meet heidi: Perth to the Southwest

Busselton to Ferugson Farm

Another great breakfast place, this time in Prince Street, Busselton. Unfortunately I can't recall what is the name of the place, googled and still can't find. Even google map showed a large tree covering the fascade of the place. I just remember it's called something on prince. Oh well.

At first, we alighted at the street not knowing where to find breakfast. There's a cafe called old chapel nearby near Coles, but only the name sound cool. So we walked along Prince Street and at first, this place didn't look very appealing on the outside and there were no one in the cafe. But after we came in a string of customers also started to roll in.

One good thing about this breakfast joint is that they allow you to customise your breakfast, which I did. Being a sucker for avocado, that was naturally on my wish list. Along with bacon, sausages, poached eggs, toast and cappucino. I could eat them all day.

The mushroom soup is also yummy! The food here is so nice that Sophia has to post 5 photos of the place.

Busselton Jetty

Just a stone's throw away is Busselton Jetty. At 1,841 metres, it is said to be the longest wooden structure in the southern hemisphere (so much for Changi Broadwalk)...

Because the shallow waters restricted the docking of ships and vessels in the 18th century, construction of the jetty started in 1853 to allow goods, especially timbre, one of the main produce of Western Australia, to be shippped via this jetty.

Over the years, the accumulation of drift sands had made the water too shallow for mooring. The jetty was continually extended until the 1960s when it reached its current length.

Even at the car park, we could feel the force of the wind from the sea, so I guessed it must have been quite tricky to build the thing in the past, without the help of cranes and whatnot.

The boatshed-style Interpretive Centre gives visitors a glimpse into the Jetty's rich past and its future. However, Heidi and Oliver were more interested in the many souvenirs and knick knacks that the shop offers. Especially the porcelain VW Beetle cars which I was worried that they might break anytime.

The jetty also features a rail line along its length. Oliver is seen here practising his hip hop moves.

The constant beating that the jetty took from the angry sea along its length meant that many Aussie dollars have to be spent on restoration.

Heidi wasn't about to be blown away. She just wanted to be carried as usual.

Bunbury Dolphin Discovery Centre

A short distance away is the Dolphin Discovery Centre in Bunbury. When we arrived, the sky was gloomy and both Oliver and Heidi were asleep in the car.

The Centre enables visitors to interact with Bottlenose dolphins in a variety of ways. There are more than 100 dolphins living in the Koombana Bay and groups of them regularly visit the shallow waters in front of the Centre. However, today wasn't our lucky day as the centre staff told us that it was very unlikely that any dolphin would appear.

But since we were already there, and it being our last stop for the day, we decided to wake the kids up and head for the centre anyway. The friendly centre staff more than made up for the lack of dolphins by showing the kids a variety of sea creatures in their aquariums. She explained why some of the fishes look and behave the way they do, and even scooped up starfishes, sea urchins etc and got the kids to touch them. This obviously made them very excited and squirmy.