Busselton to Esperence

After spending the last 4 weeks in the south west of WA we are soon to start heading across the Nullabor Plain eastward bound. We have had two weeks in the Busselton – Dunsborough coast of WA during the school holidays so the park was full of families, kids, bikes and afternoon cricket games, a nice change from the usual grey nomad neighbors. We visited the Margaret river area, Augusta, Cape Leeuwin ( most south westerly point in Aus) and Cape Naturalist, enjoying some more beautiful WA coastal scenery. The temperatures have been comfortably cooler than previous, usually in the 16 to 26 range. It has been nice to be in countryside with grass and tall trees instead of the scrubby desert that is the rest of WA. This part of the coast is very popular for the sail boarders and kite surfers as shown in the photos. Busselton is also famous for its jetty which goes 2 klm out to sea, and is a challenging walk on a windy day. Busselton had its annual festival for a week while we were there which provided lots of entertainment for the holiday makers. Dunsborough to WA is a bit like Byron Bay to NSW with lots of million dollar “weekenders” and full of wealthy holiday makers.

Olly had a dose of kennel cough so we had him to the vet and had to keep him away from other dogs for a week. It was not hard as his choking cough sounded terrible, but he was back to normal after a week. We put him in a boarding kennel for a day when we went to Rottnest Island and this is where he caught it.

From Busselton we drove through the Kari and Jarrah forests of the Pemberton area to Denmark on WA’s windy south coast. The caravan park site was about 6 meters from the edge of the water at Wilson Inlet at Denmark, providing a beautiful outlook but very exposed to the wind. We arrived here on the Australia Day long weekend to find out that there was an outdoor concert in the Madfish winery with John Butler Trio and the Waifs so the park was booked out with lots of mainly younger people from all over the south west who had come for the concert. The atmosphere was lots of fun. Pity the tickets were sold out. From Denmark we visited Albany and the tourist attractions there as well as taking the tree top walk near Walpole (see photos).

From Denmark we went to Bremer Bay for two nights which while being 100 klm out of the way was again beautiful and recommended. Then onto Esperence, where we have been for the past week. We spent a half day visiting the Cape Le Grande national park whose bays are fringed with the whitest sand and have the clearest aqua coloured waters imaginable. The day was warm and calm enough for me to have a swim in the Southern Ocean, a first time for me. Another scenic part of the WA south coast.

We plan to leave here tomorrow to head through Norseman and on eastwards. The mornings here have been nice but strong south easterly wind blow each afternoon. While the high pressure systems are in the bight they will create head winds for our trip east, but we will try to get an early start each day before the winds pick up. We are really looking forward to experiencing the Nullabor.

On our first night in Esperence we had a thunder storm with a little rain but it seems we have been in a better place for caravan living this summer as opposed to the east coast. Hope the rain stops over there by the autumn.

That’s all the news for now and we are all well and hope you are too.

Chris, Sue & Olly.


Cape Naturaliste

Enjoying the wind at Margaret River

Busselton from end of jetty

View from van site at Denmark

Tree top Walk 40mtr high

Wind turbine and car at Bremer Bay

Esperence Coast

Hellfire Bay High from Sue

Beautifull Hellfire Bay in Cape Le Grands NP

Floating in the Southern Ocean at Hellfire Bay