After a short stay in Busselton, it was time to move on to Bunbury where we’d spend the next five nights with our friends on their property. This was the part of the trip we were especially looking forward to!
Saturday, Jun 3rd – (Day 58)
BUNBURY – Time to hit the road again, this time for a 5 night stay in Bunbury at our friends house. It was the family Adam played in the basketball carnival in back in Adelaide earlier this year and we planned a reunion with the whole team which we were excited for.
But it was an early start to today, with those Asians waking us up before 7am being super loud again and annoying us deeply. Adam planned for a piano lesson but we ran out of time, so we just hit the road about 10am, glad to be leaving this park. We said goodbye to the ducks one last time then headed off.
For heading to Bunbury we did a walk on the Busselton pier. We thought it might take 20 mins or so, but this thing is seriously big. It was a 50 minute walk up and back. It’s actually 1.84km long, the longest pier we’d seen.
After that we headed to Bunbury, arriving around 1pm. We said g’day to Geoff and the family and set up the caravan. After setting up, we quickly did a Coles trip to get some supplies, then people started arriving around 4ish onwards.
It was awesome seeing everyone again. We spent time kicking the footy and having a 3v3 basketball game, then headed back to Geoff’s for some tea and a chat. Phil gave us a ton of great ideas for things to do and see in Perth and up north in WA as well which was great.
After everyone left, we watched the SW Slammers NBL1 game on telly and then headed to bed after another great day.
Sunday, Jun 4th – (Day 59)
We wake up just before 8am and make ourselves some breaky and say goodbye to Caidan who was taking off back to Perth this morning.
Then we decided to go for a drive into Bunbury town for our first look around. First stop was to pick up Linda’s long awaited Zelda game which was 3 years in the making, and which she booked months ago to pick up in Bunbury. This was the first stop since Adelaide that had a JB Hi Fi!
After that we parked in the main street and went for a walk. We found ourselves heading into a Wendouree Village equivalent after what felt like we were being followed by an unsavory type.
Next was a walk up the Marlston Hill Lookout which gave great views of Bunbury. But by now it was getting quite dark from thunder clouds so we thought we’d go find a place to eat.
We settled on The Rose Hotel which was a nice sports bar type place with good food. The GWS Giants vs Richmond game was on so we watched the second half of that. Then the heavens opened and the rain started bucketing down. This was serious rain too, apparently there was 70mm forecast to be coming over the next view days.
Rather than head back, we stayed at the pub for a few beers, before heading to the basketball stadium in Eaton to watch Micah play in his development league match. Micah dominated with 14 points and his team won by 1pt in a thriller. We ended up helping Geoff with the scoreboard which got a bit stressful at the end with an angry opposition coach.
After the game we played some Nintendo with Ashton and Micah, then had some tea together while we watched a movie. It was good fun, but the movie was a bit average, it was called Blackout and was one of those cliched action movies.
Monday, Jun 5th – (Day 60)
Today was about as lazy a day as you could imagine, but at least we had an excuse. It was absolutely bucketing rain outside and I don’t think it stopped for the entire day.
We started the morning getting up before 8am so we could watch the Denver vs Miami finals match, which was Game 2. It was an absolute belter with Miami coming back late to level up the series 1-1. Not bad for an 8th seed!
Then we spent the next few hours playing Mario Kart and Hidden In Plain Sight. After a late lunch, Adam and Geoff went off into the office for a few hours to talk trading which was good fun.
Like last night, we sat down together and ate tea and watched another movie, this time Hot Fuzz. A blast from the past, it was a good fun. All in all, a pretty lazy day, but a fun one!
Tuesday, Jun 6th – (day 61)
Well it was a pretty hairy night! The rain didn’t really stop, but even worse was that there was hail. Plenty of hail fell through the night and we were pretty worried there was going to be some damage caused to the car and caravan.
We also agreed to meet up with Geoff and Kylie around 8:30ish to go for a day trip to Mandurah, but unfortunately slept in due to not setting an alarm. But we eventually set off around 10ish. They had planned a day for us touring around Mandurah and also visiting the Giants which were massive wooden sculptures hidden around the city.
Unfortunately it was still raining and we’d also later learn that today was the coldest day in the history of Bunbury, so talk about bad luck!
Mandurah was about an hours drive and it was where Geoff grew up, so he knew all the good spots to take us. We were really impressed with this city, the areas around the canals were stunning and somewhere we could envision living one day.
We stopped for some lunch and introduced them to Grill’d which we had not seen in WA yet. Then we visited the four Giants. The first one was really hard to find, but Geoff’s local knowledge got us close enough and we kind of fluked finding it in the end.
The other three were much easier to find, but we got absolutely drenched on the way. Damn it was wet, and chilly! But it was definitely worth the drive, we loved it.
It was then time to head back to Bunbury and we got back when the rain had briefly stopped, so we quickly put our hail cover over top of the caravan in case it hailed again (luckily, because it did hail again….).
Then we spent a few hours chilling out in the caravan then spent the rest of the night chatting and playing Nintendo again. There wasn’t really much else to be done in this weather.
Adam won the first Mario round of Mario Kart, which was a best of 12 match race series. After some smack talk, we decided to have another round, which Micah won. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone so happy as him after this win!
Wednesday, Jun 7th – (Day 62)
Today was another day that Geoff and Kylie had planned for us driving around the region. This was some kind of service, being chauffer driven around town by locals, we were very lucky!
First stop today was a tour around the Ferguson Valley which was a beautiful green valley outside of town which would be amazing in summer for camping. We went for a little hike and could see this being a place we’d like to return to.
Next up was the Wellington Dam which was a massive big damn with a large mural painted across it. Now this was very impressive! We have no idea how they made it, but we were impressed.
Then it was a stop at what is known as ‘Gnomesville’ which was an area in the forest with what would be 20,000+ garden gnomes. These things were honestly every where and it was both awesome and creepy. We loved it!
By now we were hungry so settled on the Dardy Pub in Dardanup. It was a feast for the ages in a quaint little pub. So much food that none of us were able to finish it.
The last stop of the day was the Bunbury Museum & Heritage Centre which Geoff’s aunty suggested. This place was a hidden gem that I don’t think many people know about, but they should definitely know about. I don’t think they advertise much.
It was basically a huge museum set up in sheds on a large property with heaps of historical artefacts and things to help celebrate the past, things from back in the 1800s onwards. It was incredible and was basically run by an older lady named Jill and a heap of volunteers.
Then it was back to Bunbury, tonight Adam was playing back to back basketball games for Geoff and Micah’s team. But before basketball, we played some more Mario Kart. This time Linda won, making us all tied at 1-apiece after three rounds. Time for a Grand Final later tonight!
Now for basketball! Game 1 they had a good win. Adam’s fitness was tested, but he held up pretty well. The second game they lost, but Adam played much better scoring 8 points and getting a few steals. It was great fun!
After basketball we had another Mario Kart race before bed. But you wouldn’t read about it, the score was tied at 28/28/28, we all finished a draw after the 12 races.
We couldn’t leave it at that, so decided we would have a rematch in the morning, after we watched Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Micah even got the day off school, so it was on!
