Red Red Wine

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G’day cobbers,

First up a bit of long awaited news .... Dave has finally had a haircut!!! His first since October 2006. He thought his curly locks were getting a bit out of control, as did a few other people and he went for the chop. Thankfully in the wind it still looks a bit unruly and the curls are still there!!

Well here we are on our road trip taking in the sights and sounds of SW Oz. Our itinerary looks a little like this, tho some are just beaches we stopped at and admired the view and others we spent some time at:

Fremantle - Mandurah - Florida Beach - Preston Beach - Australind - Bunbury - Bussleton - Margaret River wine region - Dunsborough - Meelup Beach - Eagle Bay - Cape Naturaliste - Bunker Bay - Sugarloaf Rocks - Yallingup - Bondarup Forest - Augusta. Just to let you know "Up" at the end of some of the names means "Place of" so Yallingup means "Place of Love".

Tuesday morning we picked up our hire car, a very flashy white, automatic, Toyota Corolla - not the car Dave would have chosen but as it appears the most common car on the road over here. First things first, how to drive it! Dave just about managed to move it into “Drive”, worked out what to do with his left leg and we tore out of the car hire place. Not the fastest car in the world, but hey, it’ll do. Grabbed some supplies for lunch and on impulse a 2 man tent, picnic rug and sleeping bag!! We had grand ideas of sleeping under the stars that night and of course it was all very cheap.

First stop Mandurah, a little beach town on the coast with 47km of stunning and deserted coastline. We headed out to Melros Beach for lunch as recommended by Go West magazine but couldn't find that one so ended up driving round a new build estate backing onto Florida beach, beautiful and deserted. A bit further south on the open roads, we spotted our first sign to be on the lookout for Kangaroo. Excitedly I got the camera out in readiness, and yes we saw our first 3 kangaroos of the trip. Unfortunately they were all lying very still on the side of the road.

Next stop was Preston Beach, again another beautiful deserted beach that was a tad on the windy side. Lucky for us they had positioned some tyres just the perfect size for us to fit into and eat a sandwich out of the wind and sand, before heading back out and onto the much bigger town of Bunbury.

This is a nice little town, a bit reminiscent of a retirement holiday resort, but again lots of development going on. Booked ourselves in at the Wander Inn and set out to explore. Not quite ready to tent it just yet, so agreed to one more night of comfort before the cold hard ground and several layers of clothes. Went up to the lighthouse and the Marlston Hill lookout for views all around the area and then off to get some food for dinner. Our hostel kindly informed us that Tuesday was “Tight-arse Tuesday” round at their local, the Burlington Arms with all beers $2 for a midi (about a ½ pint to us Brits) so after our free yummy chocolate cake at the hostel off we headed. We’d planned for a quiet night as we wanted to be up early the following day, and could probably do with a quieter night on the beer, but just as we settled down we were joined by two “Crow Eaters” - local boys Luke and Dean from 230kms east of Adelaide who were road tripping it over to Perth in their ute. Obviously they wanted to see how much us Brits drank, in between trying to educate us on the Aussie music scene, talking about sport, the climate, farming, discussing the different foods of Oz that we have to try, and how much damage a Kangaroo can do to your ute we ending up drinking till closing time. Sleepy little town is Bunbury - it was only 10pm. We got some beers to carry out, and lucky for us the Aussies had their own stash of beers in the eski in the boot of their ute, which they shared with us for a few more hours. All in all a really good night. Aussies are definately coming out top in the friendliness stakes. Everywhere we go people say hello and stop to chat, and offer us beers. Can't be bad.

Needless to say the following morning we were all a little tired at breakfast but no time for a lie-in as we had dolphins to spot. We headed round to the Dolphin Discovery Centre hoping to see some dolphins come into the shore so we could swim with them. However today it wasn’t to be. Instead we got to get over our hangovers with a stunning view of the sea, and sat on the sand till we decided to head off.

