Last few days in the Wild West...

So having said goodbye to our friends at Yallingup Beach, Pie, Crack and I proceeded straight to Bunbury (by way of a layby and a 1.5 hr nap!)

We were staying in a cabin on a campsite, which was v clean but had the slowest wifi known to man (although, on that front, worse to come!). Crack loved the "new house" and the playground on site! And after Pie had managed to download a few urgent emails, we headed into Bunbury for a great tapas meal. It's the first time Crack has really enjoyed colouring at a restaurant, which gave us a nice break especially as it was a lovely place with a bright red grand piano for live music (not on a Monday night though!). Good food and good wines from MR meant it wasn't too much of a comedown for our gourmet weekend!

 

But really, there was only one reason that we came to Bunbury and we were up, and checked out early the next morning, arriving at the Dolphin Discovery Centre 5 minutes after it opened at 8am. We'd been told that the dolphins were more likely to visit in early morning. We picked this place because the dolphins swim right into the shallows, which means that Crack can see them without having to swim, or be patient on a 2 hour boat trip! A crazy old lady started to feed one dolphin by hand about 60 years ago and eventually the whole pod started coming. Nowadays the Centre has a special licence to feed the equivalent of about 3 fish a day - as a reward to those dolphins who choose to visit the shallows, than as a food source.

 

Anyway, having turned up early, no dolphins appeared, so we enjoyed their aquariums, 3D videos, displays and playground.

Then, very excitingly, at about 10am, the bell rang to signal there was a dolphin approaching the beach! We all ran down and waded in thigh deep to see the visitors. There were two dolphins, Shanty and her 10 month old calf Jingles, who was born last Christmas. Only Shanty came in close swimming back and forth, to within about 2 metres of us, and they both hung around for about 5 minutes. It was brilliant to see them and so close that Crack was fascinated! A really cool experience!

Luckily I realised that I hadn't taken any decent pictures, so we stopped in the gift shop and sure enough, they had a photo of the exact dolphins that had come to see us. Slightly better than I managed!

 

We hung around for another couple hours, just see if any others came to visit, but it wasn't to be. Can't complain though, great experience and only cost $20 and tickets were valid for 3 visits!

 

Afterwards crossed the road to explore Bunbury Mangroves (look out for the wooden bottoms!), the most southerly mangroves in WA. Then hopped in the car and continued north to Fremantle.

Arrived at campsite in Fremantle, where we were staying in a cabin, to find out that they had no wifi (despite guide book and website saying they did!). Cue two days of visiting Hungry Jack's (that's Burger King to the rest of the world!) car park to steal half an hour of free wifi morning and evening whilst Crack got bored and pointed out the playground over and over and over again! But at least Pie managed to keep on top of the most urgent emails! So impossible to keep up with blog with such ridiculous wifi arrangements!

Anyway first evening in Fremantle took Crack to the playground at Esplanade Park and then wandered through the town before dinner. What a lovely place, really nice feeling, old buildings (well, for Australia anyway!) and a hippy-ish, laid back vibe.

Lots of Victorian and Edwardian buildings, especially in the centre -this seems to be very unusual in Oz! It was a welcome change. And made for a quirky town!

This one is for my Great Uncle Stu.....they play a different kind of football here!

Some great ecofriendly things going on in the street, climate change adaptation and community building in one easy step! Hard to imagine these at home...they'd be trashed in a matter of days....a real shame but that's the truth of it :-(

And there's some wonderfully weird stuff about.....like bearded, moustachioed model heads selling hats (and bush whips?!) or the Wicked Witch crushed under a cash machine....

Or even a kangaroo proving that any species can get into a fight if they drink too much lager!

We can see why people love Freo, we thought it was a lovely place!

Anyway onto dinner....amazing Vietnamese food at iPho. Crack surprised us both by monstering beef and rice noodle rolls and most of Pie's prawn starter! Then spent the rest of the evening putting pretzels on his drinking straw!

 

We were up early the next morning, determined to make the most of our last day. We caught the Rottnest Express to Rottnest Island, or Rotto to the locals. It was a fast boat and Crack loved it!

On arriving we caught the bus that does a loop of the island (which is about 11x4 km), to see as much as we could on our short trip. It is a beautiful place with over 60 beaches, gorgeous turquoise waters which reminded us of the Seychelles, diving, fishing, swimming, snorkelling and surfing spots galore, as well as the lovely quokkas. These cat size marsupials were mistaken for giant rats by the Dutch explorers that names the island Rotte-nest - rats nest in Dutch!

All of those dots in the bay are boat moorings! Glad we didn't come in season, as its so much prettier than it would have been with hundreds of boats moored in every sheltered bay!

We found a really beautiful beach where we intended to go swimming, but by the time we walked there Crack had fallen asleep, hat over face to keep the flies off!

We all enjoyed meeting the quokkas, they were gorgeous! Some of them clearly too used to begging for tidbits (which of course we didn't give them!).

Mum and (big) Joey

Too soon we headed back to the boat, catching sight of the Perth skyline circa 20k away.

Last night had to be dinner with Jon, Jen and the girls and what a venue... Little Creatures brewery on the seafront in Fremantle. A huge converted boat shed, Little Creatures brew excellent beers on site and also serve an awesome range of wood fired pizza.....but to make things even better, they've got a massive kids sandpit which kept them all entertained for hours!

 

Fun for all ages, great food, beer and company and a lovely way to spend the last evening of a brilliant trip!

We were up and off to catch our flight home the next morning, stopping only briefly to laugh at the sign on the check in desk!

I reckon we got as close to the perfect flight with a toddler as its possible to get on the way back. Crack seems to have relaxed into a jet set lifestyle!

 

Been back in Brisbane nearly a week now and both slightly startled to realise its only 3 weeks before we head south......we need to squeeze in a few more trips round Brizzy first!!