This entry will be a combination of a couple days etc.

Arrival in Busselton was quite quick, the bus was also very nice, good seats and a DVD which was playing although in the last 20 minutes of the movie which was helpful. Bumped into Elliot and James at the Bunbury bus station which was rather random since I thought they were going on the Wednesday to Manjimup to start their Avocado picking. Made it to Busselton and Ruth came to collect me from the bus drop off. I was worried for a second that she might not recognise me since we spent so little time together when we met in Vietnam but my worries were quashed when she shouted out hello at me from her car window. *smile* We went into town for lunch and had a bit of a catch up on what we'd both been doing before going to the pier to take a look around. WAY too cold to walk down but even if the weather doesn't improve I'm going to walk it anyway!

Ruth lives in a nice little house on the outskirts of town and let me stay in the caravan parked down the side of the garden. Saturday was a bit of an admin morning, I spent some time in McDonalds trying to use their WiFi but it was hopeless! We came back and watched a movie called Red Dog, apparently a true story based on a Red Dog (funnily enough lol) who lived with a mining town up in the Pilbara. Nice little story but was definitely a tear jerker! Driving around earlier today I couldn't believe some of the flora and fauna in the area, massive trees and loads of wild Lily's all along the side of the roads. We'd pay a small fortune at home for those but here they're considered as weeds lol. Today was pretty much a movie day and I was glad because sometimes you just don't want to be travelling around and doing things all the time. Tomorrow I'll get out and walk about the town.

Today (Sunday) saw me go into town to try and tackle the Jetty. Ruth dropped me in town and I borrowed a golf umbrella in case it rained. Oh boy the rain...we'll come to that in a minute!

Busselton Jetty is the longest wooden Jetty in the Southern Hemisphere so it has to be walked! I went to the museum and read all the plaques before buying my ticket and starting the 2km walk out to the end. It started off well, then the wind got up and then it proceeded to hammer with rain. Too windy to put the umbrella up so I got soaked, although only down one side of my body though as if the rain was coming in from the side and not above or the front (weird). I got chatting to a couple people at the first fishing / rest point shelter on the jetty and once they discovered I was English they accused me of bringing the bad weather with me! How very dare they since I'd just come from Asia and made a point of telling them so! Lol. All in jest of course! I walked to the end and just as I got to the end the sun came out and started to dry me off. So I started to walk back and to my unlucky luck...it rained and soaked the other side of my body...not funny. Thought I would try my luck in McDonalds again and dry off with a coffee but it was useless so I returned to Ruth's house and watched them play the rest of their game of Monopoly. I played a few games with her son Nelson in the afternoon and felt kind of mean for winning every game of Connect 4 before we had dinner. Finally dry, I settled down to watch some more TV with Ruth (oh and some very nice wine *smile*). I'd also made sure I had booked my accommodation in Dunsborough for tomorrow night but by god it was more expensive than I thought it would be!

Today I was travelling on to Dunsborough, Ruth has been kind enough to drive me there since it was so close to Busselton and the kids are going to have a day out at some random stops along the way too. We got on the road and you know what you can tell when you're approaching wine country as there are just vineyards everywhere! Loads of them! Our first stop was at the Margaret River chocolate factory. It is a nice modest little building and I am not sure what I expected inside, something along the lines of Willy Wonker I guess but it was a room packed with things you could buy and a cafe at the very end with a window so you could see them making the chocolate. There were some free samples of course which were lovely! Ruth bought us all a chocolate and a drink and we sat there feeling quite sick afterwards. I bought a bar of chocolate and despite the fact I was feeling rather sick I knew full well that bar wouldn't last the day. Tut tut tut...I am NOT allowed chocolate!

We then left and went along the road a bit further to the Cheese Factory. Ruth and I went inside, it wasn't a factory per say but we ate all the samples they had to offer including the yoghurt before leaving lol. Very nice though, I love fresh cheese, mum would love it, especially the sweet chilli cheese. Mmmm. We were going to go to some other places but they turned out to be closed so Ruth took us all for lunch to a Brewery instead. Cannot remember the name will have to find out later. It had a very strong smell of hops as we walked in but it was gorgeous, my god you could get married in that place it was wonderful. Definitely a man's choice of wedding venue with a brewery attached lol. There was a lovely cat in there which I picked up and stroked but know I'll be paying for that later on. We sat and had a small lunch and chatted for a bit about random things before it started to rain again.

We went for a drive and Ruth took me to some beach bays at Yallingup, so beautiful. Water probably cold as ice but location, lovely! we passed the caves and made it down into Dunsborough, Ruth drove me right to the door of my hostel! I gave her a big hug and thanked her for everything - shame to be leaving but I have to continue touring the South West. I'm just so amazed that someone I met in one night randomly in another country could be so welcoming and wonderful when I visited their country.

The picture is of the Busselton Jetty before I started walking down it. It's a little faint so you might not see the true length of it at this angle.