Busselton

I don't have any ambition to be an ironman.  Or iron woman.  It just looks way too hard.  I think I'm more the marshmallow woman variety.

We packed up from Wellington National Park this morning, gathering all our belongings that were lined up along the fence, swatting flies and picking up little bits of wool.  We stopped at the tap near the toilet block to fill the two 100L caravan tanks with water using jerry cans. That took a while! 

We headed into Busselton, on Geographe Bay, along lovely country roads, lined with paddocks of cows, sheep, ponies and goats and tall trees.  It was a bit overcast, with heavy black clouds, a change from the usual bright blue sky we've enjoyed.

This area of Western Australia is looking up - well, it has a large number of towns named ending with 'up'.... I've noticed Boyup, Nannup, Manjimup, Yoongarillup, Cowaramup, Mumballup, Dinninup, Chowerup, Punchmirup, Tutunup, Dombakup, Lake Quitjup and Mt. Chudalup.  That's just a few.  This was a bit weird until someone told me up means "water" in aboriginal, so these places are all built on rivers or streams.

Arriving in Busselton, we discovered today was the annual Ironman Race.  Roads were closed off and there were lots of people around.  There was a big screen set up in the middle of town and a loud speaker announcing events in words we couldn't really make out.  On our walk down to the waterfront we had to gauge the crossing of some roads to coincide with breaks in the runners.  People were cheering and dressed up in strange wigs.  We passed a tent with tables piled with blue plastic bags.  Each one was numbered, and as runners came along, if they wanted something from their plastic bag they would hold up their hand and volunteers would hunt out their bag in time for them to stop, grab their snack, and keep running.

 

We made it to the jetty, the longest wooden one in the southern hemisphere, and paid our entry to walk along it.  1.8km out.  There is a train track along it, but the train wasn't running while we were there.  The water was so clear we really wanted to swim, in fact, the swimming part of the ironman race was held this morning at 5.30am, and competitors had to swim out and around the jetty.

 

At the end of the jetty is a viewing aquarium.  They built a cylinder surrounded by aquariums under the water, and you can go down and look out at the fish and coral under the jetty.  They also have a seal in there, I think.  It was too expensive and too late for us to go in, but we saw all the cormorants sitting on poles, waiting for their turn at the seal's dinner.

Coming back along the jetty, I thought we would at least be able to cross the roads without worrying about the runners.  We'd been a few hours looking at the jetty.  Surely they would be finished.  but no.  the they we, still staggering along.  it was quite hot, and one or two looked like they weren't going to make it.  when I dragged out my ironman brochure, I discovered they had 42.2 km to run, and that was after riding a bike 180km, and swimming in the ocean for 3.6km.  It was after 5pm and they had been going since 5.45am.  Yep.  Marshmallow chick for me.

Believe it or not, that was the most exciting part of Busselton for Joseph.  And that even counted the IGA and the oldest stone church in WA. (we only saw that from the outside...)

It was quite late by the time we pulled into our campsite for the night, a hundred kilometers or so south of Busselton.  We parked in one of the last spots at Chapman's pool, and almost everyone else had gone inside for the night.

There's not much here, but there is a drop toilet and a river, so we're good.  We set up our Christmas lights, ate our dinner, and crashed. 

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Vicki