15th April - Lake Clifton and on to Busselton
Today we drove 224km south from Perth to Busselton. We made one stop en route at the Yalgorup NP to visit the Lake Clifton thrombolytes. Here we did a short walk through the woodland and scrub beside the lake.
This being the Australian school holidays, there were more people here than we had expected, but we managed to find some quiet spots to do a bit of birding.
Having taken the wrong turn to return to the main road, we happened upon a nice picnic spot for lunch at the Island Point reserve - where we found some Crested and Caspian Terns.
On arrival in Busselton we found a field of Red-capped Parrots close to the Observatory Guesthouse where we stayed.
On arrival in Busselton we found a field of Red-capped Parrots close to the Observatory Guesthouse where we stayed.
With less than 2 hours of daylight remaining we headed for the seafront and caught the last train to the end of the longest timber-built jetty in the Southern Hemisphere – and walked back.
At 1.84km it is 300m shorter than Southend Pier (2.14km), but its angulation created the odd perspective that it looked longer. Busselton was named after the first settlers in this area - the Bussel family who came here in 1832. Their descendants still live here and were active in raising funds to restore the jetty after it was wrecked by cyclone Alby in 1978. The guesthouse was unusual in being completely self-service – the key was in a keysafe and the complimentary breakfast in the fridge. We never met anyone managing the place. |