Bunbury

We met up with our friends James & Lou again and spent a lovely couple of days with them in Bunbury, in SW Aus. On the way down to meet them, we spent some time at Yallingup National Park; there we saw thrombolites (2nd photo) - one of the earliest life forms on Earth and similar to the strombolites we've seen elsewhere in Western Aus. We went for a walk in the National Park but there were lots of spider webs across the path and we kept walking into them; Australia, with all its venomous creatures, is really not the place you want to be walking into spider webs, so we ended the walk early! We headed to Bunbury, where we stayed on the same campsite as James & Lou - we had a cabin next door to their camper van pitch. As you can see we all enjoyed a game of crazy golf and playing with Solana on the jumping pillow. We followed that with a barbie and sharing plenty of travel stories and tips about where to head next (they've been South where we're now heading, and we've been North where they're heading). Today we went to Bunbury Wildlife Park, where we got to see plenty of birds (including the "Major Mitchell cockatoo - thought of you Jayne & Dom!), wallabies, a wombat and some rarer Australian marsupials. The highlight of the park for all of us though was being able to feed and stroke the kangaroos; after seeing them lots in the wild it was lovely to be able to see them so close up and they were surprisingly gentle for such a big, strong, animal. After a picnic lunch there, we went for a walk around the nearby "Big Swamp" wildlife area (last photo), where we saw black swans, shelducks and long-necked turtle. In the evening we enjoyed another meal together, washed down with local wine and good conversation. James & Lou still have 4.5 months left of their travels and we only have 6 days left - we'd be lying if we said we weren't a bit jealous but we look forward to see them at some point after they return from their travels and hear about the rest of their amazing trip....Lue lisää