Those magnificent men in their flying machines

"Do you know what is on the end of the Busselton Jetty?" the pilot asked. We knew the jetty well, or thought we did. 

Built in 1865 the Busselton Jetty is the longest piled wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere. I've blogged about the jetty before, including here  - Busselton Jetty & the Equinox Cafe  and Busselton Jetty swim

We had walked out on the jetty for years, and fished and squidded from it many times in our younger years. In more recent times we had taken our grandsons in the little train out to the end to see the underwater observatory.  Yes, we knew the jetty well.

But wrong! Here is a view we had never seen before..... there are whales painted on the end of the jetty! 
 The paintings, completed in December 2015 by Dunsborough artist Ian Mutch, include paintings of a humpback whale and calf, a southern right whale and a blue whale. You can read more about them here, including a short video  - Whale Wonder at the end of the Busselton Jetty

How did we come to see this view? On Saturday we enjoyed a joy flight over Busselton, Dunsborough and Cape Naturaliste. 

In March I had gone down to Busselton with my son and grandsons to the Busselton Aerofest Air Show. I blogged about it here - From paddock to city. At the show we had all bought raffle tickets. My eldest nine year old grandson had one of the winning tickets - a ride in a 1930′s vintage open-cockpit Tiger Moth biplane with Tiger Moth Adventure Flights. Unfortunately for him he was too young to take the flight, and he was very disappointed. So my son, his dad, went in his place, and organised a joy flight for the rest of us in a six-seater Cessna from Busselton Air Service.

First off, the owner of the Tiger Moth showed us his plane, and allowed our grandsons to sit in the cockpit. He had heard the story of how disappointed our grandson had been not to be able to take the flight. Then he went through the safety info with my son, and they were off. Here you can see him in his flying cap and goggles. Don't you just love the colour of the plane!

We met our pilot Roger, and piled into the Cessna. My grandson sat in front next to the pilot. 

First we flew over Busselton and the iconic Busselton Jetty, and then it was down the coast over the Dunsborough beach side town, vineyards, farming land, and Cape Naturaliste.

Unfortunately for me I was sitting on the left in the plane, and most of the views were on the right, but I managed to snap some shots of the coast. 

That is Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse you can see bottom right. I wrote about Cape Naturaliste Way and the Cape to Cape Trail back in 2010 here - Walking Cape Naturaliste
I think it is time I went walking along the Capes again now the weather is getting cooler. 
Top left is Canal Rocks. They don't look much from this shot but they are spectacular on a windy day with the waves crashing over the rocks.

Some more coastal views. The lovely blue cove you can see bottom right is Meelup Beach, which is a very popular beach for families in summer. I talked about Meelup on my blog here - Australia Day on the Beach

All too soon, it we were back flying over Busselton and our flight was over. Below you can see the new, well fairly new, marina.

It was a cloudy morning, and I didn't enjoy the bumps as we passed over the coastline, but we had a wonderful flight.

 For information on scenic flights over Busselton - please click here -
Busselton Air Service 
 Tiger Moth Adventure Flights

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed this little flight over Busselton and Cape Naturaliste. Do you like flying in a small plane? Perhaps you might like to tell us about your last flight in your comments. 

 I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week.

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