South West

Another corner of Australia and another road trip, this time south of Perth to the wine country. Stopped off in Bunbury on the way, a charming town although the bars shut at 10pm. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem as the sort of drink on my mind at ten o’clock is usually a cup of green tea, but here we were trying to get out of the hostel for a while so it was the only town where we went searching for a pub. Oh, apart from Fremantle a few days previous where we actively searched for a drink at 10 pm but everywhere seemed to shut early on Sundays, so we ended up in a basement club complete with glitter ball bopping away to eighties music, surrounded by very drunk people and by 12pm had to go home as it felt like three in the morning. Very surreal. Reminded me of Eastenders where they all go ‘clubbin’ in the daylight, have a full night of dancing and boozing and still make it back to the Vic for last orders.
It’s been a time for surreal experiences, as in Bunbury I found myself floating in the ocean, singing Jingle bells and Kylie Minogue medleys in order to attract a pod of dolphins swimming near by. As if singing Christmas carols in November wasn’t bad enough, me simply trying to sing is a trial at the best of times, but luckily I didn’t scare them off and they eventually came over for a quick swim by and a quizzical look at the funny looking humans. The dolphin expert with us explained that the group of males were busy chasing female dolphins at the moment so while we were interesting to them they didn’t have a lot of time to spare investigating. A bit like busking outside Coppers on a Saturday night I guess. Still, a very fun experience and I can never tire of watching Dolphins.
After Bunbury we headed to Augusta and Margaret River where days and tummies were happily filled from fudge, chocolate, cheese and wine, mingled in with visiting art and craft galleries. Oh and walking by some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen. It’s a tough life.

Beautiful beach in Gnarabup, where we stayed in Margaret River

Beautiful Smith's Beach, Yallingup

Beautiful Bunkers Beach, Cape Naturaliste

Beautiful beach, Busselton