Cath's Australian Adventure: Adventures in Bunbury

Since my blog is rather grandly titled Cath's Australian Adventure, so far there has been little in the way of adventure going on here so to correct that omission, some tales of our latest forays further afield in this beautiful country are called for. To celebrate our 45th wedding anniversay recently, sapphire for those who didn't know, we decided to take our camper to visit Bunbury. It's about 2.5 hours south of Perth and is one of those towns that you tend to bypass on the way to somewhere else. So after hitching up Sheila the camper (proudly Australian made) we headed for Koombana Bay Holiday Park. We were impressed with this park, the only downside being its situation right alongside a fairly busy main road. The powered sites run parallel to the fence on this road so the noise was a bothersome, particularly the boy racers in the middle of the night. It's beautifully kept with a large 'village green' with trees and shrubs offering very welcome shade. The Park is situated directly across the road from Koombana Bay, a perfect place for children and nervous swimmers alike. For those who are not familiar with the beautiful Indian Ocean it needs to be treated with great respect. Apart from the sharks which have visited these shores rather too many times this summer, there are the rips which can carry the unwary out to sea in a trice and the surf which can 'dump' the unsuspecting paddler in the most unpleasant way. Having been a dumping victim I'm not keen to repeat the experience. Koombana is a tranquil, wave free spot - just how I like it.

Koombana Bay bathed in moonlight

To celebrate the big anniversary we booked a table at Vat2 which is situated further around Koombana Bay, by the marina. It's an idyllic spot with lovely views over the marina particularly from the terrace tables. It was a Sunday night and though the terrace was quite busy the restaurant itself was not so the ambience was a little lacking. For anyone who has ever tried to get a meal beyond 8.30 in WA you will know that you are about as welcome as a slice of ham in a vegetarian sandwich. I've experienced worse than this but our friendly waiter left after our first course and it wasn't quite the same afterwards. (The dubious honour of the worst place was at a restaurant in Kalbarri where the service was painfully slow and despite a 7.00 pm booking at 8.30 we were still waiting for dessert. This didn't deter the staff from stacking chairs on tables all around us and cleaning the floor!) The prices were pretty steep I felt, $52 for fish of the day which whilst quite nice, was a little dry and certainly not worth the price paid.