First, we headed to a dolphin discovery center. There, we took a boat out into the bay, which is populated with over 100 bottlenose dolphins. What began as a fun excursion quickly turned into a very wet and cold outing, as it was raining (hard) and most of us only came prepared with clothes for a typical, sunny Aussie day (90 degrees). However, our goosebumps were not for naught; we saw probably 10 dolphins. Some of them got really close to the boat, which was awesome. They are so fast that I was only able to get a picture of one of them before they disappeared beneath the surface. It was awesome.
Our clothes quickly dried when we took a walk onto the windy Busselton Jetty. The Jetty was a 1.25 mile long boardwalk that was used for shipping but now leads to an underwater observatory at its end. The Jetty was only about 4 feet wide in some parts, with a railing on only one side. Adding to the excitement was the crazy wind that kept knocking us off balance, prompting us all to discuss our survival plans if we got knocked into the water. Though windburned, all of us made it to the observatory. The observatory is a cylinder that goes 8 meters to the bottom of the ocean floor. It has windows that let you look out into the ocean. While the visibility was only 3 meters compared to the 15 meters on a clear day, you could see awesome coral attached to the poles that hold up the jetty. Luckily, the sky had cleared up for the walk back, so it was actually quite pleasant. I think my pictures illustrate the weather best. Look at the horizon during the walk there (grey, ominous clouds) and back (blue sky, sunny).
Then, we drove to our “campsite.” This was another fake camping experience for me; as you can see we were camping on perfectly manicured grass, next to a wall with a road on the other side of it. This camping complex is designed mainly for RVs, and it had a kitchen/patio, bathrooms, a pool… not exactly roughing it. However, the horrible weather helped to make the experience more authentic. It was raining really hard, not to mention the winds that made a mess out of our tent through the night (see above). I kept waking up thinking that the tent was going to collapse, though Kaitlyn and I had it easy as we did not end up with water in our tents. Needless to say, the Walkabouters did not sleep very well last night.
This morning we woke up and drove to Ngilgi Cave (similar to Crystal Cave for you Pennsylvanians). It was quite cool, especially since the guide said that the rock/crystal formations only grow about 1 centimeter in 100 years. Crazy.
Then, we went to a birds of prey place (didn’t catch the name), where they had exhibits with lots of predatory birds. Then, one of the caretakers had a talk about the Black Kite birds, and I got to hold one. He fed them by throwing food up into the air, and it was really cool to see them swoop down and catch it mid-flight.
Finally, we returned home, eagerly anticipating showers and sleeping in our own beds tonight.
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