GOING ROUND IN CIRCLES

GOING ROUND IN CIRCLES

Since Donnybrook we’ve kinda been travelling in a circle.  We first visited the small town of Balingup.  We camped in another lovely spot beside the local creek, but unfortunately, it was almost dry.  Balingup is a very rural town but the surrounding country is lovely. Would be spectacular when it is green.  There’s lots of orchids in the area, so fruit is lovely.  We did a day trip from Balingup to Nannup along the Blackwood River.  We were surprised at the number of timber plantations in this area, pine and hardwood  -  acres and acres of it.  Nannup is also a small rural town.  We parked at the local amphitheatre (seems all these towns have one) where there was a display and legend of totem poles which told the story of Nannup.  Beside us was an arbourtium with plaques showing the type and age of the trees.  Some were really huge.  We took a photo of Des and the car beside one of them.  I had to almost get in someone’s front yard to get the height in the photo.  From Balingup we headed for Boyup Brook to go to the Country Music festival.  Boyup Brook is smaller, it doesn’t even have a bakery but it is a nice town just the same.  We got to know it backwards as we were there a week.  The park where we camped was filled and overflowing with vans.  We camped next to a couple from Goondiwindi. Every available space in town was used for caravan parking.  There were literally thousands of vans in town for the week.  The festival was really good.  Very well run and  a lovely venue.  We could walk from the van to the entertainment, so it was good.  The only downside was the heat.  God, I thought we were at the Woodford Folk Festival.  The heat was relentless - 30 days of higher than 30deg temps.  The locals can’t stand it, and it is getting to us too.  On the Saturday of the festival there is a street parade of utes and trucks and lots of street stalls and busking.  It was a great atmosphere.  The Brookhampton Bellringers (who we spoke of last blog) played there and it was great to hear the bells again.  There was a bloke who calls himself the mad piper.  He plays the bagpipes and he’s dressed in boots, a kilt and has a yellow mowhawk.  But hell, could he play that thing.  Anything from Amazing Grace to ACDC stuff.  He was so good.  All festivaled out, we headed south to Bridgetown - a very pretty place.  Saw the historical parts and decided to push on and finished up going back through Nannup and on to the coast at Busselton.  This is quite a large place.  It is famous for it’s  jetty, which is very long.  The beach is very nice here.  We did a trip west to Capt Naturaliste but couldn’t see the coastline because of the bush.  It was a bit disappointing but the scenery from the lighthouse area was good.  After three days there we headed for Bunbury - a very pretty place with lots of beaches.  We tried a couple but found the sand drops away quite quickly therefore making the undertoe pretty treacherous, so knee deep was enough for some of us.  But it was a relief for a short while from the heat of the days.  We discovered a line of basalt rock on one of the beaches.  Very strange place to see that.  They have a dolphin discovery centre in a protected bay where you can go into the water with the dolphins.  We were lucky enough to be there when 3 dolphins came in.  It was lovely to be so close, but no one was allowed to touch or feed them, or even make any kind of splashing.  They endeavour to keep the dolphins as close to wild as they can.  We went up the lookout tower and had the most amazing view over the city.  Bunbury is very much a holiday resort and that was evident by the number of new units we could see from the lookout.  Shell Oil Co. used to have a refinery there, but only a few storage tanks remain today.  We camped in a Conservation Area about 15kl north along a long peninsula opposite Australind.  This is the worst place we’ve been in so far.  The mossies were soooooooooo bad we could never sit outside, and there was a warning board about Ross River Virus. The facilities would have been wonderful for a winter/spring stay with fire pits and picnic tables at each site and firewood supplied. (Bad move to leave that there when a total fire ban was in place)  On the second night there (Saturday) some young people arrived about 11pm and decided to light a fire.  Kath was scared stupid and rang the fire brigade after flames were reaching a metre high and the wind was up.  Finally a ranger came and fined the group and then found two other fires in the campground.  It’s hard to believe how bloody stupid people can be. Left Bunbury and headed north again to  finish up at Pinjarra.  This is where we were about a month ago.   We returned to the van one day only to discover that we had no power to everything in the van except the fridge (thank goodness).  Des spent a couple of days isolating what was happening and then had to rewire because he found a short in the wall or floor.  It's all OK now. Will leave here Tuesday 8^th and go nearer to Perth to stay with some people we met at Texas soon after we left home.  Des wants to do some volunteer hosting in National Parks later in the year and we have to do some courses about all that so we have to go to Perth on 4 days this week and next to get that out of the way.  After that, we don’t know where we’ll go.  May depend on the weather.  We wanted to go to the goldfields, but it is way too  hot to do that yet.  Hope you enjoy our photos once again.  Send us your news.  Catch you in about a month.



This mad painted cow is a feature in the main street at Balingup.





Explanation of the totem poles at Nannup



Some of the totem poles at the amphitheatre at Nannup



More totem poles at Nannup





This is part of the large stand of trees adjacent to the totem poles in Nannup.  Notice how small Des looks at the base, arms outstretched across the girth.




Brookhampton Bellringers perform at the Boyup Brook festival



The mad piper performs at the street carnival at Boyup Brook festival.  This guy was a true performer.  He could play anything.



Part of the truck and ute parade at Boyup Brook



Performance stage at country music festival Boyup Brook



Busselton jetty - longest in the nation



Cape Nationaliste lighthouse west of Busselton



Basalt rocks on the beach at Bunbury. 



Small boat anchorage at Bunbury viewed from the lookout tower.  The bay on the top right hand is where the dolphins come.



View from lookout tower showing where the Shell Oil Co once had a refinery.  All the buildings in the foreground would be less than 5 yrs old.



The bay where the dolphin discovery centre is housed.



Bunbury looking south from the lookout tower



Swimming with the dolphins.  Des 6th from left. It was very hard to get a photo of the dolphins out of the water.



Swimming with dolphins.  Des with hands behind his back.



This is how things looked while Des was fixing the wiring.  One of Kath's friends told her before we left that we were "trailer trash".  Just had to confirm that for her.