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Published: January 5th 2010
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xmas down south 09
welcome to busselton! Having two days off for Christmas, we decided to go out-of-town and be tourists in our own Western Australia. I booked a room at the Abbey Beach Resort in Busselton and for once, did not prepare any itinerary. I just wanted to relax and go wherever our car takes us 😊
Busselton is 220kms south of Perth and takes about three hours by car. We headed out early in the morning of the 24th and after a stop-over at a petrol station, arrived at Busselton before lunch. The roads going to Busselton are very good but boring - just long stretches of road with lots of warning signs such as “Can you still read this?” or “Don’t drive tired. Bunbury cares for you.” or “We want YOU back.”. It was interesting to find a lot of galleries, museums and exhibit places along the highway though featuring local produce.
The Abbey Beach Resort was a very nice surprise. At a surprisingly affordable rate of $130/night, we got a good-sized room with a kitchenette, a small patio with a view of the pool, and a 2-person Jacuzzi in our bathroom! The resort is massive! With buildings upon buildings of suites and
rooms, plus a main building housing the common facilities (gym, sauna, spa, indoor pool, bar, 3 restaurants, etc.), gardens, two outdoor pools, a kiddie pool, and biking/skating walkways along the beach, it would probably take a whole day just exploring the resort itself.
The hotel is beachfront as well (about a 5-minute walk actually from our room to the beach but mainly due to the size of the resort) and Geographe Bay is pretty nice. It was almost deserted save for a couple of families when we got there. The beach is very long and I can just imagine people going on long vacations in Abbey Beach Resort doing their early-morning runs. They won’t want for more exercise!
Kim was antsy to catch some waves (there were none in Busselton) so after a while, armed with our Navman and nothing else, we drove further south to Dunsborough where they said the waves were good. Arriving at the small but pretty town center, we went into the Post Store and sneaked a look into a map of the area, looking for surfing beaches. Exploring the small town center did not take more than an hour. Unfortunately, because of the
xmas down south 09
abbey beach resort time of day (or maybe because it was day before Xmas?), we could not find a decent place to eat in. So we just headed off to Castle Bay, the closest surfing beach to the town.
Finding Castle Bay was a beautiful exercise - it involved getting a bit lost then driving down a narrow, tree-shaded, sign-less road, coming into a clearing and getting your breath knocked out of you by the stupefyingly gorgeous beach. It was THAT beautiful. Rocky outcrops on either side, bushwalking trails just before the beach, some sand dunes, blindingly white sand, and then just vivid stripes of emerald green and sapphire blue waters. Save for a couple of solo sunbathers each lost in their own worlds, it was deserted. Perfect.
The beach is short but wide, there are some simple facilities near the parking area (changing rooms, toilets, BBQs, picnic tables). There must be some dock somewhere because there were a couple of speedboats moored and someone jetskiing / waterskiing as well.
It was perfect until a family came with their boom box and ruined everyone else’s serenity. But it was enough for us. Love came and descended on me in Castle
xmas down south 09
abbey beach resort Bay. I have never fallen in love with anything in Australia until Castle Bay 😊
Stomachs growling with hunger, we headed back to Busselton in search of food. We ended up in town in this Chinese restaurant (Golden Dragon?). Food was pretty good. Most everything else was closed. We went to the famous Busselton jetty and took some touristy photos. At 2kms, it is the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere. It has an underwater observatory at one end. Unfortunately, the jetty is closed for renovations until August 2010. We left the jetty and drove around. We wanted to try the drive-in cinema but it was closed due to the holidays. Boo.
We just spent the remainder of the day relaxing in our room. It was sooo good to relax after the busy weeks at work.
The next day, we checked out at 10AM (downside of Abbey Beach - check-in at 2PM, check-out at 10AM). Kim was still hoping to catch some waves so we decided to head out to Bunbury where there were some pretty good waves the day before (a friend of ours spent their holidays there but left on the 24th).
Arriving at
xmas down south 09
our room at abbey beach Bunbury, we found the pretty little town but alas, no waves! As the sun was scorching, I was not in the mood to explore the beach so we just ended up driving throughout town. Very nice but I wouldn’t live there as it looks too far from everything.
Still not about to give up, we drove to Australind and finally, Mandurah still searching for waves. Zero. Mandurah’s Silver Sands beach was such a disappointment. There was just too much trash littered everywhere, not inviting at all.
So we just spent our Christmas Day driving from down south back to Perth. Arriving home at maybe 2PM, we took a nap and got ready for a party that night. We were not planning on going but since we had no food at home (haha) and everything was closed for Christmas, we just went. The food was very good and the company not so bad 😊
Christmas 2009 did not bring in any waves but it was still loads of good stuff! Til the next!
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