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Published: December 8th 2009
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Day 221 - Yallingup
We can’t deny it’s beautiful here in Yallingup and it’s awesome to be able to hear the ocean when we wake up. We’ll definitely have a walk along the beach later but first we need to finish our Christmas cards off so I enlist young Beth to help me glue some things as we’ve made a couple of the cards ourselves. She does a brilliant job - hopefully the recipients of the ‘DIY’ cards will send us a photo so we can show them to you all nearer to the day!
Getting things into a post box is not my strong points for some reason, we have a post box at the bottom of our road back home yet things have been known to sit in the car for days, even weeks before they actually begin their grand postal journal experience! We need to find a post office today so we make sure everything is set to arrive home in good time and for that we need a town - seems like a good excuse to head back into Busselton to me!
The journey seems much shorter today and within 25 minutes we’re parking
up and starting our wander through the busy centre. Our first stop was the Kodak shop where we hoped today we would be able to print some photographs. I’d tried it yesterday while we were here but the machines don’t like hard drives and the young lady wasn’t as helpful as the chap in Margaret River when I came up with the same problem there. He just flipped them all onto a memory stick for me but she looked at me like a space alien when I asked if she could help out in the same way! Today I’m more organised and have the photos on the memory stick but the first machine won’t read it either ….. the second one did however and within minutes we have a handful of photos. Our next stop was Aus Post where I just wanted to double check that the correct postage was on each of the two envelopes going home. Despite taking the very same envelopes with the very same contents in to the very same Aus Post only yesterday I was now told that the postage had doubled in price! Huh?! How strange? Good job we checked!
With the cards
safely in the Aus Post box we moved the car closer to the jetty as we had chosen a 1 hr only parking bay and I didn’t want us getting a fine! Ahhh the Busselton jetty, the heart of the town. It still looks magical (through rose tinted sunnies!) despite the cranes and missing sections while it’s under a year long refurbishment. To tell you the truth we’re a little bit gutted. Gutted because we were looking forward to fishing off the jetty on this visit (we’d met a couple of young lads the last time we were here and they’d caught a lobster … or so they said!), gutted because yet again we won’t be able to snorkel under it and gutted especially because we really wanted to experience the underwater observatory which is situated along the jetty but because of the refurb it’s currently closed.
It took 95 years to finish this 1.841 km jetty which was originally used for shipping timber but when the working port closed in 1972 the jetty was no longer maintained and quickly began to deteriorate. Since that time there have been many incidents which could have seen the permanent closure of
the jetty - damage caused by Cyclone Alby in ’78 almost resulted in its demolition and a huge fire in ’98 where the burning section was separated by a chainsaw to stop the fire taking hold any further - but the spirit and dedication of the local community have fought hard to keep it open and have made an enormous contribution to its restoration. Over $9 million has been raised by the locals and with the state government providing $24 million towards the project it looks set for the jetty’s face lift to be worthy of a return visit in the years to come.
Just across from the jetty is where the Ironman village has been erected ahead of the competition this weekend. It’s amazing and has taken over the huge park just across the road from the caravan site we were originally intending to stay at. The place is buzzing with excitement and it’s really interesting to see the set up for the transition stages from swim to cycle to run. We chat to entrant 203, a chap from the Philippines who comes to collect his bike after registering with the officials. We were gazing at the gears
trying to work out how they operate as our K-Mart versions don’t look the same! He has no time expectations, he just hopes he’ll finish so we wish him luck and he gets on his way for some last minute training / relaxation.
We’d cured our curiosity surrounding the jetty so headed back to Yallingup to rejoin the Reeves family who were having a lovely relaxing time when we arrived. The boys started to get ready for fishing and so I helped Simone make dinner tonight - Cannelloni which is Zoe’s favourite meal. What a laugh that was. Not being a cooking expert (!) it was decided that I would help Zoe and Beth squeeze the spinach and ricotta mixture into the individual pasta tubes. What a mess!! There was a bit of improvisation going on with the piping bag (a plastic ‘wrap’ bag with a hole in the bottom works just as well!) but we all did a pretty good job. Once dinner was in the oven us girls walked down to the beach to join the fishermen, we’re absolutely desperate for Kenny to catch something worth while as he’s so enthusiastic but sadly the bucket comes back
empty.
We walked for a short while along the beach but Beth got soaked by a huge wave, bless her, so Simone went back to camp and I continued on with Zoe. There are plenty of surfers out in the high waves and it’s something that Zoe would really like to do. It’s a shame that the Elliotts aren’t here because Nige would have been loving the waves and might have been able to take Zoe out on the board.
It’s been a while since we spoke to Mum and Dad Howells on the phone so tonight we drive out to the nearest phone box which is at the other end of town. Armed with plenty of coinage we’re delighted to get through on the first attempt but then the phone jams up and won’t take anymore money. Drat! Not to worry, we have a ‘phone abroad’ thing which I brought in Denham and keep forgetting to use. We rush back to the caravan, quickly locate the details and then rush back to the phone hoping that nobody else as slotted into our place. They haven’t and soon enough we’re chatting away to Mum and Dad H then
nephew Dan and sister in law Deb. It’s lovely to catch up with everyone and hear what’s been happening lately.
The Reeves had waited patiently for us to return to have dinner together which was of course lovely and totally delicious. Rummikub finishes off the evening nicely and everyone heads off to bed shattered from all the sea air!
Night everyone
Dar and Sar
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jj
non-member comment
catching up on reeves
Simone put me on to your site to catch up on how there going. My first time on travelblog and I've only read days 221 & 222 and it sounds like you all are having a fantastic time but you guys must be good at typing and obviously not travelling with kids to put so much detail in. I didn't know about ross river in WA, I thought it was a FNQ problem something to be aware of as we'll be doing similar trip(on paper) to Reeves in 2011 .Hopefully Kenny will catch the big one soon and as long as carty has a can in his hand catching fish is just a bonus. I look forward to working my way backwards through your trip to catch up on the Reeves but might try to utilise some downtime at work as its crazy at home this time of year. Has Simone thrown her job in yet for life on the road?.