Advertisement
Published: December 7th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Day 220 - Conto Campground to Yallingup (via Busselton!)
With no adverse effects from our wine tasting exploits yesterday we were up and about with a spring in our step this morning. It was all quiet next door in the Reeves camp trailer so we wandered off in the direction of the coastal cliffs, a nice thing to do on a bright morning. We get a great view looking down over the Indian Ocean and a beautifully secluded beach, Western Australia has no shortage of those especially in this area.
When we get back to camp the Reeves are all up having breakfast and beginning the clear up for our onward move today. We get chatting to another of the rangers based here, Peter and we ask his opinion on where we should head for next - Busselton, Yallingup, Dunsborough? None of them have National Park camp grounds and that prompts a discussion about caravan parks and where we prefer to stay. We all whole heartedly agree that free camping or national park camp grounds get our support where possible and that our main objection to caravan parks is that they can be very pricy and often cramped. Of
course there is also a far more relaxed atmosphere in the free camps or national park camp grounds but then we haven’t had a bad experience in either which we’re more than happy to see continue!
The conversation progresses to wildlife and I mention my disappointment (tongue in cheek) to have seen a Kookaburra beating a beautiful brush tale possum to death on our first night here. Peter looks confused and says there aren’t any possums here small enough for the invading Kookaburras. With that a group approaches us, one of them is carrying something wrapped in cloth. They explain to Peter how they found this tiny baby furry possum in their tent as they were packing it up this morning and they don’t know what to do so they are giving it to him! Peter carefully unwraps the tiny bundle and a sleepy little face pops out. “It’s a Brush Tailed Phascogale” declares Peter, “The poor little thing”. It’s identical to the creature we saw being beaten by the Kookaburra so we figure this one has had a very lucky escape and has probably been saved from being another Kookaburra dinner. Peter says he’ll get it straight to
a wildlife rescue place and is hopeful that it will survive. We let him rush off and wish him luck with his mission.
Not long after we left camp and headed into Margaret River. The Reeves family didn’t need to come into town so we arranged to meet them in Yallingup which is a possible destination for us to stay tonight.
We collected our photographs from the printers this morning and even managed to get a few things in the post, but not many. A bit of ‘Blue Peter’ is in order for a couple of them!
The journey from here to Yallingup is just blissful. Past acres of beautifully landscaped wineries we go, through bush land and forest - it’s just stunning. This area of Australia surely has the best of all worlds with it’s bush land, forest and ocean areas. We should really have stopped to take photographs but a headache had come from nowhere and I just sat quietly in the passenger seat hoping it would pass. For the record I patently refuse to have anyone suggest this was some sort of hangover, it’s just a co-incidence!
By the time we arrived in
Yallingup it was time for lunch and we met up with the Reeves family whilst gazing out over the ocean to the beautiful view in the background. The shout goes up from Darryl that there’s a whale out beyond the bay and it’s just breached. Awesome! We stand and watch with baited breath for the whale to surface and breach for us again but it was a ‘right time, right place’ kind of moment for Darryl and Mark - could they be believed?!
It really is beautiful here and Simone has been in to the caravan park to check out the prices in comparison to Busselton. It’s more expensive here but the view is priceless, we consider our options but decide to head into Busselton which is where I thought Kenny might like to fish off the jetty.
It’s only a 30 minute drive but when we arrive we’re both a bit shocked about the size of the place, it’s huge, it’s bustling and it’s got quite a big, city, built up feel to it. Nevertheless we drive around to the Kookaburra Caravan Park which is in the centre of town but close to the park, the beach and the jetty. An Ironman competition is being held here this coming weekend and the Ironman village has been set up in the park across from the caravan site. Now this can be looked at in a couple of ways, exciting because it’s a new thing (to us Pommes) or over powering because people didn’t realise the size of Busselton itself. The later is a problem for the Reeves and it’s obvious that they would prefer to return to Yallingup. In fairness we hadn’t expected Busselton to be quite so bustling but it’s not bothering us as much as it’s bothering Simone and Mark whose expectations of the place had been very different to the reality. Coupled with the fact that the beautiful jetty looks to be under major repair and that we quite liked the look of Yallingup we decide to stick with the Reeves and head back out of town. Before we do that we head into Woolies for supplies and dart around town getting a couple of the ‘Blue Peter’ requirements for our Christmas cards.
Armed with Tom Tom we find our way out of Busselton and back along the road to the quieter and more tranquil Yallingup. We’ve actually stayed at the caravan park there before except we were in one of their chalets which I hated with a passion for some reason. I’m stunned to find that we’re still in their computer system, albeit at our old address in Cam, Gloucestershire and although we don’t wangle a discount on the $32 per night price we do get a free fish size limit guide which will please Darryl and young Kenny!
We park up in the allotted spots and despite the tangled web of parking we experienced at the Conto campground, this time we manage to seclude ourselves perfectly with us parked side on and the Reeves closing off the top - precision parking boys, well done!
In the Reeves trailer we played Charades with the kids, my take on ‘Body Builder’ was something to behold I can tell you! We followed that up with a game of Rummikub, what else is there I hear you cry but then I had another go at catching up with the blog and also managed to speak to Mum & Dad K through Skype. Dad’s got his op date through which is just after Christmas so it will be a bionic start to 2010 for him. They’re off to the panto at Brailsford which is the village where our Phil & Lorraine have their pub up in Derbyshire. We went a couple of years ago and it was an absolute hoot so we know they’ll have a good night.
It was too cold outside tonight so we all headed into the caravan after our dinner of leftovers. A couple of games of Rummikub then we retired to bed ready for whatever tomorrow may bring!
Love to everyone
Dar and Sar
Advertisement
Tot: 0.395s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 21; qc: 126; dbt: 0.1636s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.5mb
Jan Kettle
non-member comment
Did we have a good time at the panto?
Oh no we didn't! Oh YES we definitely did! The Ugly Sisters were just horrible and Buttons looked uncannilly like cousin Phil (but it wasn't him as he was busy in his pub, The Rose and Crown in Brailsford [great homecooked meals there]). We loved Busselton when we visited 6 years ago but will we be disapointed when we return I wonder? xxx Mum K