Monday 17th May - Dwellingup to Bunbury

It was a chilly night so we’re glad we bought our big down sleeping bags to supplement our summer duvet.  Anne was convinced she heard a kangaroo hopping past the Land Rover in the middle of the night, but wasn’t prepared to extract herself from underneath her sleeping bag to find out for sure (so it could just have been someone from the neighbouring tents going to the loo).  The Kelly kettle again proved its worth, providing all our hot water needs (washing, tea and washing up after breakfast) on a few twigs and pieces of paper - I can see it becoming our favourite piece of camping equipment after our roof tent and giant Spork.

Once the camp was packed up we headed off to Pinjara, a pretty town on the banks of the Murray River where we had a wander around the historic buildings that now house an art gallery, pottery workshop, museum and tea room.

We collected some brochures from the tourist information centre by the railway where Anne counted the wagons on an ore train that passed by - 54 she says, although as I wasn’t counting she could have made it up (but it was long).

After our wagon counting fun we decided to head for Bunbury and stopped for lunch in a lay-by where we started chatting to an Australian who was interested in our opinion of our roof tent as he was looking to get one (good but there’s a bit of a condensation issue after cold nights in case you were wondering).  When we finally got to town our target was the Dolphin Discovery Centre where you have the chance to interact with the dolphins that live in the bay.

Unfortunately at this time of year the dolphins spend most of their time looking for food to build up their blubber reserves for winter, so visits to the beach by the centre are less common and when they do occur they tend to be in the morning.  We decided to go back tomorrow morning for 8am and instead went for a walk around a mangrove swamp just over the road which is undoubtedly not as extensive as it once was, but was a nice way to while away the afternoon sun.

We spent the night in a caravan park near the Dolphin Discovery Centre.  It feels slightly wrong to be staying in a proper campsite, but hot showers are always welcome and we made good use of the camp kitchen as, once the sun goes down, the temperature drops quite fast. SPOT