Tony has said to me a couple of times how much he loves being a Ulysses member, there are some wonderful people around and being a member of Ulysses gives us an opportunity to meet them, I totally agree.

Before we left Mandurah we rang an employment agency in Margaret River. They said there might be work but they needed us to come into their office before they could help us. We decided that we’d give that a try rather than go all the way to Mt Barker.

Today we visited Gnomesville! Quite a few people have told us that we should visit Gnomesville when we get to the south west.

There are hundreds of gnomes peeping out from under bushes and behind trees, some are even in the trees around every corner you find another gnome or group of gnomes. Some are playing cricket, there’s the gnome council, caravanning gnomes and gnome outpatients where all the broken gnomes go.

All the puns are there also, like No Place Like Gnome, Gnome and Away, Gnome Road Too Long, Gnome News is Good News, Gnome Man is an Island, To Gnome Us is to Love Us, there are even Gnomasexual Gnomes.

The number of gnomes is ever increasing as travellers add their gnome to Gnomesville.

We had lunch in Bunbury; we also visited the Harley shop, of course. Bunbury has an unusual Lighthouse, it’s painted in blue and white checks. We went and took a few photos of it while we were in town and went to the nearby lookout that provides spectacular views of the surrounding town and harbour, the lookout itself is an impressive structure.

From Bunbury we headed straight for Margaret River, it was getting on in the afternoon.

When we arrived at Margaret River we went straight to the employment agency that we’d rung this morning. They told us that there might be work, but there are no guarantees of steady work.

We went and booked in at the caravan park and the lady at reception told us we may like to consider leaving before schoolies week begins on Friday.

Went to the shops and got some groceries, then back to the tent for dinner and an early night. We’ve got the heater on again; it’s fairly chilly down here in the south.

Heading south we went to Augusta passing through a town called Witchcliffe on the way. We got petrol at Augusta and continued on to Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse.

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse is situated at the most south westerly tip of mainland Australia, standing at the point where the Southern and Indian Oceans meet. The lighthouse is over 100 years old and is an important working lighthouse.

We spent ages climbing about the rocks along the coast near the lighthouse and took heaps of photos. Rocky beaches with nooks and crannies for fish and crabs to hide in and the surf crashing over the rocks are the best. Far more interesting than stretches of white sand, no matter how pretty they may be.

We’d nearly finished looking around at the lighthouse when who should we see but George and Jenny, we seem to meet up with them everywhere, usually at the same caravan park as us. They have just about had enough of travelling and are looking forward to heading home.

There’s a waterwheel not far from the Lighthouse it was used to supply the lighthouse with fresh water. It was made from timber which has now turned to stone. Water is pumped along the channel and over it but electricity is used these days.

Travelling back along the road towards Augusta we stopped at a lookout point that we’d passed on our way to the lighthouse, we’d gone by it before we realised it was there. We ate our picnic lunch there and of course a seagull found us, not your regular silver gull but quite a large gull with a yellow and red beak.

After the beach we rode along the Caves Road, several people have told us that this was a great road for bikes and that we should travel it if we got the chance. We were only on it for a short stretch travelling to Jewel Cave. 

There are over 200 caves in this part of Western Australia, with 3 open to the public south of Margaret River. We had a 1 hour tour of the beautiful Jewel Cave. There is one of the world’s longest straw stalactites in this amazing limestone cave. From up above you would never know what lies beneath the surface; the interior is filled with intricate white caverns of stalactites and stalagmites.

We travelled further along the Caves Road to Caveworks, a museum dedicated to the districts caves.

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