHA, in our own private ‘cell’ haha! I put quotation marks, but it really was a converted cell, with a bunk bed and teeny windows! But, of course, it was a nice start to our little road trip and break from work, to be back in this lovely hostel. We had one night of rest before hopping on the train to Perth (no, we didn’t drive because....) to attend a day long wine tour in the Swan Valley! We’d decided to do it in Perth, rather than Margaret River, for one reason or another, and it was quite lucky we decided that in the end (more on this later...)!

The day started fairly early, for a day just drinking alcohol and eating, at 10am, and we were happy to find their were only 4 other people on the tour as well as us! We all headed off into Swan Valley on the little mini-bus, and visited a little French bakery (we stocked up on caffeine, a wise choice for the rest of our day) before heading to our first few wineries for the day. It was pretty weird seeing vineyards again, after our stint pruning! This time though, we didn’t have to pick up any shears and we were free just to relax! After a few too many wines (like 12 teeensy glasses each time, but maybe 6 wineries, so it adds up!) and FAR too much food, we returned to the hostel for the night, ready to sleep it off for the next day.

We visited STA in Fremantle to book our flights for the rest of the trip, as there’s no STA down near Albany and we wanted to get it all sorted before flying to the East Coast in December. After booking our flights for NZ, Fiji and Singapore we celebrated with a coffee and Subway before finally visiting the famous Cottesloe Beach, which was extremely windy! We lasted maybe half an hour sunbathing on the grass (no one was on the beach because of the wind) before we called it a day, which is a shame as it’s a lovely beach, just the wrong day for a beach trip! We ended our last trip for a while to Fremantle with an evening trip to the pub, before packing all of our things away (including the wine we’d procured in Swan Valley...) and saying goodbye to the dream hostel of Fremantle Prison YHA for the last time on this trip.

We set off in our little car for about 2 hours, down to Bunbury. We left Freo pretty early which meant we had a lot of time to chill around in Bunbury before we could check into the hostel. As it was a nice day, we parked at the beach and stopped for lunch and a coffee, before heading off on a little walk along the sea front to the tower, which had brilliant view of the town from the top. We also saw a ray in the clear water, the first we’d seen for a while! After checking in, we chilled in the cosy hostel, as David felt a bit ill and tired from driving. Luckily, although we’d booked an 8 bed room, there was no one else in there for the whole 3 days we stayed in Bunbury!

We’d originally planned to book a hostel about an hour further down, in Dunsborough, for a night, but as this was full we decided just to do a day trip from Bunbury to the Bussleton Jetty and the lighthouse near Dunsborough. David was still feeling unwell but we decided a 40 minute drive would be okay, so we set off first to the jetty. Unfortunately, David got worse as the time went on, feeling really sick and having to keep rushing off to the toilet! It was a lovely day so we made it up the long Jetty in the bright sun, but decided to cut our day trip short and head back to the hostel, stopping at the supermarket for some tablets. After he had long nap, we both made it out in the car to watch the sunset, before David went back to bed, alternating between hot and cold! Unfortunately the next day he was no better, having been sick all night, so I set off to the pharmacy, who sold me some hydration sachets for what we now suspected was either food poisoning or a bug. We spent the rest of the day in the, luckily, very cosy hostel, and decided to extend our stay by one extra night as David didn’t feel in a state to drive 3 hours to the next stop. The hostel owners were really kind and, although we asked to pay more for a private room, they didn’t have any available, so instead assured us that we could have the 8 bed room to ourselves for the extra night. The hydration sachets helped David feel well enough for a short walk at night, and we decided we’d set off for our night in Margaret River the next day.

Highlights: Busstleton Jetty, wine tour and Fremantle one last time
Accomodation: Fremantle Prison YHA, Bunbury Dolphin Retreat YHA