From Busselton

Hello to Family and Friends.
We are at Busselton where we got our car serviced by the lovely people at Fennesy's - the Nissen dealership arranged from Albany by the lovely Jodie. It is so nice to be taken such good care of that we decided to dedicate this blog to the friends we have made along the way.
Firstly a lovely young family which we met at Lincoln National Park at Fisherman's Point. Rex struggled up with a surf board which we found by itself on the beach thinking it had been washed up by the tide to find it belonged to a fellow camper - husband and father to 3 young children travelling around Australia. Nice family. We met up again at Cape Le Grande National Park when we were treated to a light show extravaganza in the form of lightning, thunder and rain. The lightning and thunder went all night and into the next morning as did the rain 110 mls. Apparently the campground was 8 inches deep in water during the night when the drains got blocked.The next day the wind picked up and threatened to blow you off the rocks if you were silly enough to climb on them. We stayed in bed - the only sensible thing to do in such conditions. The family went to Esperance to swim in the pool. After lunch we rugged up in our coats and gumboots and ventured out to watch 4WDs have fun on the beach.
Another friend was Hank from Perth who had travelled to Melbourne to pick up some wood working tools. Hank is a Dutchman and came to Australia 50 years ago. He was also a driver who drove the old Eyre Highway. We met him at Koonalda Homestead and told him about seeing the dingoes and hearing them call during the night. We moved on but Hank stayed the night. We met him again in Norseman and he told us the dingoes were so bad during the night around his truck he got up at 4.00am and moved on. Rex would have been in heaven to have experienced it.
Then there was an Canadian Tour Guide that we met in Albany. She had been out here before but what she like this time was that they were doing it by themselves instead of on an organised tour which they had done previously and were meeting lots of Australians doing the same thing. She has been a tour guide for 30 years in Canada taking Canadians on tour to California and Mexico.
Then there were the group of 3 walking the Bibblium Track raising money for Motor Nueron Disease. It goes a long way in 20 k sections. I take my hat off to them. The Great South West Walk is nothing compared to it. Even driving a part of it seemed exhausting.
Lastly a farmer that we met just out of Manjimup. We were having morning tea at a pool on the Donnelly River 3 kms from his farm when he came down to let go a native rat which had been running around his ceiling and he had trapped and was freeing in the forest. We started talking and it ended up by him inviting us back to his farm. Sadly we had to refuse as we had to get to Busselton that night to get the car serviced at 8 o'clock the next morning. I think he wanted me to convince his wife that travelling was fun. He had bought a camper 3 years ago and it was sitting in the shed unused.
The photo this time had to be of a character and it is the new Rex with beard. He looks like a lovable sea captain - so those that know him recognise him when home.
Tomorrow we start to backtrack to St John Brooke Conservation Park on the Way to Kalgoorlie.
To my Dye Group. I am doing some solar dyeing - lichen, sea weed and eucalypts. I also found some long pine needles in Shannon National Park to plait.
Catch up agin soon
Rob and Rex