Saturday 13th May

We had Face Time with Belinda, Arna & Gary this morning, an early Mother's Day surprise. We then headed over to the Busselton Jetty to do the train ride out to the end of the jetty.

At 1841 metres, the jetty is said to be the longest wooden structure in the southern hemisphere.

Because the waters in Geographe Bay were so shallow, the jetty was required so that cut timber could be transported to ships.

At the end of the jetty is a wonderful underwater aquarium. This unique building allows visitors to experience one of Australia's greatest artificial reefs.

Descended 8 metres to the ocean floor via a spiral staircase to view an awe inspiring forest of vividly coloured tropical and sub-tropical corals, sponges, fish and invertebrates. Eleven viewing windows at various levels within the Observatory allowed us to look out on some of the 300 different marine species that live beneath the jetty.

This warm southerly current is responsible for introducing an incredibly diverse array of tropical and sub-tropical species into Geographe Bay, resulting in coral growth at a latitude of 33 degrees south. This is a remarkable phenomenon when compared to the western coastlines of other southern hemisphere continents such as Africa and South America which have no coral growth below 5 degrees south.

We then headed out to Bunker Bay Café for lunch. What a beautiful place with delicious food and coffee, excellent service, and we could step off the deck onto the sand. We were overlooking the most beautiful bay I have seen. The water was just so blue and clear and it just sparkled in the sun. We then enjoyed walking around the area on the several walking tracks around the bay.

It was then off to Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse, which was undergoing some restoration work, so couldn't see too much.

The roads in Western Australia are just so good, and the driving is a pleasure. There are also quite a number of new subdivisons springing up everywhere we look, with beautiful homes, canals and golf courses. I don't think the mining boom has quite finished yet.

Then the usual - washing, happy hour and dinner at the Esplanade Pub again with the stragglers of the A'Vanners. Another great night.

Sunday 14th May - Mother's Day

Kev cooked brekkie for me and we decided to walk uptown to the markets, then coffee and scones for morning tea, then a Woollies shop. And then it started pouring! It absolutely bucketed down all afternoon.

But us A'Vanners are a hardy bunch, and we all headed over to the camp kitchen for happy hour, cooked and enjoyed our BBQ dinner, then raced back to our vans.

During the night it absolutely blew a gale. As we were on the ocean side of the park, we were well and truly buffeted all night. I found it really hard to sleep with the rain and wind battering our little van! We had about 14mm altogether, so a little wet and soggy.