After a much better night's sleep we packed up late, once again, and took the Caves Road tourist route north towards Margaret River. We didn't explore any of the caves because all but one of them charged for entry and because we've been in a number of caves on previous trips.
We took a detour into Hamlin Bay, then up to Boranup Lookout; not the greatest of views. We continued on via a couple more detours on some minor dirt roads within Leeuwin Naturaliste NP, then into Prevelly, which appears to be popular with younger tourists - the first lot of tourists we've seen all holiday that are younger than us!
The bushland between Margaret River and Prevelly is where the bushfires occurred a couple of years ago. The regrowth is thick and well under way. There were many areas of bushland with wild lilies everywhere - more prevalent around here but also in areas further north and south in the National Parks. We're unsure whether they are natural or introduced, but either way they were certainly different to the usual flora.
We went into Margaret River for a morning coffee and a treat. Had to visit the Fudge Factory and make a few purchases! I was keen to check out the town of Margaret River as well as the surrounding park land because I had heard many people comment about how beautiful the area is and how great it is to holiday in Margaret River. I can't say I was blown away. Sure, there were some scenic areas around it, but nothing that you couldn't find in Gippsland or the Yarra Valley or Western Victoria. The town was fairly, well, ordinary. Not that it was bad, just that there was nothing that stood out as being worth travelling across the entire continent for. Basically, there was nothing there that I couldn't get anywhere else that was closer to home.
There was one more shop that Morgs wanted to look at before we left so I decided to wait in the car, which was parallel parked on the main street. I had my head down looking at the map when I suddenly heard something cracking and breaking and I felt the car moving oddly. I looked up, planted my foot hard on the brake and realised that the car parked in front was a lot closer than usual! At first I thought the car in front had reversed into my bullbar. Then when I realised that there wasn't a driver in the car that reversed into my car I looked in the mirror and realised that the car behind was a lot further behind than it was before and that it was in fact my car that had moved! Oh, shit. I must have pulled the gear stick into neutral for some reason and the handbrake did what Landcruiser handbrakes do best; not work! Bugger.
I reversed back to where my car had been previously parked, made sure I yanked the handbrake on hard and put it in gear, then got out to assess the damage. No damage to the front of mine, of course, but the bumper of the car in front (an Xtrail) appeared to be slightly bent in, although the plastic bumpers on modern cars tend to bend back into shape afterwards. I thought I'd better do the right thing, give them my details and fess up to my mistake, after all we have been on the receiving end of unscrupulous assholes that aren't man enough to admit their mistake when they've scraped their car down the side of our 5-day old Lancer. The lady owner has my details now, and she later reported that the back door wouldn't open, so it looks like an insurance claim will be required in the near future and all will be good.
Moving on, we took the Caves Road again north up to Yallingup for a quick look, and then up to Dunsborough. Checked out the light house at Cape Naturaliste (well, from a distance), then had lunch at Eagle Bay brewery. As we drove in Morgs noticed more Carnaby's on the grass next to the drive way, so she grabbed the camera and started snapping away while I went into the brewery to grab a table and order some food.
Morgs had a pant-wettingly good time as the cockatoos weren't too concerned about her being there and Morgs was able to get within a few metres of them, getting a couple of great shots of one juvenile in a bush, among others.
After another great lunch and a great pint of beer we kept moving north... well, east now, around Geographe Bay. (I just wanted to say "Geographe"). We stopped for an ice cream at the jetty in Busselton (longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere at 1.8km), but found that they are now charging $2.50 for a walk along the jetty! Get real...
We could see there were big rain clouds coming over and were already menacing Bunbury so we got back on the road. Driving out of Busselton we found ourselves briefly on the first freeway since leaving the Calder Fwy just before Bendigo on Day 1.
On a section of the Bussell Highway that was not freeway grade I foolishly requested that we finish off our last match in the Five-5 car cricket tri-series. Morgs had won the first two matches, and therefore the series, so I was playing the last match for pride and Morgs was playing for the clean-sweep. Morgs had previously scored an average score for her final innings before we reached Busselton, but when we were heading for Bunbury in the rain I really shouldn't have asked to finish off my final innings when all the cars coming the opposite direction had their headlights on (headlights meant it was a dot ball). I scored very dismally.
We found another caravan park cabin in Bunbury and set ourselves up for the night. Bunbury was as I remember it - pretty, scenic and I could possibly live there but I might get bored after a while. I thought that maybe if the sky above the horizon was clear there could be a cool sunset over the ocean, but it wasn't to be.
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