Leaving Fonty’s on Day 75, we had been in the car only 5 minutes before we stopped to buy some fruit. Before we knew it, the boys (who were shown the whole fruit packing shebang by the farmer’s wife) were packing avocados in boxes, ready for market! We ended up buying delicious fresh apples for $1 per kg, and sensational hass avos for $1 each! Bargain!

Our destination was a farm near Bunbury – ‘Tarralea’. The owners are retired and grow macadamia’s for a bit of spare cash. On the way to ‘Tarralea’, we passed about 50 or so scare crows lining the road at Bridgetown (?!?!) before stopping at Donnybrook to let the boys play at the ‘largest free playground in the southern hemisphere’. Whilst impressive, this plaque clearly needs updating.Dinner at Tarralea.

Bike fun at Tarralea.

The next day we visited Bunbury and were strangely perplexed as to why it was taking us so long to get into town until it dawned on us – traffic lights! We have been without these pesky hindrances since Port Lincoln. That’s right, a whole 4523kms without having to stop at a red light. Can’t say we missed them. We visited the beach to hopefully spot a dolphin or two, bought an ice cream and went to the lookout. Tick.

A few days before, I had spotted a newspaper ad for the local round of the ‘Quit Forest Car Rally’, so the next day we headed out to a pine plantation to watch locals and professional drivers alike try their luck on the treacherous pea gravel surface. I picked a great position (just) past the spectator area, and with long lens and SLR in hand, it was naturally assumed I was media. The rouse worked until someone actually asked me, then I cleared off. Still, I got some great shots of the lads completely misjudging a nasty off-camber corner and ending up in a ditch.

Having our fill of rally cars, we went to Busselton to have a look around and walk out along the jetty. So far we have visited two places that claim to have the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere (here and Port Germaine). Perhaps these people should buy a tape measure (OK, Google Earth might be easier) and settle this once and for all?

Happy boys on the jetty!

After hitching up on Sunday morning, about 5 km from ‘Tarralea’, we heard a strange clunking noise from the van. I immediately pulled over but couldn’t see anything amiss. With windows down to listen as we gently started up again Kris yelled out ‘the caravan wheel, it’s about to fall off!’. We checked it out; 4 out of 6 wheel studs on the brake drum had snapped off. I jacked up the van, rotated the damaged wheel and reseated it on the remaining two studs whilst Kris called Jayco roadside assist. They were very helpful, and in a jiffy Cliff from Bunbury Heavy Truck Towing turned up with a flat top.

Half an hour later, after following poor crippled Alice on the tow truck back to his workshop, Cliff managed to secure 6 replacement studs and nuts (all on a Sunday), fit them, and show me his impressive car collection (a 500 HP Mustang Cobra, a rebuilt 49 ford custom, and a perfect replica of ‘Mater’ from Cars).A life sized Mater – complete with working air horn and speakers pelting out classic “Mater” quotes from the movie.

So I guess there is some money in towing. Shaken but not stirred, we arrived 4 hours late to Waikiki on the southern side of Perth to catch up with Kris’s old friends Patti and Don at their gorgeous home, which they were kind enough to share with us for the next three nights.