Today started off really cool with a little light rain. It makes a nice change, and it was the first night we managed to sleep through the night without needing the air conditioning on.

We had initially thought of visiting Rottnest Island today. This is a small island accessible by ferry from Freemantle. However, the main reason for going over was to see the wild quokkas (small wallabies) which inhabit the island. But we decided against it in the end. Although I'm sure it is a lovely island, as we have been advised from various sources, we decided that $150 each (which is what it would have cost for the ferry trip plus a coach tour, which was our preferred way to see the island) was a lot to spend to see a few quokkas! I am sure that we will make another visit to the Perth area at some point in our lives, so we can visit the island then. We're not really disappointed, as we have done plenty of island trips and have plenty more to see of Australia yet. We can't do everything!

We decided to take the tourist drive down the west coast, driving through the lovely seaside town of Rockingham along the way. This area of coastline is very attractive. Once this route ended we took a turning through the Tuart Forest towards Busselton.

Busselton is a busy seaside town. It looks very nice, but you can tell that it's a popular destination. The town's main feature appears to be the 2km long wooden jetty extending into Geographie Bay. We thought it might be nice to take a walk up the jetty towards the underwater observatory at the end, but both of these incurred a separate charge per person - and we weren't that excited to see it! Instead we took a walk inside the gift shop, which shows some of the history of the jetty and the area of Busselton, as well as a live webcam of the underwater observatory! Glad we didn't bother paying, as there was nothing much to see anyway!

The weather had turned out really nice, so we grabbed an ice-cream and then headed to our campsite for the night. The first campsite we came across was crammed full of screaming kids, not really our cup of tea, so we continued to another quieter site. It came at a cost of $50! Campsites so far have varied from $20-$40 so this one seemed really expensive. The lady told us it was peak season, but even so... how much?