Busselton
Wednesday, November 29th - this is a week ago now but i believe we left our hotel in Perth, We checked out the Perth Botanical Garden (Kings Park) a bit but felt a spot constrained for time and mom felt unwell. Proceeded to drive down to Busselton, two and a half hours south on a major highway.
Busselton is a beach town that feels like it's mainly geared as a vacation destination. At 33.65 degrees south its rather a latitude twin of our hometown of Mission Viejo California (33.59 north), and indeed felt similar with sunny days of perfect weather in the upper 70s (/20s c).
Our hotel was decent, one story and looked like a cheap motel but the walls were very soundproof and it was fairly decent really. Except leaving anything out that could even remotely be considered food brought about ant freeways very quickly and i think there was literally only one free power socket. We were able to free up another by unplugging the TV but there was only one for the toaster/water-boiler/microwave that had to be rotated between whatever was in use. And none of these was near the heads of the beds, one of my perennial hotel complaints.
As the days approached the date of the Ironman (Sunday) we jokingly referred to the hotel as Olympic Village as it seemed to be entirely full of Ironman participants and their families. Dad made several friends.
We were just less than a mile from the beach, though across a busy road that was always difficult to even get onto for the constant stream of cars. The ocean here is Geographe Bay and i was astounded at how little it had waves, it was lapping at the beach with smaller waves than the local lake did the other day. It's weird because it's hardly an enclosed bay at all.
Dad tried swimming but immediately got stung up by jellyfish. Flies on the beach were an enormous nuisance one had to ceaselessly swat in front of one's face.
We drove to downtown Busselton just a ten minute drive away. A lot of the guiding fences and stages were already set up.
One of the famous things in Busselton is a really really long 1841 meter (over a mile!) "jetty" (pier). The first day we walked out a bit of the ways on it. They were selling fly nets at a store on the jetty for $6.50 ea but i foolishly thought the nuisance flies the other day might have been a one time thing and didn't get one. The next day Dad and i walked all the way to the end (mom feeling unwell took a nap in the car), and dad went swimming from a floating dock at near the end. It's not too deep even out there and he was able to touch the bottom. He reported it was really clear.
Thursday dad checked in to the race and such. Flies were again a huge nuisance. We saw people wearing nets over their faces and someone was selling them among the stuff for sale in the check in area, but for $18 it was just a bit too much. We ate at the Shelter Brewing Company on the waterfront and actually had a delicious pizza. To be honest i haven't generally liked pizza in Australia but this one was delicious.
Friday i wanted to go to Cape Augusta because it's literally as far from America as one can get in Australia, and as far as you can get anywhere in the world from the US East Coast, but that being two hours away i was outvoted in favor of nearer options. So we went to the nearby Cape Naturaliste and went for a walk along the coastal scrub with dramatic views of the ocean. Flies were such a nuisance that everyone on the path acquired a short switch of leafy branch to constantly swish in front of their faces. At the lighthouse store (by the actual lighthouse) we learned they had sold out of the last fly net just ten minutes earlier, such sauce! Also learned there'll flies aren't always a problem, apparently many blew in a week or two earlier and in another two or three weeks it was expected that some beetles will have eaten all the fly larvae and ended the fly plague.
Went to a beautiful nearby white sand beach where we found the beach was closed for an hour because a three meter (ten foot!) "bronzy" "bronze shark had recently been spotted just offshore. I'm kind of amused they just close those beach for an hour, like when a turd is found in a public pool.
In the afternoon we went down into nearby Ngligli cave which was fun, a rather extensive cave with lots of stalagtites and stalagmites. Very keen.
We had noticed a whole bunch of cars that said "No Birds!" on the side, with a yellow or green triangle so i thought maybe it was some government program against some invasive bird. Finally curiosity got the better of us and we looked it up, it's a local car rental agency. Apparently the name is a reference to when it was founded their competitors all employed attractive women ("birds") to entice customers, and they did not, which they alleged cut down their costs. Franky i think that sounds like a kind of behind-the-times somewhat sexist name they should probably change.
On the way back to our hotel finally got fly nets at a gas station (for $5 each!).
Saturday was dad's 73rd birthday, though we didn't really celebrate much, he insisted it wasn't his birthday yet back home (or in Rio where he was born). Other than racking his bike and going on a walk along a trail parallel to the beach we mainly took it easy since the next day was to be his race.
