Wednesday, 19th May in Mandurah, WA

Pete and Sue arrived this morning. They drove from Perth in Sue's car after cancelling the Hertz rental car Pete had arranged. I met them at the Mandurah Visitors Centre and we found our way to the Seashells Resort where I'd been staying. When we arrived at reception, Inese (who had been sharing an apartment with me) was waiting for the taxi to the airport to arrive, so we hugged goodbye one last time. I called our accommodation in Busselton to see if we could cancel our current booking for separate rooms and have a 2 bedroom apartment and a very helpful girl said she'd try for us (but the best she could do was adjoining apartments).

Pete and Sue admired the view from our third floor apartment at Seashells. After they unpacked we walked back past the marina, over the bridge, past the sculpture of the wrecked boat and the playground, past the Reading Cinema and the Performing Arts Centre, and along the boardwalk and the foreshore. We walked all the way up to Mandurah Plaza so I could show them the shops, and then we walked back and had lunch at Han's Asian Restaurant. We visited the Visitor Centre to get information about the Thrombolites and then the Senior Citizens Centre to find out about the local computer club for seniors. Coincidentally their Management Committee was having a meeting so we were able to introduce ourselves and take a photo.


Back at the resort we got ourselves organised and headed out again, this time to drive down the Old Coast Road to Lake Clifton, about 30 km south of Mandurah. The directions on the leaflet from the Visitor Centre were helpful but not very specific so we were glad to see the signpost where we had to turn off. Lake Clifton is a long narrow lake lying between the WA coast and the Old Coast Road, and most of it is in Yalgorup National Park. Just past a winery we found the parking area and it was just a short 100 m walk to the lake.

There's a boardwalk to the foreshore raised above the ground, so that we could look down on the thrombolites. The name comes from the same root as thrombosis - clots - because the rocks are built by micro organisms like algae that precipitate calcium carbonate out of the water during photosynthesis. The thrombolites have an 'internal clotted texture' - but from the outside they just look like rounded white rocks and (in the deeper water) cones. We took photos, and then retreated to the winery.

The winery is called Cape Bouvard. There was a bus load of tourists from Singapore so we waited until they had finished buying stuff and got back on their bus. I tasted their merlot and cab sav and shiraz - all good, and reasonably priced, so I bought two bottles. It turns out that the owners live in an apartment on the top floor of our Seashells Resort, and commute to the vineyard each day. They've previously been involved in import/export and run a restaurant at Fremantle. Pete couldn't taste the wine properly because he'd been taking tablets for his cold.

Sue was the designated driver and took us home again (with a detour to pick up a carton of beer and some champagne). We sat on the balcony with drinks and nibbles, magazines and the crossword and watched the sun go down in the west over the ocean. The moon was waxing, and there was one bright light in the west close to the horizon that we couldn't identify. My netbook comes with an astronomy application that shows the night sky at a particular location and time, so we looked it up and our best guess was that it might be Sirius - or maybe a satellite.

When the champagne was finished we walked down to the marina and had seafood at Nino's Fish Cafe. Pete was indignant at the price of Stella Artois but we weren't very sympathetic.

Then we went back to our apartment to watch Master Chef and update the blog.