With a few hours to spare today we headed to Meelup National Park for a short bush walk.

The short section of the coastal walk track that we chose for today’s walk commenced at Castle Rock, just over 30kms from Busselton.

From there we walked north/west taking in Meelup beach, Gannet Rocks, and then on to Point Picquet. The walk is less than 5 kms return, but at this time of year it’s a favourite walk of ours. It’s a shame it’s through a national park though as in Australia dogs aren’t allowed in National Parks. Mr Tilly would have loved the trail, and we would have loved to have him with us. Some owners aren’t in control of their dogs though, so we understand the need to protect the native fauna. The South West of WA is full of national parks, so Tills has to miss out on a lot of walks that’d he love. Never mind, he always gets his early morning beach walk whatever we happen to be doing later in the day.

It’s an easy to walk track that follows a stunning coastline.

Once we arrived at Pt Picquet we sat a while to look for whales. This section of ocean has a deep Chanel just off the shoreline, so thousands of Humpbacks, Southern Rights, and Blue Whales can often be seen as they head back down to Antartica after their journey north to bear their young in warmer waters. We sat for about 40 minutes today and saw about 20 whales, all humpbacks I think, although I’m no expert. None were in very close today. We saw a few approximately 100 metres off shore as their massive bodies broke the surface when they rose up to breath, but for the majority we only knew they were passing because of the splashing out towards the horizon. Some were clearly breaching, or slapping the water with their fins, as whales do, or we’d spot their big blow when they’d come up for air. Sometimes we’ve been blessed with whales that will put on one of their slapping displays, or will repeatedly breach, throwing their massive bodies right out of the water only 20 or so metres from the shore. Just depends on the day. We call there as often as we can at this time of year, as when we’re lucky enough to get a small pod close to shore putting on a show, it’s one of the most magical things one could possibly see.

Finishing our walk back at Castle Rock, coffee beckoned, and what better place to enjoy a coffee than at the Bunker Bay Cafe. Bunker Bay is a few more kilometres up the road towards Cape Naturalist.

Today we were lucky it seems. As the staff shortages that started with Covid continues to plague our hospitality industry, service just ‘ain’t what it used to be’. It was around 1pm when we arrived, but we didn’t need lunch, just a coffee and one of their famous muffins. We were told that due to staff shortages they normally finish their coffee and cake service in favour of full meal service at 11.30am, but as it was unusually quiet today we were in luck. Bunker Bay Cafe is a dog friendly cafe, so it’s one of our favourites – we’ll have to remember the new food service times if we head there with our fur baby hoping for just a coffee in future. We might not be so lucky next time.

Twas a lovely couple of hours – mild weather, a gentle bush walk alongside stunning coastline, and we were lucky enough to get to enjoy a coffee and muffin afterwards. How lucky are we!