photographyperthwa

Saturday 15^th February, 2025

We took our time yesterday morning as there is no requirement to leave at 10.00 a.m. We bypassed Mt Barker to do our shopping in Albany. The drive took about ½ an hour longer than it should because of a delay due to roadworks. It was such a relief to get moving again.

We did make a short stop at Gilberts Winery to buy some of the wine we liked so much last time we were in Albany.

By the time we reached Albany it was lunch time. After shopping at Woollies we shared a plate of chicken and noodles at Jin’s Chinese Takeway. As it was getting late by then, about 2.00 p.m. we didn’t want to have too much food as we were going out to dinner with Stephen’s choir in the evening.

We are staying at the Tasman Caravan Park on Albany Highway. It is fairly central to Albany and we are staying here two nights so that Stephen has the best conditions for getting ready for the concert tonight. We will be driving out to the ampitheatre at about 3.30 as there is a sound check, followed by a rehearsal starting at 4.30 p.m.

We drove down to the Rustlers Steakhouse for the meal. There were about 60 of us, plus the restaurant was busy with other customers. I’ve never had such a good experience of catering for a large group. We have a short menu to choose from with garlic bread and bread dip as starters, and shared bowls of salad to go with our mains. The staff were incredibly efficient at managing the orders, with food arriving at the same time at each table. I would highly recommend them if you are going out with a group. We could also each pay individually, which was helpful as drinks and desert were charged separately.

We headed home at about 9.30 p.m. when most of the others were leaving or had left. It was a good social event for the choir, allowing them to connect with people in a way that they can’t when focussing on singing.

I’ve been a bit lazy about taking photos, so am relying on a few from Stephen for this blog. I’m hoping we had a good sunset tonight which might inspire me to take the camera out.

Friday 14^th February, 2025

It’s time to confess! When I was in the IGA on Wednesday I bought some instant coffee. It can be a bit messy to use the French Press in the van and if we are trying to conserve water we hate wasting on the clean up. It’s a very nice instant coffee with intense flavour and I must admit I cannot tell the difference between it and coffee made in the French Press. Expresso coffee is different, of course. So, I’m climbing down from my high horse about having ‘real’ coffee rather than instant.

We punctuated our trip south with a stop in Woodanilling to dump our toilet. There is a free camp at the recreation centre, so it was an opportunity to check it out. We realised that we have not been to this tiny village before, though have often passed through. It’s quite sweet and does have it’s own school.

Next up was Katanning, where we fuelled up the Hilux, then went to the Dome Café for lunch. We shared a breakfast, not our usual full breakfast, but one of their specials with spicy baked beans, bubble and squeak and eggs, with a slice of sourdough toast on the side and our usual hot drinks.

On the way to Kendenup we took a side road hoping for a good view of the Stirling Ranges. Nothing showed up, but we were able to do a circuit to get back onto Albany Highway.

We have our usual spot at the Kendenup Caravan Park, unpowered for $20 per night, with 24hrs, rather than 20 as you get in a conventional caravan park. It’s only $5 more to be on power, but we like this spot with views over bush and farmland.

I set up the Starlink on a tripod as we have trees to the south and the roof of the Sherwood wasn’t a good spot for it. It was quite a faff, but it was interesting to see how it works. The tripod provides quite a stable stand for the Starlink and I looped the cord around the side mirror and under the step. We have a hole to put the cord through from inside. I was using a new power source, a little Cowfish step up converter with an on/off switch. The step up converter is needed for using the 15m cord. When we put the Starlink on the roof we are using a much shorter cord and it works to just plug it into the Anderson plug.

This morning we are taking our time doing tasks as we can’t access our caravan site until 2.00 p.m. We will do some shopping in Mt Barker on the way. We are going to stay at a caravan park so that Stephen can have a shower on Saturday morning as he is performing that night. And also because we are joining the rest of the choir for dinner in Albany tonight.

Thursday February 13^th, 2025

“the Mock Turtle said: `no wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise. ‘Wouldn’t it really?’ said Alice in a tone of great surprise. Of course not,’ said the Mock Turtle: `why, if a fish came to me, and told me he was going a journey, I should say “With what porpoise?’ ‘Don’t you mean “purpose”?’ said Alice. ‘I mean what I say,’ the Mock Turtle replied in an offended tone.”

Lewis Carroll: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. 1865

I’m with Alice here, but also with the Mock Turtle. The purpose of our trip is to go to Albany so that Stephen can sing with the WASO Chorus at a special event. We’ve added on a few days to spend with his sister and husband at a caravan park, plus we are hoping to have a couple of nights at East Bay.

