Another refund from our Covid-19 failed Greece trip landed in our bank account last week. Feeling sorry for ourselves, we decided to spend it on some luxury in the Southwest of Western Australia at the Pullman Bunker Bay resort.
Bunker Bay is about 260 km south of Perth, 10 minutes from Dunsborough, near Cape Naturaliste.
The Pullman resort is 5 star luxury, and at $450 (AUD) per night we were expecting something special.
After a cold and rainy three hour drive we arrived Sunday afternoon. We stopped at the Bunbury Farmers Market to stock up on some snacks. This is becoming a habit every time we drive through Bunbury – going there – and coming home. We also arrived to hear that there was a Covid-19 positive case in Perth. Stage 1 Restrictions had been put in place for the Perth and Peel regions. We were outside the Perth/Peel regions so we thought we were lucky to escape. The regulations stated, however, that visitors from Perth were still required to wear masks in public.
We were checked in by the very friendly Shane. Our villa was quite close to the reception and car park so we didn’t require the golf-cart transport that other distant villas would have needed.
Seeing it was cold and wet outside, we cracked open a bottle of red and enjoyed the big bath. The villa was very spacious with a kitchen, sitting area and large bathroom. We decided to have dinner at the hotel’s restaurant Other Side of the Moon. We arrived early and had nice cocktails at the bar. Dinner was a little disappointing. I ordered the Marron, which was an unusual selection for me. I had to wrestle with the claws to extract a tiny morsel of meat, The tail meat was removed from the shell in a nice sauce, although it was a little dry. At $56 it should have been perfect though. Jane ordered the Swordfish. She described it as “okay”. We retired early at watched Netflix.
I awoke early on Monday and decided to wander down to the beach for the sunrise. It wasn’t too cold and there was a nice amount of cloud promising a good sunrise. I walked to the end of the bay where there were nice rocks. I set up my tripod and waited for the magic. It was a lovely sunrise and I got some great photos.
I arrived back at the villa hungry and hassled Jane to wake up. Our accommodation included buffet breakfast. The breakfast was quite comprehensive, the highlight being small eggs benedict portions.
After breakfast the weather was still good so we set off to explore the bays up Cape Naturaliste. We visited Castle rock, Meelup beach, Eagle Bay, Bunker Bay, We had a little photo shoot at Point Picquet.
We stopped for a beer and chips at Bunker Beach House. This was a lovely little place over looking the bay that serves breakfast and lunch. Lunch here on a warm summer’s day would be spectacular. One to keep in the memory banks.
News was coming in that there were more Covid-19 cases in Perth and the government implemented a four day lockdown for the Perth & Peel region (not Bunker Bay).
We travelled into Dunsborough for dinner at Bamboo Spice. This was a small Thai restaurant. We shared a Massaman Curry and Papaya salad. The food was delicious.
When we arrived back at the resort the clouds had all but disappeared affording a fantastic view of the stars. I decided to get the tripod out and try some Astrophotography. It was a great opportunity being away from the city where there’s always too much light pollution. Even still it was difficult to find an area that was dark enough to trigger Google camera’s Astrophotography mode. Success though. I’m quite happy with the result.
No sunrise wake up on Tuesday. It was straight to coffee and breakfast. After breakfast we explored the hotel grounds. The weather was quite nice. The sun showed itself occasionally through the clouds and it wasn’t too windy, so I decided to fly the drone on the beach. I asked Jane to strip off to her bathing suit for some top-down photos. She was freezing but obliged for the sake of art.
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Shane recommended to eat at the Blue Manna restaurant in Dunsborough. The only booking we could get was 4.45pm. This was later changed to 5.15pm. It was worth it! The food was sensational. Jane and I shared a tasting plate to start consisting of fish taco, scallop and salmon sashimi. We also has a couple of oysters each. We then shared the “special of the day” pork ribs with a Balinese sauce with chilli and satay. We were hesitant to choose that dish because in our heads those flavours didn’t seem like they’d work. The waitress assured us it was delicious, so we went for it. It didn’t disappoint – It was very good. We will definitely return to the Blue Manna whenever we’re in the Busselton – Margaret River area (which is quite often these days).
Wednesday was our last day. A lazy wake up and into the restaurant for breakfast. We had one more walk around the hotel grounds. We were packed and ready to go at 11am. First stop Bunbury Farmers Market (again).
After we loaded the car with fresh Bunbury produce we took a detour to visit the Wellington Dam. A mural painted on the dam wall has just been finished and I was keen to see it. The 8,000-square-metre mural is thought by organisers to be the largest in the world. I got the drone out to fly around and over.
We arrived home about 4pm.
It was a nice relaxing break for us. We decided to spend a bit of cash to compensate ourselves for the lack of overseas trips. The resort was nice – the drinks and food was great. The scenery on Cape Naturaliste is always a treat no matter the time of year.
Check out my Instagram pages for more photos:
Final thoughts on the Pullman Bunker Bay Resort: The resort is certainly immense and luxurious. The room was spacious and well appointed. The breakfast was good enough. The staff were relatively efficient but somewhat unfriendly. Perhaps I’m comparing the staff too much to the Parmelia Hilton Perth, where we enjoyed a weekender mid June. The staff at the Parmelia we’re ultra-friendly without exception. The staff member that checked us in, Shane (IG: @thoughlocaleyes) was very friendly and provided us with a map of his recommendations for places to eat and photography spots. Overall the resort is luxurious without being spectacular. For $450/night it really should be spectacular. I probably wouldn’t stay there again, unless they cut the room rate in half.
JellyfishKing Travel 