Only one other vehicle stopped the night in the rest area so other than the almost continual traffic heading both ways along the four lanes that were a short distance away it was a quiet night. We were however in no rush to leave in the morning as the run into Bunbury was an easy 25km although we did make the effort to take the old coast road so as to be able to see the ocean and beaches along the way. On reaching the town we checked out the mangrove boardwalk and then located the visitor centre. It was a bit of a mission as the town has quite narrow streets and the parking area was in the process of a bit of a revamp and therefore somewhat lacking in any long term caravan parking.
Oh well, no matter. We gathered some maps and info on the town and found ourselves a street park big enough for the van and good for 3 hours. The beaches on the north facing coast are excellent and the town itself appears to be going through quite a bit of expansion with a lot of new housing in the area that not so long ago would have been industrial. Of special interest were the apartment buildings that built in the old wheat silos. It gives the town a bit of an odd feeling though as all the new development is really close to the old part of the town and the coast. From the lookout tower it all looked a bit like a model. All very nice though and looks like a very nice town with the estuary and water all around given that it sits on a fairly narrow peninsula.
After climbing the tower and having a good walk around we headed of to something else quite unique being quite a large wet area that is in amongst the main suburban area. Lots of birdlife and quite surprising it is still there. Signage indicated it was snake season and to keep to the footpaths and what would you know…while sitting there eating our lunch there slithers this rather robust looking snake about 800mm long across the road. It was a lovely brown with yellow flecks and probably poisonous but as it was heading away from us was of no matter. Unfortunately this car came along and then spent the next couple of minutes hunting it down and running over it as many times as it could going backwards and forwards and up onto the traffic island to get the poor thing. After significantly damaging it the car drove off but the snake was still alive so Ross went and put it out of its misery.
While parked up we checked the local papers for jobs that might suit and also registered with an employment agency as it a really nice area. Then it was back on the road for a short trip south towards Busselton to our rest area for the night. A couple of other vans also pulled and we had a great chat with them and as a special treat they offered us to plug into their generator which was excellent as we got the laptop and van batteries fully charged.