Although we thought we had done a lot of the preparation on Tuesday it still took us a long time to get ready yesterday morning. Stephen wanted to return some library books and I wanted to do some shopping for essential supplies at the IGA, so we split up and I drove to the IGA (easier parking than at the main shopping centre) and Stephen met me there once he was ready. It worked out well because he arrived just as I had finished packing away the food.

Leaving at 12.00 was late, even for us. We had decided to go the long way to Albany to save the stress of Albany Highway. This meant travelling on the Brookton Highway to the York/Williams Road, then south on that, into Narrogin and then on to the tiny village of Highbury. Stephen drove the last part from the beginning of the York/Williams Road, which was very relaxing for me, though he ended up with the foot cramp. We need to start using the cruise control.

We made two stops, at Christmas Tree Well for lunch, and a stop to visit toilets and swap drivers in Narrogin. We could have stayed at Narrogin, but they lock the toilets overnight and don’t open them until about 8.00 a.m. at one of the camping places, the one in the centre of town feels a bit dodgy, and we didn’t need power, so the nice caravan park wasn’t necessary.

So, Highbury it is. We are parked by the side of the highway, but it quietens down overnight and it was really peaceful. The toilets are as clean as usual. I would like to visit the historical pub sometime, but as we had food and are not much into drinking we didn’t go there. The lights were on earlier, but it was all dark by 8.30 p.m. There were no cars parked outside, perhaps they didn’t have any customers.

There was a strong wind overnight and I moved our Starlink mini from the roof to just under the hatch, held up by the blind. It still works, though it isn’t at the correct tilt and not facing the correct direction. The internet is slower, but still usable.

It was sunny yesterday, but with a cool breeze during the day. Which, as I’ve mentioned, became a strong and gusty wind overnight. This morning is cloudy, with a gusty wind. It’s not too cold, however. A big change from our last trip to Albany when it was hot.

Saturday 1st to Sunday 2nd February, 2025

Even an overnight trip means a lot of packing up. It’s been too hot to leave our electrical gear in the Sherwood, so the electric frying pan and kettle had to be put in as well. But, apart from getting some fresh bread, we didn’t have very much else to do on Saturday beyond getting ready.

We left home at about 5.00 p.m. and arrived at Pinaroo Point by 5.45 p.m. The parking area was pretty full, but someone in a Toyota Hiace van offered us his spot, with a view down the path to the sea.

We took a walk along the beach and back on the path before heating up a pre cooked meal and making some salad.

On the way down the beach we encountered a large group of people who appeared to be having a religious ceremony. It is a celebration of Yemanja, Queen of the Sea, a Brazilian and other South American ceremony which incorporates Catholicism, African and Indigenous elements. It would normally happen on February 2nd.

Both Stephen and I spoke with the people and I was told that it would have been OK to have taken photos, as it was I felt I didn’t want to intrude. Most people had dressed in white and some were walking into the sea. There was an altar with a blue statue of a woman in the middle of the circle of people.

It was pretty noisy during the evening due to the Hillarys Beach Club Restaurant. Eventually the car park began to empty and we decided it was time for us to move. We are not allowed to stay overnight in this carpark so we move to another carpark closer to Hillarys Boat Harbour.

Before leaving we took our chairs down to the beach to watch the moon set. The planet Venus was slightly to the right of the moon and really bright. Our view was degraded at times as there were lots of people fishing off the beach using bright headlamps. Stephen had forgotten to bring a jumper. I lent him my jacket and wrapped myself in a shawl. It wasn’t really cold, but would have been unpleasant without some protection.

Although we have spent the night at the other car park a few times now I was still an bit anxious that we might be asked to move on. There were a few other vans and cars there, but nothing as obvious as the Sherwood. However, it was a mostly peaceful night and cool enough in our loft bed to get a good sleep.

As soon as the alarm when off we packed up and moved back to Pinaroo Point. We were early enought to get a fully shaded position and the shade lasted until we left at about 11.30 a.m. We had a cup of tea, then went down for a dip in the sea. There were quite a few people already there and the car park had been filling up whilst we had our tea.

Then it was showers, followed by breakfast at the restaurant. We had a good table outside and shared a big breakfast. Stephen had forgotten his Airpods which he uses to listen to pod casts, so I lent him my copy of Eversley’s book.

