Bunbury to Busselton

We arrived at the Mandalay Holiday Resort in Busselton safe and sound. It's very busy because of the school holidays, but is a really nice place to stay for our week. Today's weather was a bit of a scorcher with the weather getting to almost 40c. We decided to drive inland to the Manjimup Cherry Harmony Festival for 2013. The drive through the countryside was nothing short of beautiful. One minute we were surrounded by rolling fields scattered with very healthy looking cattle, then all of a sudden the huge trees of the WA Southern Forests closed in on us and we were surrounded by huge magnificent pines and other sorts of tree. Also scattered amongst this beautiful scenery were the wineries that this region is well known for.

Driving through the beginning of the WA Southern Forests

The village of Manjimup was a lot bigger than I thought it would be and today the closed off streets were buzzing with art, market stalls, singing, dancing, wood chopping competition, a fashion parade and lots and lots of people. We wandered around checking everything out until the heat finally got to us and we headed to the Manjimup RSL (Returned Services League) for a nice cold beer before heading back on the road for our journey home.

Dancing in the streets

Chopping some wood

Even Rob from Better Homes and Gardens was there giving some tips

Music in the streets

A corrugated kangaroo

Miss (not so short) Cherry Festival

We took a different route to get back to Busselton and were certainly not disappointed with equally beautiful scenery as earlier.

Once again the names of the villages we either drove through or saw signs for amazed me. Such as Nannup, Palgarup, Wilgarup, Balbarrup, Nyamup, Darradup, Ballingup,

Mullalyup, Cundinup, Jalbarragup, Yoongarillup and of course Manjimup.