Sunday morning woke up at 3:30am to give dad and two other athletes he'd befriended a ride to the race start (a 30ish londoner living in Malaysia and a very friendly retired (55ish) Indian engineer). The Indian, Bharat, said just a month earlier he had failed to finish the Barcelona half Ironman, described being in tears at the end of the day over the failure and had almost given up but was here to try again. Pulling onto the road at 4am it was a parade of cars headed to the race start and not much else. I returned to the hotel after dropping them off, and went back to sleep.
Around 10 maybe mom and i returned to town amd posted ourselves near the running route. We were able to catch dad both times he came past us (they do two loops) but though we kept an eye out for our other two friends and they must have passed the position we didn't see them.
Also were able to watch dad finish. As he crossed the finish line they announced he was the "oldest male finisher!" We talked to the woman who had been announced as the oldest finisher and she was only 71 so i believe he was in fact the oldest finisher.
He came in second in his age group (70-74), but the guy in first was really good. Our London friend had finished three minutes before him and Bharat finished half an hour later. This was a half Ironman, and Bharat is already planning to do the full Ironman in Hamburg in June. He's certainly ambitious!
We didn't meet or see any evidence of any other American participants. See also as far from the US as you can get!
Monday we headed back to Perth. Now dad was feeling sick, and though i didn't mention it i was feeling pretty achey too. We presumably had both gotten what mom had had, though she'd tried to limit cooty exposure.
Back in Perth mom and i explored the Botanical Garden some more at greater length, while this time dad slept in the car.
Stayed in an Ibis hotel near the airport, which dad declared possibly the most budget hotel he'd stayed in (they didn't even give us a new soap, just the soap the previous occupant had used). And of course no plugs near the beds. And disproportionately expensive like all airport hotels.
Flight from there to here Tuesday (yesterday) went smoothly. Dad felt feverish last night but seems better today, though maybe that's the medicine. I thought i was better yesterday but feel slightly under the weather this morning (and refuse all medicine that merely masks symptoms), and mom, whose 71st birthday it is, has gone back to bed after breakfast, which i suppose means she's not feeling 100% yet either. I told her "it's your birthday you can lay in bed if you want to!"
So we're pretty much taking it easy today. But altogether we decided we had a jolly good trip out west.
Busselton is a beach town that feels like it's mainly geared as a vacation destination. At 33.65 degrees south its rather a latitude twin of our hometown of Mission Viejo California (33.59 north), and indeed felt similar with sunny days of perfect weather in the upper 70s (/20s c).
Our hotel was decent, one story and looked like a cheap motel but the walls were very soundproof and it was fairly decent really. Except leaving anything out that could even remotely be considered food brought about ant freeways very quickly and i think there was literally only one free power socket. We were able to free up another by unplugging the TV but there was only one for the toaster/water-boiler/microwave that had to be rotated between whatever was in use. And none of these was near the heads of the beds, one of my perennial hotel complaints.
As the days approached the date of the Ironman (Sunday) we jokingly referred to the hotel as Olympic Village as it seemed to be entirely full of Ironman participants and their families. Dad made several friends.
We were just less than a mile from the beach, though across a busy road that was always difficult to even get onto for the constant stream of cars. The ocean here is Geographe Bay and i was astounded at how little it had waves, it was lapping at the beach with smaller waves than the local lake did the other day. It's weird because it's hardly an enclosed bay at all.
Dad tried swimming but immediately got stung up by jellyfish. Flies on the beach were an enormous nuisance one had to ceaselessly swat in front of one's face.
We drove to downtown Busselton just a ten minute drive away. A lot of the guiding fences and stages were already set up.
One of the famous things in Busselton is a really really long 1841 meter (over a mile!) "jetty" (pier). The first day we walked out a bit of the ways on it. They were selling fly nets at a store on the jetty for $6.50 ea but i foolishly thought the nuisance flies the other day might have been a one time thing and didn't get one. The next day Dad and i walked all the way to the end (mom feeling unwell took a nap in the car), and dad went swimming from a floating dock at near the end. It's not too deep even out there and he was able to touch the bottom. He reported it was really clear.
