Blogs from Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 10

26/3 Day 59 Augusta is a small town on the Blackwood river and this is where we head to this morning. Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse is just out of the town and sits where the Southern Ocean and Indian Ocean meet at the most south westerly point of Australia. The lighthouse was built out of local limestone and opened in 1896, although part of it was made and shipped from Birmingham. We had our picnic sat on the shores of the Blackwood river while dolphins swam past. A scenic drive through the forest took us north to Hamlin Bay. Unfortunately this beautiful beach was closed due to shark sightings. The other day over 70 whales beached themselves here, 11 were rescued and returned to the sea south of Augusta only for a few of them to return ... read more

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 ... read more

Hay people, Well it has been a while but we are back in the land of the living, and what a life this is out here. for a start these people no how to camp out in the bush, we have been feeling really under equiped but poeple are so nice they have been giving us stuff that makes life on the land a little bit easier. One lovely old bloke called Paddy lent use his boat for a week and I court my first ever fishy's they tasted great. Nicko is quite the fisherman now he has a whole host of gear and is after the big one that keeps getting away, he has also had kangaroo as you will see on the picture although I haven't put anything to bloody and gore as there ... read more

Before we left Perth we wanted to head down south a bit to the Margaret River region which is known for its scenery its surfing and its vineyards! We hired a car from Hertz, a wee Toyota corolla thing, and booked a cottage just outside the town of Margaret river. We drove down on Sunday late morning and stopped at a place called Mandurah which has Sunday art and craft markets so we stopped for a look around. They also have a lovely foreshore area with a coffee shop or two and a really good ice cream shop which we had a wee tester of. Margaret River itself was very nice and quaint with lots of little restaurants and quirky shops to have a peek in, we arrived early evening so we just had a chilled ... read more

Our morning started with a short trip into Denmark. After a quick walk around the town we drove to the Valley of the Giants - a karri forest containing some very tall trees. They’re different from the NZ kauri trees,- instead of being fat and stocky, these were tall and skinny. The storm the previous night had brought some of the trees down along the walk we had planned to do - the Ancient Empire Walk - which weaved along a boardwalk through the forest. It meant that we could only go a short way into the woods before we had to turn around and go back to the beginning again, so we decided to splash out on the Valley of the Giants Walk which took us up through the tree tops on a suspension bridge. ... read more