Yes, it is what it is all cracked up to be!
Mum and Dad, after many adventures in Madagascar, arrived safely in Perth on a Friday morning. They were both tired so Paul drove their car and I drove the van down to Dunsborough where we were to stay for the next week.
It was such a luxury to enjoy our own toilet, bathroom, kitchen, TV and lounges for a full week. We also took advantage of couple of buffet breakfasts, all of us making significant headway into the processed carbs at breakfast! We had a couple of plays in the pool, on the beach, at the boat playground and on the tennis courts etc. We also spent some very tolerable school hours most mornings in the Busselton library which is new and very well equipped.
One day trip was a loop down to Augusta to see the lighthouse and enjoy some food. We had a run around in Yallingup Maze and took in some significant amounts of very special chocolate at Gabriel chocolates. We finished the day with some Greasy Joe’s down in Augusta where it was very windy and cold. I enjoyed the view very much from inside the car. We also made a brief stop amongst the spectacular Karri trees in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park.
Another afternoon we went to Busselton to play in the park and see the jetty – the longest wooden one in the southern hemisphere. We took a cute little train out then walked back. Dom was in heaven! All three boys loved the push it yourself style merry-go-round in the playground by the sea and let off appropriate amounts of steam doing it!
During the week at Dunsborough we managed a car and van service too, which was nice to tick off! We also managed to get Dad an iPad which was pretty fun for all concerned! All up a lovely time with Mum and Dad in a lovely spot.
It was such a luxury to enjoy our own toilet, bathroom, kitchen, TV and lounges for a full week. We also took advantage of couple of buffet breakfasts, all of us making significant headway into the processed carbs at breakfast! We had a couple of plays in the pool, on the beach, at the boat playground and on the tennis courts etc. We also spent some very tolerable school hours most mornings in the Busselton library which is new and very well equipped.
One day trip was a loop down to Augusta to see the lighthouse and enjoy some food. We had a run around in Yallingup Maze and took in some significant amounts of very special chocolate at Gabriel chocolates. We finished the day with some Greasy Joe’s down in Augusta where it was very windy and cold. I enjoyed the view very much from inside the car. We also made a brief stop amongst the spectacular Karri trees in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park.
Another afternoon we went to Busselton to play in the park and see the jetty – the longest wooden one in the southern hemisphere. We took a cute little train out then walked back. Dom was in heaven! All three boys loved the push it yourself style merry-go-round in the playground by the sea and let off appropriate amounts of steam doing it!
During the week at Dunsborough we managed a car and van service too, which was nice to tick off! We also managed to get Dad an iPad which was pretty fun for all concerned! All up a lovely time with Mum and Dad in a lovely spot.
After great week in and out of luxury with Mum and Dad we roughed it in our next site on the Alexandra Bridge in the south part of the Margaret River region. Cooking over fires for dinner and breakfast each day left us fairly smoky, and with fairly smoky clothes, but very happy! From this beautiful campsite right by the river, with some very convenient piles of dirt for the boys to play in at every available spare moment, we spent a couple more days exploring the region with the Spences. Chocolate, cheese, farmgate icecream and chutneys etc were devoured with gusto. Isaac's favourite food experience was a meal based around fresh bread dipped in cherry balsamic and olive oil with fresh sheep's milk camembert. Dom's was chocolate. Sascha's was the garlic infused olive oil from Providore. Not sure what mine was but Paul's was probably some italian sweet biscuits with fennel seeds that he will be hunting down in Rome I am sure!
We went to Lake Cave and saw the inverted table, which was thankfully pretty spectacular, and were subject to the worst tour guide I have ever had. A complete tour Nazi. We enjoyed the heights as well as the depths there, as a cool cantilevered deck had been built over a sinkhole with glass platforms to walk on. Another happy afternoon was expended at Amaze'n Margaret River with the Spences. Lots of parental sitting around, after the essential maze, while the kids tackled supplementary mazes, imaginative play and energy expenditure. Miller's icecreamery playground was also a hit, complete with cows with semi working udders that the kids could keep refilling with water!
Our last night as a family was in Augusta doing the usual post roughing it clean up of ourselves and our clothes! A mundane finish to what was a lovely visit to a truly lovely part of the world. I am told they had had their wettest winter in about a decade so maybe the grass doesn't normally look so green there. One would hope so! It was almost too idyllic! The cows looked very fat, glossy and happy! Much like us after our fortnight there.