Australia's South West Corner

We've spent the last 2 weeks in Busselton, in WA's south west. Our timing here revolved around a mixed tournament at the Busselton Golf Club, the Leaney Cup, which was held over the first weekend we were here. Although we both played reasonably well, we didn't manage to feature in the prize giving.

Having spent some time here last year, we had done most of the major attractions on offer in the area. However, working on the principle that you can never have enough wine, even in a caravan, we spent some time revisiting various wineries in the Margaret River area, stocking up on both still and sparkling wine, and enjoying lunches at several wineries. We also revisited the local chocolate and cheese factories - it would be a sin not to really!

The coast off Busselton is on the whale highway used by whales to migrate between their feeding grounds in Antarctica and their breeding grounds in the tropics. At this time of the year they are heading southwards and we spent half a day on a whale watching cruise. We did one of these a couple of years ago at Coffs Harbour on the east coast, and while at the time we had been reasonably happy with our glimpses of distant whales, this tour provided a much closer experience. One mother and calf not only got close to the boat - they actually swam right underneath it! You could just about reach out and touch them, and the water was so clear that you could easily see the markings and barnacles on their backs. Further out to sea a group of juvenile males were leaping about and having fun, crashing their huge tails into the water and competing to make the biggest splash. Boys will be boys!

Busselton town is on Geographe Bay. At the western end of the bay is Cape Naturaliste, then the west coast stretches for 135 km down to Cape Leeuwin, where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. The Cape to Cape walking trail has been constructed between the two. We certainly didn't do the entire stretch, but Wendy spent several hours walking the first 14 km section. For the most part it was very enjoyable, with terrific views of the coastline cliffs, sandy beaches and surf. The little critters in the photo at right littered the waters edge on one beach, we're still not quite sure what they are. John decided not to do the walk, but provided car ferry services.

The coastline between the two capes is a long stretch of limestone pitted with numerous caves. Last year we visited two of the caves that are open to the public, this year we went to another. Lake Cave actually has a stream running through it rather than a lake as the name suggests. It is much smaller than it used to be, apparently about 700 years ago a large part of the cave roof collapsed - they can tell when this happened by the size of the trees that have grown up in the resulting sink hole. There are 300 steps down to the base of the cave (and 300 steps back up again) but it is a pretty walk down through the leafy green to the rubble at the bottom. The exposed stalactites are no longer pristine white but covered in dust, lichen and spider webs. Inside the cave itself the most striking feature is a suspended upside-down 'table' that hangs above the water. This was apparently formed when a change in the stream flow caused the sand that was underneath the formation to erode away. The estimated weight of the formation is 5.5 tonne, so the stalactites holding it up must have a very firm grip on the ceiling!

As well as the Leaney Cup, the two of us also played in the Busselton Golf Club's competition days, plus we had a hit at Margaret River. Unfortunately, John's shoulder has been giving him increasing trouble, and he got to the point during our stay here that he could barely lift his arm, let alone swing a golf club. He's now been given a cortisone injection into the affected area and we are hopeful that he will shortly be back on the greens.