Saturday, November 24

We went to an open air market in Dunsborough. There were lots of Christmas crafts and it seemed so odd to see Santa and Snowmen on things when we were experiencing 26 degree Celsius weather. The market had a combination of flea market tables and craft tables – some of the things were interesting and we had fun walking around looking at everything. I’ve been looking for Christmas ornaments but the ones we saw at the market were things that could be made anywhere so I passed them up. John was wearing his Tim Horton’s ball cap and one of the vendors asked where in Canada we were from – he recognized the Tim Horton’s name as he had worked on the ski hills in Kelowna and Banff.

When we got back to the condo, John and I walked across the street to the Flametree Winery . We sampled a few of the white wines and purchased one bottle. A lot of the wineries seem to have an “artist in residence” and Flametree was no exception. After buying the wine, we chatted with him for a while and watched as he was painting. Finally, we decided to head back to the condo and then go for a walk. We walked up the road on the bicycle/walking path and were noticing how many snails there were on the path. Just as we said that, we were passing a signpost and there were snails all over it. Very odd!

We went looking for more kangaroos and saw 3 in the distance but not in photo range. We also saw a western rosella (a type of parrot) hiding in the long grass – not a very good photo op walk. To our surprise, when we got back to the condo, we had a visiting rosella in the peppermint trees outside our balcony.

Sunday, November 25

We headed for a car show and boot sale in Busselton. It was fun seeing old cars that we recognized (except for the names). My favourite old car was a 1962 Valiant with a push-button automatic – just like my parents had after the station wagon they had before it burned up. There were motorcycles, off-road vehicles, street cars, vintage cars and antique motors. For entertainment, they had a car drop where they hauled a car up into the air with a crane and then dropped it as many times as it took to really destroy it. The car we saw took 3 tries before it was totalled. We spent a few hours there and then made a stop at a farmer’s market before heading back to the condo.

When we were driving back, I decided to count the number of Christian denomination campgrounds along one stretch of the road. There were 12 religious camps and 1 Scout camp. Pretty impressive considering the properties all are waterfront with a beautiful white sand beach along Geographe Bay. Lucky campers!

Monday, November 26

John and I are travelling to Perth for 4 nights by way of the Australind Train from Bunbury to Perth. We loved the Margaret River region – hope Perth is as enjoyable! More to come on Tuesday and the following days – it’s hard keeping up when we’ve so little time to explore.