There are occasions when I wish I didn’t have such a sensitive nose. Once again I am in a smelly motel unit. Have you ever been up close to a wet dog? I mean a big, woolly-haired, wet dog? I opened everything that would open and ran the kitchen and bathroom extractors and turned the air-conditioning fan at full speed. After an hour or so it improved somewhat. My complaint brought the excuse that, “There are one or two units the carpet cleaners haven’t got around to yet.” Oh, well… at least I got some washing done.
A storm brewing out to sea.
If it were not for the seedy accommodation (which doesn’t come cheap, I must add), Australind would be okay. The Leschenault estuary is pretty, and there is a huge bird population in the area. Leewins Honey-eaters entertained me while I waited to photograph a bulk carrier manoeuvring into the port with the aid of tugs. Parrots – were they ‘twenty-eights’? – pranced about in the trees and provided me with much amusement while I waited for the washing machine and dryer to finish their cycles.
Leschenault estuary on a dull, wet morning.
Even on a wet morning the estuary has a beauty of its own. The water level is high, but whether that’s the result of all the rain that’s fallen hereabouts or merely a high tide, I don’t know.
I do enjoy watching the activity at harbours and marinas, even though I don’t actually like getting my paws wet. Mines, airports, railways are all rivetingly interesting places, where exciting and economically important things happen. Hardly surprising then, that I spent half a day watching a bulk carrier loading and another coming into the harbour.
Exporting Australia: a bulk carrier coming into port.
Of course, it isn’t possible to have a coast without lighthouses. Today’s doubles as a chef, I suspect.
In chef’s trousers, the lighthouse at Bunbury.
Tomorrow I’ll load up Camel and we’ll head down the coast further, to Margaret River, famous for its wines, but first I have to persuade a very belligerent – and hungry – mosquito that he is not getting a free ride south and that I am definitely not on the menu. He’s proved impossible to eject from the car so far, but tomorrow is D-Day for this particular monster.