Bussleton Jetty

Our stay in Bussleton has been action packed. When we arrived, set up camp and had some dinner we discovered that there was a torch-light bug and frog adventure to join. Joe particularly loved that. We started early on Monday morning and had a look around Bussleton before heading to the Jetty for our train ride. The underwater observatory at the end of the jetty was fantastic- we saw lots of fish and the pylons look gorgeous under water. Eric and Campbell opted to walk back along the jetty but Drew and Joe really wanted another ride on the train. We hit the waterslide after a quick lunch and then a swim in the gorgeous, clear water of Geographe Bay. Drew and I had fun running along the jetty and jumping off.
When we got back to the tent for dinner we discovered that a rock climbing wall had been set up AND that 'The Smurfs' was showing in the games room!! The plan to go fishing/ crabbing went out the window. I think we jammed as much as possible into our Bussleton experience. It is such a beautiful place to be.
We are exploring the Margaret River region today and really don't know where we will pitch the tent tonight- we will see how our day unfolds :)

Pretty yummy left- overs dinner.

Frog tour with a possum as an added extra.

The Bussleton Jetty train.

Perth

Fully recharged and relaxed, and ready to embark on the return voyage. The boys opted to do nothing else but hang out with Deb and Sam and enjoy the constant offerings of incredible food cooked by Sam. We loved watching Sam and his brothers make tomato sauce. It was a long process and took them the entire morning to push the tomatoes through their very nifty machine. We are excited about creating some meals using our precious bottles of beautiful sauce with basil and chilli. Eric and I were inspired to extend the garden even more than we did after our last visit with Sam & Deb.
We had a lovely dinner at Hilary's Boat Harbour with fantastic ice- cream creations for the boys to finish off our last night in Perth.
Sam took Eric & Joe to the fish market this morning to get some prawns for a quick lunch. Well....we ended up with a feast of squid, crab, marron and prawns. Sam taught me some tips for the crab sauce and how to cook tender squid. We all ate beyond our limits because it was all so, so good! Joe was in his element cracking open crab and marron claws. Kate joined us for lunch too which was lovely. She very patiently participated in Campbell's play.
We are excited about Bussleton for the next two nights with our train trip down the Bussleton Jetty booked for Monday morning.
Thankyou Deb & Sam for spoiling us all so much and helping us feel refreshed and ready to enjoy the rest of our journey.

Albany

We got to Albany late in the afternoon and set about sorting an early dinner. Our body clocks are a bit confused and we find that we just eat and sleep when we need to- today that meant we awake at 5:30am and eating dinner at 4:30pm. We pulled together a yummy feast of smoked salmon, cheese, crackers, salad, pizza and gnocchi! With still plenty of hours of daylight to follow dinner I had a lovely long walk along the beach while the boys played. My calf is holding up well- I managed the soft sand without any trouble at all. I took the boys up to the pool for a swim and we were all ready to crash by 8pm! After some sight seeing tips from Deb we woke early to discover the rest of Albany and cut through Denamrk before heading up to Perth. We have never seen so many bookshops in one small town- Campbell was in his element. We arrived in Denmark at lunch and had a cheese platter with warm crusty bread at one of the winery's.
We didn't get into Perth until late and felt very spoilt to have a huge and delicious dinner ready for us. Thankyou Deb and Sam xx
We made it to Perth!!!! We will enjoy a few days of rest before we turn around and do it all again in reverse- with a few lessons learned :)

Esperance

We have left Esperance after 2 days of bliss. It was such a terrible shame to discover that there were no camp sites left and we had to settle for a cabin instead. Ahhhhh our own shower...a lounge....a TV (which as it turns out we hardly watched). All of this and no sign of any mice :) Not only did we enjoy a good rest from setting up the tent we discovered the most sublime beaches. The coast was like nothing we had ever seen. Drew had a wonderful time body surfing and although Campbell initially resisted the call of the ocean, he gave in and we joined the boys on the beach. Esperance is a gorgeous little beachside town but very windy all day long! Eric managed to find Sammy the seal at the jetty while he went out to find some seafood for dinner, but he was gone when we all went down to meet him. We will try again on the return trip- and try to get another swim at the beautiful Twilight Beach too. We are almost at Albany where we booked our site ahead for only a snippet less than the cabin at $100 for one night- the most we have paid for a camp site since we left home. We are assuming that Albany must be pretty special.

The Nullarbor!

