Blogs from Oceania - page 8

The house at Cormorant Court has been another lovely holiday house to call home for a few days on our journey … even if the mattresses were a little firm. The only slightly strange thing about this stay was the pricing structure. There was a price for the house and access to all its amenities but add $65.00 if you want sheets on the beds and towels in the bathrooms. Finally, after transporting sheets and towels across the country we put them on our beds on Friday to save ourselves the $65.00 linen surcharge!! So, we re-packed the truck this morning and then draped our wet towels over the top of our luggage. Hopefully they will be dry enough at the end of today’s travels to be able to refold and stash then away for the ... read more

This morning, we drove back up to Busselton to visit the iconic Busselton Jetty. Stretching 1.841 kilometres into Geographe Bay it is the longest timber piled jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. Built in 1865 and extended several times the jetty played an important role in the early years of European settlement allowing ships to make port in Busselton to transport the grain, livestock and timber grown, raised and felled in the surrounding districts. Geographe Bay also became recognized as a bountiful source of whales and American whalers called regularly at the port. The jetty was used commercially for more than a century and serviced 5,000 vessels over that time. When the port officially closed in 1973 all shipping ceased, and government maintenance was withdrawn. In 1978 Cyclone Alby wreaked havoc on the jetty and it was ... read more

Last night while we were out playing cards our Librarian/Researcher actually read one of the brochures we picked up somewhere along the way and noted that there is a National Trust property that we can visit today. As luck would have it, it is open Thursday to Sunday, and they run a tour on Sundays. Fortuitous indeed that Cathy advised us of this discovery about 8.00am this morning leaving us ample time to get organised to drive back down to Mokidup to join the 10.30am tour. Ellensbrook tells that story of the Wadandi people, the Bussel family and others who called the homestead home. Originally the summer camping spot for the Wadandi people it was a Wadandi guide who led Alfred Bussel to this sheltered valley with a permanent spring in 1857. Alfred and Ellen Bussel ... read more

This morning, we drove out to the other lighthouse on this ‘horny’ bit of south-western WA, the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse. When we checked opening times last night, we discovered that the lighthouse is currently closed for maintenance and that we would not be able to do the lighthouse tour. That was disappointing! But before we drove out the Cape Naturaliste Road, we pulled in at the beach almost opposite where we are staying (a few streets back from the beach) to check it out for possible swimming. It’s a bit confronting when you are walking onto the beach and there is a ‘Shark Watch’ sign on which can be recorded the date and time of the last shark sighting. Most shark attacks are in SA and here in WA after all. For the record there was ... read more

I was up at 7am for the early leave today. I had a rubbish nights sleep last night. I was tossing, and turning until about 3am…. And for absolutely no reason! That’s annoying! I still got up on time. Breakfast was pre-ordered, so no long wait today. I had an omelette today, which wasn’t my best decision. It had floppy bacon in it, which I don’t eat, so after pulling that out, it was quite a cold, sloppy option, but it still met my need! Obviously, that was chased down with a cappuccino. We left for the public bus at 8:45, which will take us to a the ferry terminal. Our timing has been spot on today! As we arrived at the terminal, we were straight on to the ferry. It’s another beautiful day, so the ... read more