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| Porongurup |
Bremer Bay was to be our turning point. Now we had one week to head back to Perth from where we will be flying to Thailand.
We went back to Porongurup National Park, where it had been raining last time we were there. Now the weather was perfect and we all really enjoyed the 3-km-round-trip to Castle Rock, stunning rock formations with a newly installed «sky walk».Our 3 little mountain goats had a lot of attention and praise from other (elderly) tourists.
From here we headed further North-West right through the middle of nowhere. For lunch we stopped in Manjimup, where the «Timber Park» with nature walks, historic houses and steam trains kept us occupied for quite some time. Axel particularly loved the exhibit of a bush school, that was usually run by one teacher, who was also responsible for emptying the toilets. I would not hear the end of that one and when we passed a lady cleaning the public toilet of some little town he said :»That was probably the local teacher!» Ha ha!
At the hottest time of the day we arrived in Donnybrook, which is known for their apple and pear industry and because that industry has sponsored a huge playground. It also had a part with work-out-machines for grown-ups, so we all had great fun!
Early the next morning we went back to the Dolphin Discovery Center in Bunbury, where we had not seen any dolphins when we spent Lisa's and Niklas' birthday there. We sure got the full works this time! Lisa was the first to spot a young dolphin coming in. Her name was Eclipse and she stayed for quite some time, checking out the tourists that were standing in line, all exited to see her. She came back for a second inspection a little later and got so close to Lisa that she could have touched her. Lisa was spellbound whereas Niklas almost panicked. Lea thought it was so boring that she asked to be brought back to the beach. There was even a third visit and this time it was Eclipse's mother Levy, who was pursued by two male dolphins. When they started to play it a bit rough we were asked to leave the water – but what a show to watch!
On our way out of the center, Lisa bought dolphin-goggles in the gift shop and did not take them off for the rest of the day.
Unfortunately they turned out to leak water, when she put them to the test at the beach (Woodman Point) the next day. That was the day we lost Leas goggles so it is still good to have the extra pair. What happened was: Lea must have gotten the tentacles of a poisonous jellyfish between her legs and jumped hysterically out of the water and up and down on the beach. The goggles were filling up with tears, so I took them off and carried a reluctant and still hysterical Lea to the shower. When I washed her off she calmed down so that obviously helped. Naturally she would not go back into the ocean, but this was our last beach-visit in Australia anyway.
We drove into Perth and visited the Western Australian Museum, which was great and we might return on Sunday. For Saturday we had different plans: We drove along the coast to the North to visit AQWA, the aquarium of Western Australia, which ranks as nr 10 in the world. We had a great day, but found there was more to see in L.A.'s Aquarium of the Pacific, which ranks lower. It is the tunnel that goes in a circle through an enormous tank with sharks, stingrays, turtles etc.that had won them the rank.
It had been a good way to end our stay in Western Australia! All that is left to do now is to pack, post this blog and then we are off to Thailand!
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