Next on the agenda Was the the coastal region around Busselton and Bunbury, as well as some day trips around Dunsborough. Here we would visit a couple of friends over the next nine days.
Tuesday, May 30th – (Day 54)
BUSSELTON – Time to leave Margaret River after a lovely four days. Today we were heading to Busselton, but given it was only a 45 minute drive away, we thought we’d do a couple of little stops before checking in to the next caravan park.
First up was Wow Illusions which was a little amusement type place with a heap of different illusions. Things like optical illusions, mirror maze, brain teasers and stuff. We pretty much left that place with our brains broken, but it was good fun!
About 2 minutes away was the Margaret River Chocolate Company, so we couldn’t leave without checking that out. It was a big chocolate factory with tons of stuff for sale. Rather than buy chocolates, we ended up leaving with a large size coffee mug.
We checked into our accommodation just before lunch. This place was a resort and the campsites were lovely. We even made some new friends, a couple of ducks who once we fed them, wouldn’t leave.
Rather than cook some lunch, we decided to drive 20 minutes to Dunsborough to find a bakery and surprise Linda’s friend Belinda at work. She recommended we go to Tas’ Bakery just around the corner and we organised to catch up with her for tea tomorrow night.
After that, we went around the corner to a cafe/bar called Artezan and did some work. The owner was real nice and we got a pastry stout to drink from the local brewery which was awesome.
Then it was back home to the caravan to visit our new friends the ducks, and cooking some tea. After that we watched the final episode ever of Succession which we had been looking forward to for ages. As usual, they nailed it, the end of the best show of the last decade which is a shame.
Wednesday, May 31st – (Day 55)
The morning was a pretty lazy one. With the weather pretty lousy, we sat around in the caravan waiting for things to fine up which they did around lunch time. During the morning, our new duck friends were waiting by our door to say g’day, or maybe they were just waiting for food.
We headed into Busselton for a look around at about 1pm and we could tell this was our kind of town. After parking the car, we walked up and down the main street where Adam entertained the town on the public piano.
There was also a pier which was the longest pier we’d ever seen. It takes about 50 minutes to walk to the end and back apparently. So we thought we’d leave that for another day and explore some more.
After some more exploring, we headed back to the caravan and had a nap (yep, we’re getting pretty lazy now) and then just after 5pm headed back into Dunsborough to meet up with Belinda. Linda was excited as we got to meet Belinda’s horse out in the paddock.
Belinda’s horse 
Good selection of beers at Southcamp Brewery
We had tea at the newly opened brewery called Southcamp. This place was lavish and had a good range of beers and food options. We stayed for a couple of hours and had a good time, then headed back to the caravan around 9ish.
Thursday, Jun 1st – (Day 56)
Rather than have the sleep in we planned to have, we were awoken by the sounds of the groundsman on his leaf blower, a familiar sound on this trip so far in WA. Why do these clowns start up so early??
As soon as we stepped out of our caravan door, the ducks were there waiting for us, they have become good friends of ours now! Pretty much the rest of the morning was similar to yesterday and we didn’t get up to much.
Then around 1ish we decided to go for a walk in to Busselton again, this time walking along the beach rather than driving in. The beach here is stunning, the water is crystal clear, the day was perfect and it was a lovely 1 hour walk into town.
Adam couldn’t resist having a swim, despite not bringing a towel and bathers. He just went in with his jocks, so lucky not too many people we around.
Once we got into town, we got some lunch at Hummingbird cafe and then got some supplies for tea from the local Woolworths. We did plan to go for a walk along the pier and to the local brewery next to it, but couldn’t be bothered in the end and did a 1 hour walk home.
We got back around 5ish or so (and were greeted by the ducks), it was a good day of exercise finally.
Friday, June 2nd – (Day 57)
This would be our last day in Busselton so our plan was to go for a drive around the region. Belinda gave us some suggestions for some good spots, so we set off just after lunchtime for our day of exploring.
First up was a drive to some cliffs at Wilyabrup. This was one of Belinda’s suggestions and was a little bit off the beaten path, so it’s not a place many tourists would know about. The scenery was superb with some amazing views of the ocean. We did a bit of rock climbing down to the bottom for a walk near the ocean, then it was on to our next stop
Next up was the Cheeky Monkey Brewery for some more beers and boardgames. As usual Adam got the stout and also won the boardgames 3-0 in a cleansweep.
We then set off again to a place known as the Injidup Spa which was a rock formation that looked like a replica of a spa pool. Just around the corner was another rock formation and beach which was pretty cool to see too.
On the way out we stumbled upon the Lavender Cafe which looked tempting, so we went in and got a coffee and scone, then continued our journey to Eagle Cove. The plan was to go to another brewery, but it was too late in the day and was just about to shut, so we headed straight to the beach at Eagle Bay for the sunset.
Coffee & scones at Lavender Cafe 
Amazing scenery at Injidup Spa
The water looked all silky again so Adam enjoyed the sunset from in the water swimming, despite how cold it was. Then he quickly got changed and we headed to meet Belinda for tea again at a place called Clancy’s.
When we got back to the caravan park the place was absolutely jam packed. It was a long weekend this weekend and nearly every site in the park was taken. About 11pm a bunch of loud Asian’s rocked up next to us and setup their tents, probably waking every single person in the park yelling and carrying on way past midnight. It was like Port Lincoln all over again.
