2/18/06
Bunbury and Busselton

Our first stop for the night out of Perth was Bunbury. It seemed far enough from Perth to escape the metropolitan area, but we were surprised with the amount of land development in the area. It seems that the whole coast is feeling the rapid growth of Perth. Large tracts of land are being developed with single family homes, and what was once scrub land bordering the ocean will soon be new beach front communities.

We found a nice caravan park 5 km from town that had these A frame cabins. It was a nice change from the boxy cabins you find all across Australia.

Speaking of interesting shelters, I found these fiberglass and steel lean-tos very convenient for beachgoers in Bunbury. With the intense heat of the southern sun it was nice to see the town providing some shelter from the radiation.

One of Bunbury’s attractions is it’s pod of friendly dolphins often found in its bay. They come very close to shore to feed on bait fish, and visit with the people in the water. There is a “Dolphin Discovery Center” that supervises the visits, and lets people see the mammals up close with swim masks.

We all waded into thigh high water and watched the dolphins swim by. Every few minutes one would swim away while another wild one would appear.

Now that we were on the West Coast of Australia, we could enjoy sunsets over the ocean. My daughter loved running on the beach late into the evening enjoying her first sunset on a western beach.

About 30 minutes south of Bunbury is the town of Busselton. It’s main attraction is a pier that claims to be the longest wooden pier in the Southern Hemisphere. Stretching 1.8 km (over a mile long), it’s a long walk to the end, especially when carrying a two-year old!

There is an underwater observation deck at the end, but we chose to simply take a nice walk. With railings only on one side, and an uneven walking surface, we had to take special care not to trip! Our nice walk turned into a long portage to keep the baby from falling off the pier!

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