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Published: March 23rd 2009
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Busselton
Oh What A Feeling! Taunton Farm, in a gorgeous little town called Cowaramup (still can’t quite pronounce it) was our next stop, 10km north of Margaret River. Animals, jumping pillows and a curly nanny Rita kept the kids entertained. Visits to wineries, breweries, chocolate factories, Yahava coffee tastings and a glass blowing gallery transformed our modest travels into a gourmet delight. Communal meals continued on the grass at the farm, overlooking the paddocks and windmill, but the menu included Margaret River cheeses, wine selected after tastings and home made apple pie, bought at the local Cow Town market. (The locals have given up trying to say Cowaramup) Preparations took place in an open barn that had been converted into a camp kitchen that was able to accommodate Kornhausers and Devines. When with the Devines we join in their celebrations of completing a unit of school work with an impressive pile of pancakes. This particular batch of pancakes was special because its principal ingredient was one ostrich egg (equivalent to two dozen eggs). Even this huge mix couldn’t defeat the kids…about 50 pancakes disappeared within 5 minutes…we had to rescue two for Nanny Rita who was elsewhere at the crucial moment of pancake delivery. Clearly this
Taunton Farm
"Operation Open Ostrich Egg commences." part of the trip has not been too onerous and the only person roughing it was Nanny Rita, who declined our offers to sleep in the swag, and did so herself as a room was not available on the Saturday night. She’s still got it!
To recover from the excesses of consumption, and a Nanny Rita farewell, we headed down to Surfers Point where we witnessed some of the biggest surf ( 10 foot + Adam tells me: Is that big?) I have ever seen and plenty of crazy surfers challenging those pillars of water and one or two of them reigning supreme. Sam watched and turned to Adam after witnessing a surfer take a huge drop, recover and complete a “rad” cutback and said “Dad, that’s like what I did at Berries at Phillip Island”. I am sure I heard a giggle sneak out of the professional surf photographer perched next to us. As I am sure you would have anticipated, I suggested we look for a slightly smaller break for our boys and headed off to the river mouth (while the name suggests home of sharks…the reassurance of locals, together with the fact that the river
Taunton Farm
Dr.Doolittle eat your heart out. peters out before the sea, calmed me) and the boys had a wild time boogie boarding and then we all enjoyed a wrestle with a sea monster (aka hairy Korny or Tom Hanks at about the halfway mark in Castaway) in Margaret River.
While escaping a brief shower, in Margaret River, we hung out in the local bookstore and I pulled a book from the shelf: “The True Story of My Probably Insane Quest to Become a Professional Surfer; Tunnel Vision”. I thought Ads might like it and I showed it to him…as we were discussing it the guy behind the desk interrupted our conversation telling us that if we bought the book he would get the author to sign it. Minutes later he got out his pen and I promised to plug his book…so all you surfer/comedy lovers out there give it a go….We’ll have a review on the blog and I have his email to give him feedback.
It was only a short while and drive (40kms) to our new destination, Busselton and our new arrivals: Grey Nomads of the Ross persuasion. We continued the theme of gourmet delights with visits to wineries, bakeries, Cape Naturalist
Bunker Bay
Beautiful little spot... Lighthouse, coffee at Bunker Bay and The Candy Cow where we watched them make honeycomb and tasted as much fudge as we could. To counteract these calorific activities we headed for Lake Cave where we descended lots and lots and lots of stairs before entering a small but captivating cave, who’s magic lay in the stream of water that reflected the stalactites as we walked along the natural limestone sculptures. Then we ascended lots and lots and lots of stairs before returning back to the caravan park. Nana Deanna showed off her gymnastic prowess on the jumping pillow, while Papa Harry performed well in the drying the dishes stakes, playground boating 101 and on the table tennis circuit. More exercise followed the next day with a bike ride to town and a walk down the Busselton Jetty, which is 1.84 km long, the second longest jetty in the world. The underwater observatory was great, as an artificial reef has formed underneath the jetty attracting a wide variety of sea life and beautiful corals. A yummy lunch and ice cream followed before our visitors had to depart and it was back to bread and water and conversations with Bob and Cheryl
Taunton Farm
Nana and Jojo in the Swag. from Bundaberg…Can anyone help fix the air conditioner in their van? Jim and Kylie from Whyalla want to know about the TV reception …I couldn’t help them as we haven’t got a TV (you should have seen Jim’s face when he heard that!)
As we prepare for our arrival in the big smoke…Perth…we hope that my Aunt and Uncle John and Ilana have a very big washing machine…it will probably take a week to do it all! And then its time for the Northern adventure to begin.
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tania
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wow!
these blogs just keep getting better and better! your eyes and smiles tell us as much about your incredible experiences together as what you write blogs which will be such a joy for you all to read and relive in the years to come! if anyone ever needed convincing that a trip around australia with your kids for a year was the very best thing you could possibly do as a family, they should just read your blogs! keep having a wonderful time. big kisses to you all... kathy, will call you soon and this time, try to time it for when washing up is over! xxx