25th Sept.- 1st Oct., 2012 - Extended stay in Bunbury

We opted to stay in Bunbury for 8 nights for a variety of reasons: we wanted to spend some time with Gillian & Tony; it was a long weekend (public holiday for the Queen's birthday) & we might have had difficulty finding space at another caravan park; &, it being school holidays, we were probably better staying put where at least we were currently surrounded by adult caravanners.



Bunbury Marina



Bunbury Waterfront



On Tuesday, I had a browse around "Spotlight", which was full of Christmas items!  Not as premature as it might seem, since quilters need adequate time to stitch festive quilts, stockings, advent calendars, etc.  We moved on to another quilting shop, which was a real Aladdin's Cave - it had a wonderful selection of fabrics from which I chose a few that I hope to use in a wall hanging to record our current trip around Australia.  The lady who ran the shop offered Bob a chair & a cup of tea whilst he waited for me - what a diplomat!

Gillian & Tony cooked us a delicious Indian meal on Wednesday & we spent a lovely evening with them.  It absolutely poured & blew a gale during the night - unbelievable weather!

Bob took the car for another service on Thursday morning, as we've covered a lot of kilometres since its last overhaul in Darwin.  We needed to know that everything was in order before we attempt our journey across the Nullarbor Desert.  It continued to rain until late afternoon, since when it has been fine, thank goodness.

On Friday, we collected Gillian & Tony at midday & took them to Capel Vale Winery, which is a short drive out of Bunbury.  The four of us had been there before, so we knew that the food was good & the location attractive.  The gardens were looking beautiful & the rows of vines were green & fresh following the recent rain.  Our entrees were delicious, consisting of large slate platters covered with a selection of tempting morsels which we enjoyed with home-made bread & olive oil.  Gillian, Bob & Tony had "melt-in-the-mouth" steaks & I had succulent fillets of Red Emperor Fish, which were to die for (I remembered Red Emperor from a meal that I'd enjoyed in Denham).  After all this, along with some of Capel Vale's excellent wine, we drove back, well satisfied & ready for a pleasant lie-down.  It's a hard life, but someone has to cope with it!

 



Capel Vale Winery



 

Saturday was Grand Final Day - Hawthorn were playing Sydney Swans at the MCG (the latter team won - you thought I didn't know anything about footy, didn't you!)  Bob & Tony watched the match whilst Gillian took me out for a drive around Bunbury.  We all had tea together - a lovely meal of quiche, chicken, salad & chocolate cake - G&T are spoiling us (the beans on toast will come hard, after all this delicious fare!)  The weather has improved - we had a day of mixed sunshine & cloud.  However, it's pretty cold at night!

On Sunday, we awoke at 9am & had slept for almost 11 hours - incredible!  It was a beautiful warm, sunny day - the best since we'd arrived.  At 12.30pm., we set off for Gillian & Tony's house, where we were greeted by the wonderful aroma of roasting lamb.  Gillian had used her Greek recipe, where a leg of lamb is placed in a dish, on top of onions & tomatoes, surrounded by large potatoes & cooked in red wine - delicious!  After an initial glass of wine, we tucked into our lamb, along with sugar snap peas & asparagus, then enjoyed a lovely Greek salad that Tony had made, before completing the meal with a chocolate & cherry gateau.  What a superb lunch!  We left G&T with a loaf of their fantastic home-made bread, feeling that we had been royally wined & dined.  They'd done us proud.

On our return to the caravan park, we realised that our neighbours were the Swiss couple whom we'd last seen at the Rio Tinto mine.  They seem to be doing a similar trip to ours.  We also met the couple on the other side of us - they couldn't get any electrical power until Bob discovered that the socket they were using was faulty; he soon connected them to a good one, after which we all had a long chat.  We'd had a very enjoyable day.

Monday was our last full day in Bunbury - we're leaving for Pemberton tomorrow.  The weather was gorgeous (30C) & so we packed some sandwiches & a flask and set off to explore some of the countryside outside the town.  It's a very fertile & productive area - a mixture of hills, valleys, forest & meadows.  We drove to Dardanup, into the Ferguson Valley & through the Crooked Brook Forest.  Large herds of fortunate cows grazed on rich pasture land, in very green meadows.

 Beautiful wildflowers grew everywhere, reminding us of the buttercups & daisies in England.  Orchards abounded, many filled with blossom-covered apple & pear trees - a wonderful sight!  There were also mandarin & avocado trees, as well as vineyards, all of which promised to produce a great harvest later in the year.

Dardanup Visitors Centre

Small towns, such as Dardanup & Donnybrook, had lots of charm & character, with many older buildings, attractive shops & churches.  Sadly, "The Quilter's Needle", in Donnybrook, was closed.





The forest area provided us with another treat - the undergrowth was thick with yellow bushes that emitted a heady odour.  The verges were a joy, being filled with more wildflowers, some of which had a delightful perfume.  They came in a variety of colours - yellow, orange, pink, purple, cream & white; we couldn't resist numerous photo-stops.

Finally, we came upon a bizarre place called "Gnomesville", which would have been a Mecca for lovers of garden ornaments.  Hundreds of gnomes of every description were sitting beneath the trees, under toadstools, in the grass, in fact, anywhere that there was a space.  They weren't for sale but were probably just the result of an idea that someone had had - it had certainly caught on; people from all over the world had left gnomes to commemorate their visits & many of the little "characters" represented schools, playgroups, Senior Citizens groups, etc.  Wierd & quirky, but probably a child's delight.