Rowkin Rovings Blog

Today was one of much needed exercise as been slouching around quite a bit. Fras and Al went down to the beach and joined a heap of other people doing a 5k run called the Geographe Bay Park run. It occurs every Saturday morning and this week they happened to be celebrating their 4 year anniversary. The theme was to dress as something stating with P. Hence we saw a panda, lots of people in pyjamas and dressed in purple. Fras was stoked because he did a PB!!!!

Meantime, Di and Jen did a quick food shop and then joined the boys on the beachfront just as they finished. They sneaked onto the course and finished the last 20 meters at a cracking pace – well as cracking a pace as two people with crap knees and hips can set.

Home to a well deserved hearty breakfast and it was out again for a 20 k bike ride along the foreshore.

Compared to most of our bike rides, this was dead flat. Di’s bike didn’t even have any gears and she cruised along at a healthy speed all the way.

Busselton Jetty is the longest wooden jetty (pier) in the world at 1841 meters long. Over 500,000 people visited the iconic Western Australian attraction in 2017/18.

The Jetty is managed by a not-for-profit community organisation Busselton Jetty Inc. Proceeds from tours and entry fees go back into conserving and preserving the heritage listed Jetty.

The jetty construction commenced in 1853 and the first section was opened in 1865. The jetty was extended numerous times until the 1960s, ultimately reaching a length of 1841 m. The last commercial vessel called at the jetty in 1971 and the jetty was closed the following year. It passed into the control of Busselton Shire and has been gradually restored and improved since. The jetty has survived Cyclone Alby in 1978, borers, weathering, several fires, and the threat of demolition, to have become a major regional tourist attraction.

The jetty features a rail line along its length, a relic of the railway line into Busselton from Bunbury. The line now carries tourists along the jetty to an underwater observatory, one of only six natural aquariums in the world, which opened to the public in 2003.

The beaches that we rode past were exquisite with lots of people out sailing and swimming. Still a little cool for us to get into the water just yet. We seemed to be constantly biking into a head wind which you always do on a bike so required refreshments of tea and scones at the half way point.

Always that little bit difficult getting back on the bike after a belly full and negating the calories that you had just burned off. Seemed the wind had turned yet again and was in our faces on our return trip.

This folks is a Blue Tongue Lizard known to locals as a Bluey. We encountered him/her on the bike path and watched him as he slithered into the bush. Jen announced that it was the time of year that the snakes were waking up so be prepared as we rode through the bushy areas of the track. This information did not please Di as she comes from a country where there are no snakes and no dangerous spiders. It has always been fascinating to think that Australia and New Zealand are so different yet so close geographically in fauna and flora.

A little RnR back at the sea side cottage before heading out again with Jen, Al and their friends Rosie and Peter for some squidding off the Jetty. It had turned a lot cooler by now and some of us didn’t go that well prepared. We only lasted about 40 minutes before we needed to head home – squidless.

It was a good thing Rosie had brought along some previous squid from her last fishing trip so that we could have a taste of it which was yummy. They were telling us that when you catch the squid they will squirt out this profuse amount of blank ink as a protection mechanism and that is why you wear the crappiest clothes you have when squidding. We saw evidence all along the Jetty of these black marks. Will try to get a photo tomorrow of them as we are returning to the Jetty.

Wonderful evening with us all talking about our great experiences in Canada and playing yet another game of cards.