It was about six degrees hotter in Victoria Park when we got home. We did a quick unloading of everything we needed, followed by a few trips at various times in the afternoon to bring in the rest of our stuff.

Matt came to tea in the evening. He’s been a bit serious lately, but this time he was in a very happy mood. He ate well and even allowed me to try on his new hat for a photo. As he normally hates hats and won’t wear them this is quite a breakthrough.

Last year I had a strange health scare, with very bad pain travelling up my arm and up the side of my head. We called an ambulance and they took me into Sir Charles Gardiner even though the pain had subsided. After being fully checked out with blood tests confirming that it wasn’t a heart attack, and observations confirming it wasn’t a stroke, I was discharged.

This happened in the evening and I was home by about 5.00 a.m. Anyway, the doctor had suggested I have a heart stress test, which duly happened. I didn’t hear from my GP and assumed that all was well. However, I had to see her recently and asked about the test results. Apparently my heart health is very good for my age. I think she realised that I should be advised of test results in a timely manner because I got the test result from this visit within a few days. Again, an all clear.

Sunday January 19^th, 2025

Well, a few days have slipped by. On Thursday afternoon we went for a walk along the beach in an easterly direction. We’ve done the walk before, but it was still a good feeling that we had enjoyed the beach on our last day at Cosy Corner.

On Friday morning we packed up and were ready to leave at 10.00 a.m. Our chosen route was up through the Chester Pass Road, then on to Katanning for an overnight. We didn’t get to enjoy the views so much as it rained heavily all day. Fortunately that road is fairly quiet and we could drive at what felt like a safe speed. Every time we stopped to get into the Sherwood we had to brave the rain.

There were only a couple of vans at the free camping place in town. In the evening we went to the local Chinese restaurant and were the only ones eating in, though lots of customers came for takeaway. It made a good ending to the day. The rain had stopped, but the air was cool and we had a comfortable night.

In the morning we had breakfast at the Dome Cafe, a tradition whenever we stay in Katanning.

Yesterday we enjoyed driving through the towns and villages on this route. We stopped for lunch at Yorninning Dam picnic area. Overnight camping is allowed and it is a very nice area with lots of shady trees.

It was a bit warmer and I was glad that Stephen wanted to stay at the Brookton Caravan Park rather than the Lions Park free camping. It meant we could have the air conditioning on for part of the evening. We also appreciated having flushing toilets and a camp kitchen. Stephen doesn’t shower in our little bathroom in the Sherwood, and he really wanted to have a shower and wash his hair. Unlike me! I’m careful with the water I use if we have to last two or three nights, but still have two wet washes and wash my hair each morning. Stephen does, of course, wash in the Sherwood, he just doesn’t splash about.

Today, Sunday, we are returning home. It’s about 130kms to our house. We have a function to go to at 5.00 p.m. We’ve been fortunate with the weather so far, but Perth and the SouthWest are going into what feels like the first heatwave of the summer. We’ve had hot days, including one of 43C, but then have somewhat cooler days after. So, it is good to be heading home to an air conditioned house.

Monday 13^th January, 2025

It was feeling so lovely to be here at Cosy Corner that we have pretty much decided that we will stay here for the rest of our time in Albany. That means we have three more nights here and I need to pay at the ticket machine.

In view of this, we took advantage of Site No. 1 coming up and have moved into this spot. This meant a bit of packing up, but not too seriously as I drove slowly to the new site. This site has more shade and is a little closer to the beach.

There was a little light rain overnight and into the morning, but it cleared by late morning and it was sunny for the rest of the day. We didn’t do much, beyond enjoying our new site. At about 5.00 we went down to the beach and walked about 1km to a relatively sheltered spot where we’ve swum before. The water is shallow and there is a rocky island a little way from shore that seems to protect the area. A short while after we arrived a mother and child arrived, with the child going immediately into the water. When she was joined by another child they swam out to a rock and played around there, jumping into the waves and obviously having fun. They were still out there when we left.

The children helped to make us feel even more safe, given that we stayed fairly close to shore. We really enjoyed the swim and later sat for a while on a bench overlooking the swimming area.

Then home to snacks and a little left over wine. We had leftovers for tea, an easy option. I had fried eggs and bread to go with our salads for lunch.

To stay here longer we will fill up our water tank, get some more drinking water, and do some shopping. As we are meeting friends for lunch nearby on Tuesday, which means driving out, it will suit us to continue into Albany to stock up.

