Mandurah

We leave Busselton with a heavy heart.  Could have stayed here a week and used it as a home base.  We didn’t get as far south as we intended as everything is a good distance apart. 

The train that takes you down the Jetty is just pulling out.  This is a great place for families.  Lots for kids to do.

It’s a long way down the jetty and in the heat the train is a good option.  There is an underwater observatory at the end of the jetty.

So much beautiful beach with a safe swimming area.  There’s a large play area on the left under the trees.

We head to Bunbury where we stop for lunch.

More beach.  While we’re here a large group of young people arrive on school buses and it looked like they were doing drills running the beach, swimming to the wharf and then repeating.  Perhaps it was Lifeguard training?

This area is significant to the Indigenous people.  Great art work.  We then realize that we need to leave for Mandurah as we hope to catch the 3:00 canal cruise.

We made it with 5 minutes to spare!

And off we go on our hour long cruise in the canals.

Lots of dolphins in this area.  They frequent this area on their own and like to interact with the boat.

Yikes!  We’re about to be overtaken by pirates!

This a WWII war memorial that represents the soldiers landing on the beaches.

Some huge beautiful homes complete with the yacht out front.  By Vancouver standards they are somewhat inexpensive.  The new large ones on large lots can go for 4 million but there are smaller ones that you can pick up for under a million!  What a bargain.

As we prepare to return we come to a protected estuary.  The biggest threat to the birds are foxes and feral cats that prey on the eggs of one species of bird that lays their eggs on the ground.  This estuary is fenced to keep those predators out.

After disembarking we continue our drive to Wellard outside of Perth to our next housesit.