Surf Rolls in at Yallingup and Rocky beaches of Cape Naturalist

 

A Patchwork Cow at the Olive Farm

 Bustling Busselton



From Pemberton we took the scenic drive along the Vasse Highway to Busselton on the coast. Busselton is not the sort of venue we would normally visit as the town is quite large and the parks all a bit too ‘residential’ for our tastes. This time we were not there for the scenery however, we were there for the company. Whilst on the road last year, we met a delightful couple, Annie and JC who look after the Supreme Owners Group (SOG) in WA. Of course, they convinced us to join the group. Since then we have enjoyed the monthly News Letters and the odd question or enquiry from other Supreme Owners that they publish from time to time. Sadly we had not been able to participate in any activities until now and we were very happy indeed to be able to join the group at a get together in Busselton.


We booked in at the Kookaburra (No 3) park in Busselton almost right on the ocean front and only a short walk to the famous Busselton Jetty. I think they ended up with 11 vans and we had a most enjoyable week with our new found friends. Not all was smooth sailing however. The first casualty was my own beloved DD. Now those of you who have met The Bloke will know that he has an admirably smooth and bare pate these days and being of reasonably tall stature, his shinny dome is often decorated with bumps and scratches from where he constantly scrapes and head-butts various parts of the interior of the van. On this particular day, yours truly was outdoors happily throwing paint at a canvas when Helen who was walking towards me suddenly paled and gasped at something behind me. Well............I turned around and there stood my beloved with both hands clamping a white cloth to his head whilst blood cascaded in gory streams down his face. It appears he had been bending down under the awning struts to get something out of one of his splendiferous bags, when he stood up quickly, neatly sconing himself on the overhead strut. Now folk, he didn’t cut his head, instead, he came up so quickly and forcibly that he literally SPLIT his scone. When he gingerly lifted the cloth from his head, there was a gaping wound some 4 inches long right along the middle of his head running from front to back. Annie was on the scene quickly and both she and I were of the opinion that DD (Dilapidated Doug) should at least go to the Drs where we felt he would be stitched up. Of course it was like trying to put the proverbial cat in a box and our staunch hero simply refused to go. Now if you have any ideas how to get someone of DD’s stature into a car against his will I wish you would tell me.........as it was we had to acquiesce to his wished and instead we patched him up to the best of our abilities. It was thanks to Karen and her trusty medical kit that we ended up putting those neat little strips across the wound which acted pretty much like stitches anyway. I don’t think any man has been better looked after than The Bloke in the next few days – so many ladies looking after him and asking how he was. We monitored him closely particularly for the first 24 hours just in case of concussion and then of course infection. It seems he is made of pretty stern stuff after all and has recovered well from his mishap. He is still sporting a couple of those strips Karen and only removes them when after showering they sort of spring attractively away from his head!


The next disaster was poor old JC who suffered unmentionable distress when one of his body parts refused to function. A trip to emergency in the early hours of the morning followed by a couple of days of bionic type apparatus attached to his nether regions saw poor old John through the first part of his ordeal. The worst part was yet to come, I gather, when he returned home and his condition deteriorated. For the sake of John’s privacy I won’t go into any further details except to say how much I admired both John and Annie in their hour of difficulty. Considering the delicate nature of John’s situation I was just blown away by how well he dealt with the constant enquiries from all and sundry regarding his situation. Annie too was stoic in the face of difficulties and stood-by her man through all the problems. Not once did either of them shirk in their hosting duties and they continued to look after all of us without stint. What’s more they continued to smile throughout the whole ordeal. It reminds me of a quote my granny put in my little autograph book when I was a girl...


“A man worthwhile is one who can smile when everything’s gone all wrong”


Annie and John, thanks so much for the wonderful work you did to make us all feel welcome and to make the week such a success.


We met some lovely people in that week, particularly Helen& Jim and Karen & Fay who were our most immediate neighbours. Jim outdid himself in catching heron and JC complimented his efforts with diligent use of his smoker. The subsequent delight of freshly caught and smoked heron was delicious. Daily sun-downers were a feature of the week and I am sure we all left with an added kilo or 2.


The weather was kind to us as we enjoyed warm and balmy weather just a little cooler than those poor folk still sweltering in Perth. All good things must, they say, come to an end, and so too did our week with the Supreme Owners Group (SOG) as slowly each of our new found mates lumbered out of the Kookaburra Park. The park incidentally was very good and it was dog friendly. As I said before, it was perhaps a bit tame by our standards as we tend to prefer more unkempt surroundings, but it was level, grassy, shady and well appointed. Busselton itself is surprisingly large. We hadn’t really looked at Busselton for many a year and we were pretty well blown away by the growth there. Like many of our South West coastal towns, there have been quite extensive housing developments and land values, even now are pretty steep. The town sports everything you would be likely to need to live there and then some.


From Busselton we drove down to Dunsborough and Yallingup and much of the Cape Naturalist National Park. There is some very pretty coastline along the northern edge and some starkly beautiful wilder scenery on the southernmost end. Dunsborough is a delightful spot and very popular with retirees and Yallingup is a well known and popular surf beach, where once upon a time in another life altogether, I was part owner of the now rather upmarket Caravan Park and cafe.


In truth we didn’t do the area justice and will perhaps revisit to better describe it at a later date.