Tuesday 14^th January, 2025

We had quite a storm overnight. I closed some windows and brought the hatch down a notch (which meant bringing the Starlink in as well, I was worried about water dripping down the cord). That was after the storm had been going for a while, so probably too late, but I felt better.

Wednesday 15^th January, 2025

We joined some friends at The Old Dairy Café in Torbay yesterday for lunch. It is in a beautiful location on the top of the hill. The day was almost chilly and there was a mesh protecting us from the wind for most of our time there. When they finally opened it up we could really appreciate the views. We had a lovely time catching up.

Afterwards we drove into Albany to dump our toilet and fill up on water. Deciding to have three extra nights here meant that we really had to stock up a bit. The potable water tap next to the dump point, which we have always used, had a sign underneath ‘not for personal use’, which was very odd as it wasn’t clear that it wasn’t potable anymore.

We rang the visitor centre who rang the council on our behalf. They confirmed that it was no longer suitable for drinking and that we should use the tap at the Rose Garden. That has a sign saying ‘for camping’. It’s close to the IGA and I did some shopping whilst Stephen filled our tank and water bottles.

It was still cloudy and a bit cold when we got back and we took it as a sign to have a quiet evening in. We did go down to the beach for a short while after sunset.

This morning (Wednesday) we took a walk down to the beach to practice flying the drone. I’ve done it quite a few times, but always have such a gap between flights that I forget. I really need to watch a tutorial before we go out. Stephen stood and provided shade so that I could see the controller screen whilst flying. It felt moderately successful, though I came home and watched a couple of tutorials.

We have a small drone which would not cope well with wind, but luckily there was only a slight breeze which didn’t cause any problems. I do need to be prepared for flying as everything needs charging beforehand and there are often firmware updates. They take quite a while on our Starlink internet as although the download speeds are very good, the upload is relatively slow.

Stephen made us cheese sandwiches for lunch, our normal lunch. I bought a chocolate flavoured coffee yesterday and Stephen liked the smell of it, so we are having it for afternoon tea with a shared Melting Moment.

The Number 1 site that we have moved to has good afternoon shade, which makes it very comfortable to sit and do our ‘work’. I mean reading, studying astronomy, watching tutorials and answering Starlink queries on Facebook.

Thursday January 16, 2025

We went down for a swim last night at about 5.00 p.m. The conditions seemed slightly different to last time, with waves coming from different angles. It was a short swim, more of a dip, then we sat on the bench for a while whilst I flew the drone again, just to keep in practice.

This morning we did some chores (handwashing clothes, emptying the grey water and the toilet cassette. We had quite a cold night, but this morning is pleasant, sunny with a cool breeze.

(There will be a second Albany trip in February when Stephen is singing in a concert in Albany with the WASO chorus.)

Thursday 9^th January, 2025

We drove to Williams, taking the York/Williams Road. Our original plan was to go to Highbury for a free overnight, but it was really too hot for free camping. I remembered a photo I have of staying at the Williams Caravan Park, which looked quite pleasant, with shady trees. So, we ended up with shade and power. We used the air conditioning for a couple of hours until about 6.15 p.m. when it became much cooler. We wandered over to a little park with sculptures of Australian animals. We were taking videos on the Osmo Pocket 3, but I’ve managed to accidentally delete them. Stephen took some videos and photos, which are now our only record. There were a couple of llamas at the caravan park, I’m very sorry to have lost the footage as they are very cute indeed. Perhaps we will go back to the Williams Caravan Park to see them. I didn’t take a photo of our camping spot to compare with the photo we have from June, 2016. We chatted with fellow campers Richard and Shiela, who are from the UK.

Friday 10^th January, 2025

We had a peaceful night, with a cool breeze that made sleeping very comfortable. It was sunny in the morning and we hadn’t allowed for the morning sun when deciding on shade. It was fairly cool up until 10.00 a.m. when we left.

It’s fairly exciting travelling on Albany Highway and we longed for the peaceful York-Williams Road. We stopped at Kojonup and went to one of the bakeries for hot drinks and a shared custard tart. Just as well as instead of driving directly to our overnight spot we took a detour via Yonkers Road for the views of the Stirling Ranges, then another detour through Cranbrook looking for a back road into Kendenup. We didn’t find it and went back to Albany Highway for about 20kms until our turnoff.

We selected an unpowered site, more for shade and privacy than saving money as there is only a $5 difference. It was only $32 per night at Williams, and here it is $20 for unpowered and $25 for powered. We have the same level of facilities, with toilets, showers and a place to wash dishes. And better views, looking through trees into farmland.

