Day 9

No rain this morning, but it was very windy. We went to the top of the Bunbury Lighthouse and nearly got blown off. Bunbury is a nice little town with beaches, a marina and a dophin discovery centre where dolphins usually come in each day. It has a reasonable town centre with most things, a lovely cafe strip by the beach and a popualtion of about 50,000. Looked good to us, but again it was a shame not to see it in nice weather.We decided to drive to Busselton, where Dave had once applied for a job. Stopped off in Dalyellup because some people on a pommy website live there. We were really taken with it. It's beautifully laid out, with houses of all price ranges. I love the fact that they've left bits of forest in between the houses, and the houses have to have double garages which means they don't appear so crammed in. There's a nice beach, although I hadn't realised there is a high sand dune area. The display homes weren't open so we just drove around the streets. There's an attractive lake in the middle of the town and a small shopping centre but it's only about 10 minutes from Bunbury and 20 from Bussleton. We hadn't realised there are a couple of mines within about 30 minutes drive which is where some of the people work.
On to Bussleton, where it was blowing a gale, which meant that the underwater observatory at the end of the pier was closed. the pier is about 1km long and you can fish, dive and snorkel around it. there's an old fashioned amusement park and cafes and a couple of art galleries. We saw a flock of cockatoos on a playing field, so Dave made a nuisance of himself with them.

On the way back up north we took a different route, through Brunswick junction and met some ex-pat Poms who have set up a woodturning studio and produce some beautiful furniture. We drove through dairy country up to Armadale, Kelmscott etc in the South East of Perth and then as we had time, we drove through the Swan Valley. It's really pretty through here and we wished we had more time to explore, but it was getting dark and we are on the plane back to Brisbane tonight. We found our way to King's Park and drove through in the dark. The lights are beautiful at night from this high vantage point and plenty of other people had the same idea, despite the frequent downpours of rain.

We headed back into Perth city, parked the car and spent an hour wandering the streets. Of course, most of the shops were closed and there didn't seem to be that many people about but the cafes, restaurants and bars were full. We saw one guy settling down in a doorway with a sleeping bag, but there didn't seem to be any trouble about. After several days we are just getting used to finding our way about Perth, and managed to take a different route to the airport without getting lost.

Just one more day to go in sunny Brisbane. Nothing more to do but explore the city and hug koalas.