Blonde on a Road Trip

After a 2.5hr drive south to Busselton, we stopped for a spot of lunch at Shelter Brewing Co., from where we could see the sea. Cloudy overhead today, but that won’t deter us!

After a couple of incredibly tasty chicken burgers we set off for Dunsborough, from where we’ll be casting away on our whale watching cruise with Naturaliste Charters, who claim a 99% success rate of spotting whales here.

Visitors to this coast include the humpback, southern right and blue whale…

We sailed out on the catamaran ship for a while, but were soon greeted by whales. They seem to be swimming in pods just off the coast, and not too far apart from each other, so you have to have eyes on the back of your head!

Free coffee, tea and biscuits on board were much welcomed after being beaten sideways by the sea winds. Sadly not as hot and sunny as we would’ve liked, and unseasonably cold according to the whale watching team, but still warmer than Britain… just! The crew were so friendly and chatty and were armed with lots of facts about the whales and their recent sightings. They’d had a record number of blue whales coming through the area the day before (28, I think!!) but I think we mainly saw humpbacks and a few babies.

When the wind wasn’t bashing us in the face, it was very peaceful at times watching the water…

After our amazing 2.5hr whale watching cruise, we drove a bit further west to Dunsborough, where there’s a bit more going on. We accidentally fell into a bar where happy hour was still going on for another 5 minutes and felt compelled to order two beer paddles to sample the local goods.

After we’d finished our delicious sample beers, including one particularly delicious Megsy’s ginger beer (ginger beer is a big thing here compared to the UK; there was a whole fridge dedicated to it at the local liquor shop), we headed about 150m down the road to Dunsborough Beach.

This beach was an absolute millpond. Ever so peaceful and the water quite warm and incredibly clear, so we took a paddle and even spotted a ray, which we of course followed!

We rinsed our feet at the shower off the beach and got back in the car to grab some stuff at Woolworths (supermarket) for dinner and breakfast.

We noticed how odd the birds sound here. Merlin (the app) couldn’t identify a single one and said it had a 6% chance of doing so in this area, which is annoying as I haven’t the foggiest what any of them are, apart from a kookaburra, which we saw a few of by the beach.

So now it was time to find our accommodation for the next three nights. After a 40-min drive south to Margaret River in the dark passing several suicidal kangaroos and many fancy-looking vineyards (some of which we’ll surely have to go back to), we arrived at our destination, The River, which is an amazing complex of villas and rooms, with a pool, tennis court, bar and restaurant, and there was even live music on as we pulled up. We have a whole villa to ourselves, which is lovely (see pictures below), and seeing as we are both quite tired after a day against the elements and a lot of moving about, we just cooked dinner and sank into the sofa with the rest of the wine and some chocolate and just had a good old natter!

Life could definitely be worse!

Hoping to do some exercise in the morning tomorrow and maybe cycle around the local forests as it’s looking a bit overcast…!