In the evening we went to the sports club for a meal. We were ready to go at about 6.10 p.m. and rang our local host to find out what time the kitchen closed. He said 6.30 to 6.45 p.m., so we did a very fast walk (1.2kms) to get there in time. Actually, there was plenty of time. They lost our initial order, so started our meal at just after 7.00 p.m. We chatted to some people coming in the driveway, but otherwise did not actually speak with people other than the staff. We had a couple of drinks, a cider, then a lemon soft drink.

We enjoyed the walk back as we could take our time enjoying the stars coming out and the last of the sunset.

Stephen had to get up for some Enos in the night and even I had a slight tummy problem. We had ordered two separate meals, but could probably have shared one.

Saturday 11^th January, 2025

It’s quite exciting to type 2025, we are now a quarter through the new century! Today we’ve decided to stay another night here and Stephen arranged payment with our host. We are on an unpowered site, but have shower, toilet and washing up facilities. It rained lighting this morning, as predicted by the BOM, but the clouds have cleared and we have some sunshine. This morning we took our time over getting up, having breakfast, and having showers. Stephen emptied out some of the grey water and helped with shaking out the mats and I hoovered the floor. It’s very handy to have the little Ryobi hoover, which works using the same battery as our Ryobi fan.

This sounds industrious, but we’ve also spent time reading and listening to news and current affairs through our various apps.

I had us on the 50GB for $80 plan for our Starlink Mini, and this morning found we had already used 100GB. That just in a couple of days. The 50GB worked for our last trip and it seems a bit strange, but we have not been trying to save data, so it’s probably correct. Streaming video takes up a lot of data and I’ve been backing up photos and video as well. So, I’ve moved us onto the unlimited plan, paying an extra $100. The unlimited plan for a full month is $195. I will likely change back to the 50GB plan for our second Albany trip in February.

Stephen has out his sketch pad and is working on a star map. Last night he was looking at Mars as it appears to move towards Gemini. Later in the month it will appear to move away from Gemini due to our different orbits. It had been cloudy yesterday, but cleared up in the evening so that we had quite a good view of the stars.

We are going to Gilberts, a local winery, for lunch. It is too far to walk there and back, especially in the middle of the day in partial sun. That is part of the reason why we are staying the night, but perhaps also because we realise that I need rest days of not doing a lot of driving. We are about 80kms from Albany, so will go to Mt Barker for shopping and dumping, then out to one of the beach camping areas near Albany.

Sunday 12^th January, 2025

We enjoyed our lunch at Gilberts. We discussed the winery with Harley, our waiter, who is a local from Kendenup, and also with the owner. Our meal was a cheese and cold meat board, very well done. Apparently they used to have a chef and do more of a conventional restaurant menu, but this doesn’t appear to be popular anymore. Anyway, it was a good atmosphere and we enjoyed the food very much.

Afterwards we drove around the Kendenup area locating the local attractions from a brochure. It was interesting, but we were tired when we got back and happy to settle in for the night. We had bought a bottle of wine so that we could have a small drink each at the winery and perhaps a bit more with our dinner. Which we did.

It was colder than our first night, with a little light rain in the early hours.

Today we packed up and went to Mt Barker to dump our toilet and do some shopping. I had bought some pumpkin when Matt was coming to tea, but hadn’t used it all up. I wanted to make a pumpkin soup for our evening meal, so we bought some additional ingredients, including dried soup mix, and onion, and some greens.

Our drive here to Cosy Corner was made interesting by Google Maps. It sent us on a route through farms and bushland on gravel roads. Even when we finally arrived at the road into Cosy Corner we were diverted again onto a gravel road due to the main road closure. It was after 12.00 when we arrived, so we probably shouldn’t have found a site, but we did, after driving past it initially, looking for something flatter. In the end we came back to it and snagged it just before some other campers came in looking for places. Whew! I paid our fees for two nights and we settled in and had lunch.

It was hot this afternoon and we had a choice of a calm, but hot interior, or a windy, but cool outside, sitting on our camping chairs. We opted for outside.

Around 5.00 p.m. we went for a walk along the beach, then came home to talk to Matt on FaceTime and cook our pumpkin soup. Stephen cut up all of the vegetables with a very inadequate knife. The soup took about 45minutes overall. I had soaked the soup beans so that they would cook more quickly. We still had some of the wine left, so enjoyed that with our meal.