Thursday dad checked in to the race and such. Flies were again a huge nuisance. We saw people wearing nets over their faces and someone was selling them among the stuff for sale in the check in area, but for $18 it was just a bit too much. We ate at the Shelter Brewing Company on the waterfront and actually had a delicious pizza. To be honest i haven't generally liked pizza in Australia but this one was delicious.
Friday i wanted to go to Cape Augusta because it's literally as far from America as one can get in Australia, and as far as you can get anywhere in the world from the US East Coast, but that being two hours away i was outvoted in favor of nearer options. So we went to the nearby Cape Naturaliste and went for a walk along the coastal scrub with dramatic views of the ocean. Flies were such a nuisance that everyone on the path acquired a short switch of leafy branch to constantly swish in front of their faces. At the lighthouse store (by the actual lighthouse) we learned they had sold out of the last fly net just ten minutes earlier, such sauce! Also learned there'll flies aren't always a problem, apparently many blew in a week or two earlier and in another two or three weeks it was expected that some beetles will have eaten all the fly larvae and ended the fly plague.
Went to a beautiful nearby white sand beach where we found the beach was closed for an hour because a three meter (ten foot!) "bronzy" "bronze shark had recently been spotted just offshore. I'm kind of amused they just close those beach for an hour, like when a turd is found in a public pool.
In the afternoon we went down into nearby Ngligli cave which was fun, a rather extensive cave with lots of stalagtites and stalagmites. Very keen.
We had noticed a whole bunch of cars that said "No Birds!" on the side, with a yellow or green triangle so i thought maybe it was some government program against some invasive bird. Finally curiosity got the better of us and we looked it up, it's a local car rental agency. Apparently the name is a reference to when it was founded their competitors all employed attractive women ("birds") to entice customers, and they did not, which they alleged cut down their costs. Franky i think that sounds like a kind of behind-the-times somewhat sexist name they should probably change.
On the way back to our hotel finally got fly nets at a gas station (for $5 each!).
Saturday was dad's 73rd birthday, though we didn't really celebrate much, he insisted it wasn't his birthday yet back home (or in Rio where he was born). Other than racking his bike and going on a walk along a trail parallel to the beach we mainly took it easy since the next day was to be his race.
Sunday morning woke up at 3:30am to give dad and two other athletes he'd befriended a ride to the race start (a 30ish londoner living in Malaysia and a very friendly retired (55ish) Indian engineer). The Indian, Bharat, said just a month earlier he had failed to finish the Barcelona half Ironman, described being in tears at the end of the day over the failure and had almost given up but was here to try again. Pulling onto the road at 4am it was a parade of cars headed to the race start and not much else. I returned to the hotel after dropping them off, and went back to sleep.
Around 10 maybe mom and i returned to town amd posted ourselves near the running route. We were able to catch dad both times he came past us (they do two loops) but though we kept an eye out for our other two friends and they must have passed the position we didn't see them.
Also were able to watch dad finish. As he crossed the finish line they announced he was the "oldest male finisher!" We talked to the woman who had been announced as the oldest finisher and she was only 71 so i believe he was in fact the oldest finisher.
He came in second in his age group (70-74), but the guy in first was really good. Our London friend had finished three minutes before him and Bharat finished half an hour later. This was a half Ironman, and Bharat is already planning to do the full Ironman in Hamburg in June. He's certainly ambitious!
We didn't meet or see any evidence of any other American participants. See also as far from the US as you can get!
Monday we headed back to Perth. Now dad was feeling sick, and though i didn't mention it i was feeling pretty achey too. We presumably had both gotten what mom had had, though she'd tried to limit cooty exposure.
Back in Perth mom and i explored the Botanical Garden some more at greater length, while this time dad slept in the car.
Stayed in an Ibis hotel near the airport, which dad declared possibly the most budget hotel he'd stayed in (they didn't even give us a new soap, just the soap the previous occupant had used). And of course no plugs near the beds. And disproportionately expensive like all airport hotels.
Flight from there to here Tuesday (yesterday) went smoothly. Dad felt feverish last night but seems better today, though maybe that's the medicine. I thought i was better yesterday but feel slightly under the weather this morning (and refuse all medicine that merely masks symptoms), and mom, whose 71st birthday it is, has gone back to bed after breakfast, which i suppose means she's not feeling 100% yet either. I told her "it's your birthday you can lay in bed if you want to!"
So we're pretty much taking it easy today. But altogether we decided we had a jolly good trip out west.