Bunbury to Yallingup
The dolphins weren't in the bay this morning; maybe Sunday is their day of rest. So we left Bunbury to travel around the Geographe Bay to Busselton, through the Tuart Forest National Park, a very open forest adjacent to the coast. Tuart trees are very tall with hardly any lower branches and surprisingly very little undergrowth beneath. We stopped en route at Port Geographe to admire the marina and the houses looking out on what seemed a pretty bay which is having $28million spent on it to alter the coastline. It is an area with many new houses and estates so no doubt it will not remain a small quiet settlement much longer.
Busselton is a delightful small seaside resort with a long white sandy beach, which on a sunny Sunday was quite busy. We looked around the sunday market that was going on - not much different to one anywhere else.
It's main claim to fame is the worlds second longest jetty(1.84km), after the pier at Southend on Sea in England (2.25km) and it is the longest wooden-piled jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. The port at Busselton was closed in 1973 and the jetty fell into disrepair after being in use for over 100 years servicing over 5000 vessels. The local community took it over, and with grants have restored it so that it has weathered a cyclone and a major fire. Today there is a small train that takes you out to the end where an underwater observatory lets you see the fish and corals down as far as the sea bed through glass windows. It was very impressive watching the natural marine environment having just walked down a spiral staircase 24feet to the seabed. The old wooden jetty makes an artificial reef that supports a myriad of marine life. We were glad we had eaten our fish lunch before the trip as we may not have been able to face fish on a plate after having seen them swimming so close to us.
Just before going out on to the pier we bumped into two couples we had snorkelled with on the catamaran in Coral Bay, almost 1,500 kilometres north - coincidence or what.
The headland of Geographe Bay was our next stop to see Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse. We took a 2km walk around the headland and it was quiet and stark. The lack of people and the stunning view right across Geographe Bay in one direction and down to Cape Clairauit in the other with rocky outcrops and crashing waves was a complete contrast to the calm sandy bay of Busselton busy with holidaymakers.
We decided to stay at Yallingup, in a site just behind the beach. It's a tiny place built into the hills behind a small bay with a superb beach and rocky foreshore. We watched a stunning sunset over the Indian Ocean from the beach while thunderous waves rolled onshore with a lone board surfer riding them.