Next stop Bussleton. We checked into Bussleton Holiday Village, luckily they had room despite the classic car convention that was also in town, and attempted to put up this tent. Perhaps at this point I should mention that it only cost about $13 (about 5 quid) so we weren’t holding out much chance that it would stay up, especially next to some of the huge marquee-esque things near us, but by the time we'd finished with it, it looked decidedly cosy. Then we headed back into town to do something a bit less crazy and booked ourselves onto a Wine Tasting Tour. We went for The Bushtucker Gourmet Tour as it looked the most fun visiting 4 different wineries in the Margaret River area to taste 40 wines, 1 brewery, 1 cheese factory and 1 chocolate factory plus a delicious lunch promising kangaroo!!! It was going to be a good day.

To fill the rest of our afternoon we went to see the premier tourist attraction in Bussleton, Bussleton Jetty, which is also the longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere at almost 2km long. Being the cheap skates we are we didn’t pay out to visit the underwater observatory at the end so walked up, and walked back trying not to be blown off into the sea. Hoping we wouldn't see our tent go flying past us we headed home for tea and bed. Had a bit of a chilly night but certainly not as bad as we expected. Think we might enjoy this tenting lark!!

Bright and early the next day we were at the reception office waiting for our transport for our wine trip. Thinking we had booked onto the "fun" trip we were surprised to see two 80 year olds get on at the next pickup stop, but they seemed to enjoy themselves and we all had a really good day. The driver and compere for the trip was Peri who also seemed to enjoy a drink or two and then we were off. Hello to Peter and Doris, two very friendly Brits who befriended us and talked diving with us. They are hard core divers going off the English coast - I think I may prefer warmer tropical seas!!

First stop was Fonti Farm for cheese tastings. 4 cheeses and a yoghurt to try here. Then onto the first winery of the day Hay Shed Hill (which deals with premium wines) who also produce Pitchfork (the cheaper and in our mind the nicer wines!! No taste I know!!) Sampled 11 wines in total here, and the nicest was the Rose. 11.30am and 11 wines down, and I was a little sozzled. Surely I wouldn't be able to keep going at this rate?

Thankfully I did, and at the second winery, Willesby we stopped for a delicious lunch. Tried Kangaroo, very nice and surprisingly doesn't taste like chicken, more like gammon and bought a nice bottle of Cabernets to accompany our food. Third winery was Woody Nook, with more to try, then Knotting Hill for the final wine stop of the day. This was also our favourite - stunning scenery and the nicest wines. Dave and Peter talked cameras (both playing with their new toys) out on the balcony.

The Chocolate factory was next up with help-yourself handfuls of chocolate drops untill they realised the size of our hands and quickly got someone to ration us!! Got seconds tho. Next stop was the highlight of the day for some, including Dave, the Bootleg Brewery for beer tastings. Only first we each had to pay an extra $10 for the privelege. Feeling a little ripped up we paid up and then got to enjoy 6 beers (all new ones for Dave so was money well spent). That was it so we were dropped off back in town, our wine and beer tasting day finished. Thoroughly enjoyable day.

Next day we were up and left to get down the coast to Dunsborough. Stopped here briefly then off to some beaches. First was Meelup beach - beautiful, but a little crowded and choppy for our liking, so round the coast to Eagle Bay. Deserted save for one other sunbather, so we enjoyed our lunch here. Then we went round to the lighthouse at Cape Naturaliste. We did the walking loop that completely skirted the lighthouse so we didn't see much of it but very beautiful scenery. Then we travelled round to Bunker Bay where we attempted to snorkel in the very choppy seas. Not seeing much so left it and decided to head to Yallingup for a snorkel in the lagoon instead. This was better- very calm tho freezing cold and even spotted a few fish.

Getting on in the afternoon now so headed down to Augusta where we'd camp for the night. Passed through Bondarup Forest home of the Karri tree - the 3rd tallest tree in the world with very haunting scenery.

Tea was simple - good old fish and chips with a plastic fork and glass of wine. Good road trip tucker.

Ttfn

Mrs Deane xxx

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Comments

[Sara]

Cathy, who is this new man you are travelling with? I dont recognise him at all without the long flowing curls! Sx

[Two Divers]

Cheers fellow wine travellers from the 2 Divers.
Great to meet you folks on the Bushtucker Gourmet Tour back in March or was it April? We enjoyed the tour, especially your company guys. Nice to see the photo of your tent! We had the same style of little white car too from Doris and Peter