Tuesday 18 September – Just as well we put the flys up on the van as we had some very heavy rain last night and during the night – even thunder!  And today has been a bit on the cool side, but lovely when the sun was out.  We had no rain today, though it was very cloudy early on.

There was nothing to rush for today, so we started slowly, leaving here to get Grant’s blood test done a bit after nine o’clock.  And we didn’t have to wait too long at the hospital, so that was good.  His reading has gone up again, so, as his doctor doesn’t work on Tuesdays, Grant will have to ring him tomorrow and no doubt the dosage will be changed again.

After we left the hospital we drove into the city centre and went to the visitors centre to get some brochures, etc.  These centres are really good and one young girl in this one was especially helpful and chatty.  We then went for a bit of a sightseeing drive around Bunbury, first stop Koombano Bay where dolphins come in regularly to the delight of those watching.  Well they didn’t come in while we were there, but we watched for them anyway, and watched some activity at the wharves near there.  There are some pretty big cargo ships come in, that’s for sure.  The main exports from Bunbury are alumina, mineral sands and woodchips.  From there we went to the town lookout, climbed the 90 steps (nearly blowing away in the process) and had an excellent panoramic view of the city and the surrounding ocean.

A picture of the lookout (at night) that I pinched from the internet.

Grant at the top of the lookout.

The areas surrounding the lookout and the lighthouse look to be very wealthy as the houses built there are massive, elaborate and probably child free as they all seemed to lack anything that looked even a tiny bit out of place, and no bikes, trikes, swings or anything else of that ilk could be seen from the bird’s eye view we had from the lookout.

We drove round the city and surrounds finding an older area of the town with its much less grand houses, many dating from the early years of last century, but all nicely maintained with pretty gardens.

Back at camp we had a cuppa, then lunch and this afternoon have read, eaten, had cuppas, done crosswords and sudokus and generally just bludged.  It is quite a bit cooler tonight and I even have my trackie pants and a windcheater on – first time for long pants for a very long time.  Tomorrow we are making our way to Albany and I think the forecast is for a top temperature of about 18 degrees, so it looks like the thermals will be dragged out in the next few days of this daily drop in the temperature keeps up.