Bunbury was a fair bit of a drive and it was getting on for 6 pm when we arrived there. We were also gladly back into "summer". We quickly found comfortable lodgings at the Ocean Drive Motel directly across the road from a long sandy beach. It's great the way there's lots of pleasant places to lay the bones when travelling Down Under, nearly all at very reasonable rates (average $60 per night "for two sharing") and plenty of "availability" outside of peak demand times. In this instance we were just ahead of the posse for the Easter holiday. Our quarters were up on the first floor with a balcony and a magnificent view of a marvellous sunset in the western sky out over the Indian Ocean. The world wore wonderful colours for over an hour and we enjoyed this free show with the help of a few very relaxing beers and our grandstand seats. Yea, the best things in life really are free.

We ate later at a small place just a few hundred yards up the road which the Motel "landlady" suggested, and again the grub was top notch. There was also a separate bar adjoining the restaurant (indeed we placed our original nosh order in this bar) where we could while away a couple of hours afterwards in contented and peaceful mode. Once again it was grand to be able to stroll to and from without worrying about drinking and driving.

It was well into the afternoon when we relocated and clambered back into our mode of transport. We had parked directly across the road from another motel called Fawlty Towers, would you believe. Our plan was to go as far as Mandurah and stay there overnight. However, we had reckoned without the Easter "rush". We weren't long out of Bunbury when we started meeting a lot of traffic coming against us and which seemed to get heavier the further north we drove. Maybe lots of Perth people like to go to the wine or the woods for their break? Anyway no hint of accommodation was to be found for love nor money at Mandurah and so we continued on, finding ourselves in Fremantle in no time. Again there was no room at the Inn here and so after a meal we rang Hamersley to let them know where we were and that we'd be "home" in an hour.

Unfortunately I took a wrong turn coming out of Freo (it was dark by this time) and we got lost for a while before finding the freeway (in truth by accident). I was really pushing the bad luck excuse when I lost our way again on the freeway and wound up in Perth city centre rather than bypassing it. After going around in circles for some time we eventually had to park and walk a bit to figure out how to get back on freeway north. The frustrating thing was that I could see the tall bank building (you know the one without a viewing balcony) all the time and I knew I needed it to be on our right hand side so that we be pointed in the right direction, but I couldn't seem to figure how to navigate the way from that reference point. As it turned out the walk solved the maze puzzle by revealing a tunnel just a short distance from where we had parked. This brought us through an underpass and right across to the right (or more precisely the left and correct) side of the freeway.

We eventually arrived back at base nearly two hours after our phone call and made our apologies and excuses - you know - "yer man know all (me) wasn't so clever after all and give us a drink quick and we'll all be alright again". There was plenty to tell of our "walkabout" since we had left the previous weekend and the night was still young.