Saturday 11th. We had travelled straight through Perth the previous afternoon and continued South to Bunbury, where we could not resist staying overnight at this motel.
The internal decor continues the theme with humorous objects and notices, though I suspect that the Dutch couple who run it, very competently, sometimes don't quite get the joke.
As you can see in the reflection, there is nothing wrong with the location either - absolute beach frontage, right on the Indian Ocean.
Like its more famous cousin Monkey Mia, far to the North, Bunbury has found a way to turn dolphins into dollars, luring them in to a 'Dolphin Discovery Centre' on the estuary - closed for the Winter.We could find little else to tempt us in WA's 'Second City', and so after a brief walk on the beach for Joc, we headed on South to Busselton, where we obediently bought a ticket and walked to the end of its famous 2 km-long jetty, only to find the underwater observatory closed due to poor visibility.
Otherwise it reminded us very much of our own Brighton pier, lined with weekend fishermen and couples enjoying a morning promenade in the sun.
We could see that in Summer Busselton would be a great seaside place with warm, crystal clear waters and 30 km of white sandy beaches stretching South to Cape Geographe.
The jetty itself forms a large artificial reef which provides an ideal habitat for over 300 species of sub-tropical fish, corals and invertebrates, easily accessible to snorkellers and scuba divers, while nearby tuart forests and wetlands abound with bird life.
We consoled ourselves with an ice cream and swapped the free-coffee voucher on the back of our jetty ticket for a happy-snap from a passing tourist, before heading on southward towards the somewhat drab-sounding town of Dunsborough.
The countryside was very attractive. On the left of the road were green paddocks whose trees, interestingly, extended to ground level.
Obviously they were unpalatable to stock but neither did they seem to be trampled and damaged by animals seeking shade.
On the other side of the road was a river, while beyond its opposite bank, just through some dunes, we could hear the sound of the sea.
All around there were birds and wildflowers - especially the lovely hardenbergias draped over almost every bush, and the humming of bees in the sun.
Altogether it was a magical environment and we could not believe that such a place could remain free from 'development', being so close to a population centre.
Perhaps the explanation lies in the relatively small population of WA together with its vast size, although it must be said that only a tiny percentage of it is like this.
Dunsborough, which otherwise left no enduring memories is adjacent to the rugged Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park.
Unfortunately we were too early to see any migrating whales, which usually pass here between September and December, and had to content ourselves with views of the dramatic coastline.
The Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse, visible above the coastal scrubland was fenced off and only accessible via a guided tour. No doubt the views are superb - we could see the previous tour group clustered on the balcony under the lantern - but we decided not to wait an hour for the next tour, and continued on down the coast to Yallingup.
This is a very popular surfing and holiday spot, with some stratospheric house prices. I got out of the car and tried very hard to be objective.
Would a visiting Mediterranean tourist send home picture postcards of Yallingup? I don't think so. The same materials - stone, sand, cement, terra-cotta - are abundant here. Obviously the money and even the skills are not lacking; the municipal whale-watching lookout is going to be quite attractive and demonstrates some fine local stonework.
What we have here however, is corrugated iron - possibly the least suitable material imaginable for a marine environment - and the most famous product of that Australian (sorry, Dutch) icon, James Hardie: woodgrain-embossed fibro-cement planking. It's not only Yallingup - most holiday spots around the Australian coastline look very similar.
Of course people do not come here for the architecture. The coastline ranges from spectacular rocky headlands - there is a human figure for scale on this one - to secluded beaches with famous surf breaks.
With the exception of about half a dozen places with road entry points, the whole coastline is National Park, with the famous Cape to Cape walking track following the coast right down to Cape Leeuwin near Augusta.
The 'coast' road itself runs parallel to but some distance from the coastline, so only the hikers get the true wilderness experience of an uninhabited seascape.
Turning inland we drove through semi-cleared farmland, and around almost every corner there was a new vineyard, reminding us that we were approaching Margaret River, the premier winegrowing area of Western Australia.
We were quite amazed to see how the common white lily had become such a serious weed here, thousands of hectares of them completely covering the ground in any half-shady location in these higher rainfall areas.
We have a few clumps at home ourselves, but they only seem to spread very slowly. Perhaps something in the WA soil or climate suits them to perfection. Of course, nothing eats them.
When we finally reached the mouth of the Margaret River, at Prevelly, it reminded us very much of our own nearby Tidal River in Victoria, with its granite rocks, sandy riverside beaches and dark, tannin-stained water.
It was a weekend, and lots of hardy young people of varying degrees of skill were happily surfing in the very chilly water. This is one of the very best locations for waves, and competitions are held here in season when the big swells are running.
After a brief drive around Prevelly, best described as a slightly more upmarket Yallingup, we drove the 10 km inland to the township of Margaret River itself.