Bugged in Busselton; Amazed in Albany

 Yesterday, Tuesday, we were in Busselton, WA.  Our main objective for the day was to walk the Busselton Jetty, which is claimed to be the longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere.  It's 1.8K long, so I believe them.  The walk was windy and invigorating.

At the end of the jetty is the Underwater Observatory and Marine Sanctuary.  Unfortunately, when we got there, entries were fully booked until an hour plus later, so we booked it for that time and walked back into town.

Soon it was time to trek back out to the observatory which was fascinating.  It's a cylinder placed underwater with viewing windows showing the growth on the pillars and the marine life.  It looked almost artificial but we were ensured that it was natural and all of the pillars at that end of the pier looked like that.  We only had 15 minutes down there which turned out to be enough time and well worth the price of admission.

After the observatory, we walked back into town in hopes of finding some lunch and a wine store.  The search for lunch was unsuccessful (the only decent looking restaurant was way too busy) but the search for wine was a success!

So, you might ask, "what did he mean by bugged in Busselton"?  Well, Australia is known for their flying, pesky bugs and there were plenty of them in Busselton.  Just plain annoying as they buzzed around your head.

Today, Wednesday, we were in Albany, WA.  We did not have high hopes for Albany but were pleasantly surprised by the city and the interesting sights.  And, there were almost no annoying bugs.  So, we were amazed!

The first surprise was that, contrary to what we were told (that we would have to take a shuttle bus into town), we were able to walk in.  It was an easy walk along the waterfront and past the Albany Entertainment Centre.

We were able to walk along what could be the shortest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere where we were greeted by a beautiful pelican waiting for the fishing people to feed it.

When we got into the main part of town, we embarked on 2 walking tours.  The first was an art tour that showcased murals.

The second was The Amity Trail which showcased historical buildings.

It was all very interesting and it was time for lunch.  I had scoped out the Earl of Spencer Historic Inn as our lunch spot and that's when the only disappointment of the day struck.  When we got there, we found a sign saying that it was closed due to an unforeseen problem!  What??????

However, we did find a nice and satisfying lunch spot, Dylan's.

Before returning to the ship, we had one last mission to accomplish.  On our way into town, we stopped at an art shop that had some pretty wooden pieces made of drift wood.  I could not resist stopping in again and buying a piece for our collection of wooden art from all over the world.

This evening, we begin our crossing of the Great Australian Bight before arriving in Adelaide on Saturday.  Here's hoping for smooth sailing!

Peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry