Gidday from OZ The day we left Tracy's place heading for Binningup was very windy and Steph's knuckles gave the van passenger hold on handle a good workout. The stormy weather rocked our van all night in the motor camp so when it looked like clearing at 10am we made a run for it to our next port of call at Bunbury but that was a bad mistake ! Two minutes after we left it started raining. When it rains here it really come down and with the wind blowing sideways we felt the full force of the storm that morning and it was my turn to fight keeping the van on the road. We booked into a camp and didn't venture out for the rest of the day. Friday morning looked at lot better so we went for a drive about town and a walk to the top of a hill and a lookout. Then it was out to a place called Gnomesville and yes you guessed it thousands of them! They were in a bush area in the middle of nowhere beside the road and went for hundreds of metres through the bush. You literally could not count them and it's hard to believe they come in so many different shapes and sizes. People leave them there with family names or clans names and dress them up, just amazing and it takes about 20 minutes to walk around them all. Kids big and small would have to be gob smacked.
Busselton was a nice 40 minute drive south on Saturday where we spent 2 days enjoying that beautiful seaside town. The motor camp we stayed in had the best bathroom facilities we have seen tiled floors and heated at that!!!!!! We drove into the town on Sunday morning and didn't realise there were markets on so that provided lunch for us. To compensate for that we walked out on the jetty that is there, it is 1.8kms long. Unfortunately the underwater Aquarium at the end was not open as the weather had been to rough and the visibility was to poor to see anything. The highlight for us after that was a lighthouse tour at Cape Naturaliste which stands alone on a high hill out of town. Steph had another minor melt down when out on the balcony at the top so she quietly headed back inside and got emotionally prepared for the steep steel stairs going back down inside. You could see whales playing in the sea and it was a bit windy but enjoyable for me. I found it quite amazing that the 4.5 tone crystal reflector head floated on a bed of liquid mercury (145kg) of it and was turned by a very small electric motor because of the very low friction, one revolution every 10 seconds.The whole lighthouse was originally worked manually with a chain and weights and it can not be stopped during the day as it will start a fire by the magnification and the sun! Ok enough of the technical stuff but I found it very interesting anyway.
On the way out of town next morning we stopped to go on a tour of the Ngilgi Cave as we headed down the very picturesque drive to Margaret River.
We have done a few caves in NZ but as they are all different they hold a great fascination for us both. Stalagmites, stalactites, helictites, shawls and with places like cupids corner and the tunnel of doom it's just too impossible to explain but totally mind blowing. We enjoyed it so much we decided to book another 3 cave package where there are another other 3 further down the coast between towns and can be visited individually on any days.
Margaret River looks really great so look forward to spending 3 or 4 days exploring this wine growing area.
Bye for now
Xxx