Last day in Oz

Our last full day in Australia turned out to be idyllically sunny and just warm enough to wear short sleeves. A local complained about the cold as we were packing up the car at Seashells. Ha! We went for a short walk from the main building of the hotel down to the same Yallingup beach we visited yesterday. The walk was through the grounds of the "heritage building", which were lovely - all greenery and roses at the moment. There was a decent offshore breeze and the surfers were out in force. Watched for a bit and none of them were eaten, or even de-limbed, by a shark. Weird.

Went to the Yallingup gallery after that and didn't buy anything. Was tempted by a glass dish but not tempted enough. There are sheep around here as well as grapes - saw a flock of merinos in a field full of arum lilies in flower. Then to the nearby Ngigli cave for some spelunking. I do like a good cave. This one reminded me a bit of the Poldark mine in so far as some bits of it were quite claustrophobic, and it was interestingly different because of the instability of the local limestone, and the lack of ventilation - breathing was noticeably harder at the bottom due to high CO2 levels. Worth the trip, but not exactly Skocjan. After the cave we took a walk around the national park at Cape Naturaliste, and saw whales migrating south. Again, we were struck by the views and lack of intrusive development.




Lunch was at the idyllic Bunker Cafe, just down the road on the north side of the cape. Bunker bay is out of the westerlies, and so calm. Another perfect Aussie beach. The cafe was half hidden in the bush, but with a great view over the bay. Good menu too, and we saw whales again while eating. Got my feet wet once more after lunch. Water temperature: Cornwall in August.

We felt we had "done" the Margaret river area as much as we were going to, so we headed off north to our last night stop at Mandurah, about 70km short of Perth. Took the old coast road between Peel Water and the sea. The road was empty at first, going through some good mixed country and then into increasing suburban development before the city. Mandurah is a largish town at the end of the Perth commuter routes, and is obviously growing quickly. After a certain amount of messing about caused by neither of us thinking to find out where the place actually was, we got there and settled in with pizza and final James Squire ales. The Quest Resort is adequate for our last stop, but Mandurah is fairly soulless. Watching Ashley Judd gushing about her past on the Septic version of Who Do You Think You Are and then going to build up some sleep creds for the marathon trip tomorrow.

Location:Quest, Mandurah