Getting there

Saturday 21st April, we headed off to the airport for our flight to Perth. After an uneventful flight, we arrived at Perth airport around 4:00pm. Rather than take the city shuttle bus, which I thought was too expensive, we caught the No. 37 bus which my research indicated would take us right to our hotel in the city. Well, what an adventure that was. The reason it only cost 15% of the shuttle fare, was that it wound around through every working class suburb in Perth, stopping at every single stop. We were treated to a wonderful array of locals heading out for a Saturday night! After over an hour, we were finally deposited in the city, a short distance from our hotel.

The hotel was another adventure. When I booked on What If, there was a note stating that this hotel was undergoing some refurbishment to their rooms, but only Mon to Fri, 9 to 5. It was the closest, reasonable hotel to the Perth Busport, where we had to catch an early bus on Sunday morning to the South West.  Well, not only were the rooms being refurbished, but the entire ground floor was a construction site and sitting in the middle of the chaos, was the temporary check in desk. Luckily the room we had was fine, and there was no construction noise on the weekend so we enjoyed a relaxing night, stepping out for a burger for dinner.

Next morning, bright and early we headed off down the road, dragging our luggage behind us as we walked to the Busport, a short distance away.  Our bus left at 8:30am and we enjoyed a lovely drive south, in warm, sunny conditions. Perth is a lovely city and it was interesting to travel out of the city on well made, new freeways. There is certainly money in the West, lots of public works happening to roads and infrastructure. Geoff the bus driver entertained me with lots of stories of the local area. At Bussellton, we changed buses and headed off to Augusta, this time with Doug the bus driver. Well, Doug turned out to be quite a character! He  trained as a vet at Sydney Uni, finishing a few years before Deb who also went to Sydney Uni. He then spent time as a race horse breeder and trainer (working with Tommy Smith), before returning to his hometown of Bussellton and running both a vet clinic and a dairy farm. During this time, he was a major contributor the development of Aussie Reds, a new breed of dairy cattle. He sold the vet clinic to concentrate on the farm, but then suffered some financial problems when the milk co-op went broke. He then worked extensively for Meat and Livestock Australia, helping the Indonesians to develop their own beef cattle industry.  He met his second wife, Shirley, in Indonesia, converted to Islam in order to marry her, and they now live together on a farm in Bussellton. He drives buses part time to supplement his income, and his son runs the dairy farm.  We learnt all this because after Margaret River Bus Stop, we were the only passengers left on the bus and he was on for a chat.

When we reached Augusta, Doug invited to the bus depot to have a cuppa and a chat. He has set up part of the depot as temporary accommodation, so he can sleep there if he has an early morning bus run from Augusta. So here we were, sitting in a bus depot in the middle of nowhere, having afternoon tea with Doug, who, in order to keep warm, had put on his wife's blue fluffy dressing gown! Deb and I just kept smiling to ourselves. Doug then gave us the use of his old bomb car, the "buunga", for the afternoon so we could look around the local area, while he drove a return bus trip to Bussellton.

The" buunga"

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse

We gratefully accepted his hospitality and spent the rest of the afternoon out at the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse, the official starting point of the Cape to Cape walk. When Doug returned at 7:00pm, he insisted on catching up again and taking us out to dinner at the Augusta pub. We returned to our motel later that night, relaxed and ready to start the walk the next morning.
I never cease to be surprised by how friendly and hospitable people can be. I had decided I wanted to meet as many people I could on this holiday, and by engaging strangers in conversation we ended up enriching our time in Augusta, and enjoying some great, entertaining company.