Bunbury

We started off with another visit to the Dolphin Centre, and timed it well this time, as one of the dolphins decided to visit at the same time we did. It was pretty quiet, really, just swam up to the people in the water, said hullo for a while, took a couple of fish from one of the volunteers, and swam away again. They only feed each dolphin two fish, which is about 8% of their daily intake, so they don’t become dependent on feeding by people but remain wild animals. There is a pod of about 200 around Koombana Bay, and about 20 live more or less permanently in the bay.


When we came out from the dolphins, there was an old motorbike in the car park so of course we wandered over to say hullo. There is a group of vintage bikes here and they were gathering for a ride out for lunch. We talked to this chap for a while, and went back a bit later when more of the group had arrived.

There is a boardwalk through a mangrove swamp, so we went for a walk there. It’s interesting, and also has some information about shipwrecks in the bay. It was used a lot by American whalers in the 19th century and quite a few were wrecked in storms.

Lunch was fish and chips in a place on the foreshore of Koombana Bay, where we shared a table with a couple from Gladstone, Qld. They are living here for a couple of years, have just arrived and are looking for somewhere to live. The company he works for are putting them up in a motel while they look, which wouldn’t be much fun, and they’re finding it difficult to find a place. They had just been to inspect one furnished apartment, which looked very good, which it should be for $580 a week, I thought. I’m glad we’re not looking for somewhere to live here! We have found a lot of things to be more expensive than at home and obviously the housing is too.

We walked along the waterfront after lunch, there is a series of plaques telling the story of the bay over the first hundred years or so of European settlement, quite interesting and very well done.

We tried again for the sunset photo today, but again the clouds were there. Fingers crossed for Fremantle!

After the photo attempt we had dinner at a restaurant on the beach, very good meal and a beautiful spot for it.