Blogs from Dunsborough, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania

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 When the port officially closed in 1973 all shipping ceased, and government maintenance was withdrawn.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

Day 5: 30Aug2023 (Tues) - Sunny As expected, it was a rough night as A was running fever over the night. We were unsure if his fever would break in the morning and if we could still continue our trip for the day. Husband went to get some bakery from Dunsborough bakery while we waited for A to wake up. The bakes were not too bad. While eating, A woke up feeling much better than yesterday. He also ate a little of the bakes. As we were running late behind time, I made some adjustment to the itinerary. 1st stop: Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse. We did not went up the Lighthouse, but did a short walk along the trail. The weather was great and the scenery was even better. Lots of greenery and the ocean can be ... read more

Day 5- Friday, September 6th We got up pretty early again, partly because we went to bed at 9, partly because we had to leave by 10. The plan for the day was to go to as many beaches as possible, which I think we did a pretty good job accomplishing. And it was amazing! The scenery down in this part of WA is simply breathtaking. Every place we went was so beautiful and each had its own feel. We went back to Prevelley first to see it in the day time. I picked up some shells while we were there. Then we went to Yallingup where we saw surfers and Karen almost stepped on a Bob Tail lizard. It was so funny because Carla had just warned us about them and said they bite. Not ... read more

Hello from boiling hot WA where the thermostat seems to be stuck on 37 degrees. This was after an early morning thunderstorm and heaps of rain which was even a surprise to the locals. We went to Fremantle yesterday which was the host port for the Australian America's cup challenge in the 1980's. Imagine walking around in small town where many of the buildings are white sandstone, the light is incredibly bright and intense and the sea is a clear azure colour. Oh, did I mention the searing heat? It was so hot and intensely bright that I could hardly look at things around me. Eventually we decamped to a pub with wifi, cold beer and wine all of which pleased me greatly. There I had a wonderful PadThai which contained about half a chicken. They ... read more

January 4 Augusta, WA. We stayed another day in Walpole and went out on an Eco boat tour around the bay. It was a fun trip, the guide was full of stories about the area with everything from snake bites, shark attacks, and bank robberies. That plus amazingly beautiful surroundings made for a great trip. Part of it was a hike over a hill to a beach where some of the world’s oldest rocks are situated. These rocks where once mountains that have been dated to 4.5 billion years old. There are similar rocks in the Himalayans from when the continents were joined. And the beaches themselves…miles and miles of white sand beaches with hardly a person to be seen. But considering the water is coming straight from Antarctica, with lots of big waves, and ... read more