Bustling South… The Mad Nomads

Janne and Geoffe continue their Nomad adventures around Australia as they head south along the Western Australia coastline.

We said a sad farewell to our friends in Perth who had hosted us on their front lawn for over a week and turning south, we visited friends in Rockingham who we had met in Carnarvon, Denim and Kalbarri, before moving down to Busselton.

Busselton, which is possibly WA’s premier seaside destination, is delightful.

We booked into the caravan park recommended to us by local friend James Park and were in stitches to hear the ladies in the office refer to him as old Mr Park… But I stopped laughing when I remembered he is only two years older than me.

This town of 31,000 has the most beautiful streetscaping of any town we have seen. Lush plantings of local flora wave in the wind and ethereally connect the main street to what must have been a bushy past, seamlessly linking staunch old stone buildings to newer architecture.

I walked all over the CBD and along the seaside and the 1.8 kilometre long wharf.

The shore line is as beautiful as any I have seen. The town has every convenience and Busselton Jetty was alive with people walking, catching the little train and fishing.

The beach along the town is sparkling white and the water is that wonderful WA blue…. Geographe Bay is vast.

The next day after an early morning walk along the jetty, Geoff and I went to the delightful Interpretive Centre that sits on the wharf.  It is reminiscent of bathing sheds and after exploring it we paid our $29.50 each to catch the wharf train to the Underwater Observatory at the end.

The tour was amazing. The clear water gave us great shots of beautiful marine critters for an article for Caravan and Motorhome on Tour Magazine. The huge wharf piles have created an artificial reef with sponges in yellows, blues, reds and greens and schools of fish drifted by. Stickybeaking octopuses gave us the once over and rays went gliding past.

We visited “old Mr Park” and Jim and Tania were invited to our van for a roast lamb dinner which was cooked by Geoff on the Weber.

The next day they piled us in their vehicle and took us exploring south to Cape Leeuwin.

We are coming back here after we visit Sydney to explore this area in detail with our son and daughter in law and Tania and James gave us a great overall feeling for where to go and what to see when the time comes.

We drove through magical little settlements and Margaret River township as well as visiting a winery and brewery with lunch at Augusta right down south.

Margaret River became a town in 1913 and nestles in countryside encrusted with wineries.

At Cape Leeuwin we saw an old water wheel that has turned to stone with calcium buildup over the years and the desolate beauty of the pounding Indian Ocean was memorable.

The town of Augusta has a European history that goes back to the 1620’s when the Dutch named, nearby Cape Leeuwin, Landt van de Leeuwin… The land of the lion, and when you see some of the fossils found in local caves you wonder just what may still have been alive then, that made them call the area by that name.

There was a jawbone in the Mammoth Cave from a humongous wombat-like creature that has been fossilised for an eternity and we had cricks in our necks looking at the mighty Karri trees of the Boranup State Forest. Imagine their girth and height before logging hit the AEA!

Cape Naturaliste was bleak and cold but nestling beside it was Bunker Bay, a sheltered, reef strewn white fringed beauty where divers cavorted in crystal clear brilliant blue water and small children jumped about the rocks squealing with delight.

Tonight we are going to old Mr Park and Tania’s home for a barbie and tomorrow there is a market on the foreshore… Today was washing the curtains day. It is important to keep on top of these things to keep the caravan looking 100%. It lives in some harsh environments and things like red Pindan and bulldust can take their toll.

It used to take me half the weekend to clean our 4 bedroom 3 bathroom house in Sydney, most of which we didn’t use. Now most days I do the housework in 10 minutes top to bottom.

And I have this magical kitchen window. One day I look out and see a desert. Then I look out and see animals and another day a beach. Once, the view from my kitchen window was static but now I’m a nomad and everything’s exciting!

Have you been to south, Western Australia? What did you enjoy?