We are watching the programme ‘Dr Karl’s How things are made’ on  ABCIVIEW and it’s very interesting. We watched the one on toilet paper last night and the one on chocolate tonight.

The forecast is for some light rain tonight.

A Guest Post from Stephen Hastings

Let’s spend the morning at Meelup beach
There’s toilets, showers and a breeze
And not too many people at this stage

The water sparkled blue and glistened green
A lovely day so it would seem
But then they came, the four wheeled drives,
And family cars buzzing  like flies
As swims were done the cars moved on 
To be replaced quite soon by newer ones
A constant noise of low rev motors
Filled our morning of drinks and photos

Wednesday 1^st January, 2025

It was hot on Wednesday. We arrived in Bussleton at about 2.30 p.m., going straight to the dump point and filling up with water. We then went to the Busselton Jetty and had a cold drink.

We had planned to stay at the Quindalup Boat Ramp for the night. We did this a year ago and were able to be tucked away out of sight of the actual boat ramp in the large overflow carpark. This time, however, there were signs saying no camping. We had our evening meal and tried to work out where we should go. Eventually we ended up staying overnight near a nature reserve. We arrived after dark.

Thursday 2^nd January, 2025

In the morning we got up, packed up, and went down to Meelup Beach. This was lovely. Whilst Stephen had a wash I had a short swim. We stayed until about 3.30 p.m. It got very busy, but had the plus of toilets, plus the Simmos Icecream and coffee van was there.

We thought we wouldn’t keep playing the ‘find somewhere after dark’ lottery and phoned a couple of caravan parks. We got one night at Amblin (now a Discovery Park) and three nights at Southern Stars Caravan Park, but with a different campsite for each night.

Our first night cost $100, but we enjoyed being able to walk through the park to the beach and have an evening swim. We also took the binoculars, our chairs and the tripod down to the beach after dark. There were kids on skateboards and a bright light near the place we had planned to set up. After a while we walked on to a darker spot. We had to keep our torches on when walking as there were people on bikes and skateboards going along the dark path.

Friday 3^rd January, 2025

In the morning we went for shopping in the newish Vasse shopping centre. Stephen was shown how to use a bread slicer as it is self serve, but if everyone needs to be shown, it defeats the purpose. There is a beautiful Korean restaurant there, so we mentally picked it for our lunch. We went to Macdonalds to fill in time, but found a very nice café we should have gone to on our way to the restaurant. It was a lovely meal, helped by the atmosphere.

Then we went to the caravan park. We really liked our ‘pitch’ and enjoyed a wine tasting and bought a pizza from the food truck for tea. There was no power, but it was such a nice spot we would like to have stayed, but couldn’t.

We got out the Seestar for a while, not long enough to get a good image, but it’s still nice to play with it.

Saturday 4^th January, 2025

Stephen was meeting his friend Richard for coffee in the morning, so I dropped him off and drove off to the beach to wait for him. When I got back we found a spot near the café and had lunch. We spent a couple of hours in the café, having afternoon tea.

Then we went for a little walk and spent time paddling and watching the sea birds.

Then back to the caravan park to our new pitch. It wasn’t as nice as the first pitch, but still had a view across fields. We got out the SeeStar again, but didn’t get much in the way of images, partly because of the caravan park lighting and we also started a bit early.

Sunday 5^th January, 2025

We had to move pitches again, and they wouldn’t let us stay on our pitch after 10.00 or go to our new one until 12:00 p.m., as they wanted to mow and water it. That could have been done on Monday morning, one day later. I would have treated us as being a three day stay myself, not moving us on at 10.00 and having a gap of a couple of hours.

Anyway, we went down to Margaret River to the White Elephant café on the beach. We had a very healthy lunch of Thai chicken and salad for lunch. We hung around afterwards and had afternoon tea at about 2.00 p.m.

Then back to the Busselton Jetty for a swim, then an icecream, then we walked half way along the jetty.

Then back to the caravan park where we were in time to have a serve of fish and chips between us with our own salads. We were too tired to get the Seestar out after dark. I went to bed at about 9.30 p.m.

Monday 7^th January, 2025

We woke up to a beautiful, sunny morning. It was cool enough overnight for us to sleep comfortably even though the forecast was for a fairly hot day, even in Busselton.

Driving home, I wanted to take the inland route, but this is not possible for quite a while due to the new bypass system. However, we called in at the Capel Bakery for lunch. The rest of the drive home was tiring for me, I expect it was a bad idea to do so much driving the day before we left. But, we arrived home safely, which is all that really matters.