When we stopped for petrol as we were leaving Ceduna one of the locals told Eric that it was 50 degrees on his verandah yesterday- I thought the car may have exaggerated! We were more than relieved to be hitting the Nullarbor with a very reasonable 29 degrees. We decided on a big day of driving and to try to get as far as we could before dark. We stopped at the Head of Bight to enjoy the views- no whales this time of year but an experience worth having. The petrol across the Nullarbor ranged from 185.9 to 198.1 so it was a costly exercise. Listening to podcasts help pass the hours and the boys have been fantastic in the car. At 7pm we thought we might try motel accommodation to save us the hassle of setting up and packing up, so we pulled into Cocklebiddy. The room was very basic to say the least but when I pulled down the bed spreads (because they looked grubby) I discovered a generous sprinkling of mouse droppings. At the same time Joe declared delightedly "ohhhh a rat!" as it took off out the door. I hustled everyone out the door as quickly as that rat. The boys were in fits of giggles at that stage because I had shouted out to Eric "mouse shit!!!" Eric went back in to reception to explain the situation to the German backpacker who was managing the place. After several attempts to explain Eric had to say "mouse shit everywhere!" before he caught on. We were very quickly refunded the $110 it had cost us. Of course as he relayed this story to the rest of us the boys cracked up again, they have delighted in reminding us that we both used the rude word for poo in front of them. We happily set up the tent in the camp grounds instead. We all break into random giggles whenever one of us remembers something about the experience. While I was stopping to take a quick photo of the said droppings (of course I had to get a photo) a stray cat wandered in and gave me a death glare- I backed away quickly and left it to enjoy dinner! We thought that we would indulge in an easy dinner and ordered some chips for the kids and veggie burgers for Eric & I. This and 5 cold drinks amounted to almost $70! We have planned the return trip with the benefit of hindsight:)
When packing up this morning we uncovered a cute little lizard along with about 3 mice under the tarp. We have to count our blessings, it has remained lovely and cool- all of that in 50 degrees may have unravelled us completely.
We have driven in and out of thunder storms all morning with stunning lightning all around us. As we leave Norseman and head into Esperance we have clear skies and warmer temps. We are hoping for a grassy site by the water tonight.

Head of Bight.

Ceduna

Well we thought it was hot yesterday!! Today it got up to 49 degrees in the car. We didn't even want to stop driving and leave the air conditioning. We kept driving until we reached the coast at Streaky Bay and enjoyed an ocean breeze and a big shady tree for lunch. When hit Ceduna we couldn't think about doing anything but finding the ocean. The heat coming off the ground was scorching hot. Our camp site is just dirt with very little shade. The camp grounds has private access to the most beautiful beach. Unfortunately impossible to access with a wheelchair so Eric carried Cam up and down a pretty decent hill. We plonked ourselves in the water and just stayed put. It was too hot to consider cooking so we went into town to see what we could find. The relief when we found an air conditioned Pizza place...ahhhh. Thankfully while we sat inside the weather changed quickly and everything cooled down. The camp site now has a fabulous breeze flowing right through the tent. I was seriously worried about how we would be able to sleep tonight. Bracing ourselves for the Nullabor experience tomorrow and well prepared to seek out air conditioned digs for the night if we have to :)

Yes it does say 49 degrees!!!

Streaky Bay for lunch.

New Years Eve

Andrew is a wise boy- a second night in Whyalla was a great idea and a wonderful way to spend New Years Eve. We wandered down to the water straight after breakfast and stayed there for the entire morning. The bucket of cookies that Nanna gave us for Christmas served more purposes than she could have imagined. The lid gave us lots of frisbee fun, the bucket was perfect for sand castles and water fights, and was also the crab collector. Jonas has proven himself as a master crab catcher and our crab dinner was superb. The car temperature gauge said it was 45 degrees in the middle of the day and we did welcome an hour of respite in the shopping centre in the middle of the day. The afternoon was spent in the water crab catching with Campbell tagging along in a blow up boat. After fellow campers watched Eric carry Campbell across the sand after the tide disappeared very quickly, the gave him a beer. He got another free beer when a family with four young kids were stranded with the caravan but no car after they broke down- Eric drove them into town for supplies. Poor things will be waiting until Tuesday before anyone can look at their car.
Andrew did an amazing job of decorating the tent with glow sticks, and we had fun with sparklers after dark. We had a glorious sunset to farewell 2011 and we were all tired and sun kissed after our day in the ocean. A very happy way to bring in the new year :)