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Published: March 15th 2012
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Cooker/barbeque
Our caravan cooker/barbeque - much used. Busselton / Heaven
How to describe this week?
We have been 10 days at Mandalay Camping Ground which has to be the best we have stayed at by some margin. The campsites are great, with shade and have matting underfoot and good grass everywhere else. The toilet blocks (most important) are immaculate, almost dinner off the floor standard. All this and its only 75m from a fabulous beach.
Add to that the fact that we are only 40km from the Margaret River wine area, and you have an idea of our situation. We’ve been to several vineyards and tasted lots and bought several so that our limited storage is close to full. The commonest brew is called “SBS” which is a sauvignon blanc and semillon blend, not overly exciting. Their chardonnays are fairly thin, not big and robust like ours. However, the shiraz are great, more delicate than the South Australian ones and the cab savs are great. We’ve bought several for the colder days ahead. We’ve had a couple of great lunches, a ploughman’s lunch at Laurence’s being the best for its locality. We snuck into Fraser Gallop, which is not open to the public and saw how
Margaret River
Not all wine tasting good the life of a vineyard owner can be, managed to buy a case of their wine later. Finally did some serious damage at an art and jewellery gallery.
We walked the length of Busselton Wharf which is 2km out and 2km back. It was built originally to ship timber out notably Karri and Jarrah, two extremely large and hard species of gum. Although the tide range is quite small, the wharf had to be that long because the water is so shallow for such a long way out. One fisherman in the camp told us that he went out 30km, and out there the water is only 30m deep. The coastal shelf goes out for 50km.
Tonight (Sunday) we went to Equinox at the beginning of the Busselton wharf for a great dinner, Garlic prawns (16 of them) roast duck (at least ½ a duck) and a bottle of Moss Bros Shiraz, then back home, sat outside in 25deg at 9 pm and drank a Maggie Beer dessert wine and a monks port from New Norcia. I don’t think it can get much better than this.
Our temps are from about 30deg to near 40. At
Lunch
Laurances at Margaret River night, however, it drops to 18 to 20. i.e. a blanket is needed, but only one.
We’ve got the bikes out – its really FLAT here and we are 6km from town. Busselton is a small town in the nice sense. No high rise, gorgeous beaches and a 2km long wharf. And its 40km from Margaret River.
We may never leave. But we did.
Five days later and we have just arrived in Walpole, which is close to as far south as you can get in West Australia. On Monday we packed up and left Busselton and arrived in Augusta. This is the most SW town in Australia, and it gets beaten by the wind. While we were there we had a moderate SE, which was OK. We visited two caves which are impressive and back-tracked to the town of Margaret River. Didn’t buy any more wine as we are quite heavenly laden. Did do some more damage at another gallery.
We visited the lighthouse at Cape Leeuwin and the waters around the lighthouse are dangerous. Rocks and little flat islets everywhere. Not a place to be at night in a SW.
We played 9
Busselton Wharf
2km long and only 20ft deep at the end holes at the local course, so now we can say we’ve played the Augusta Golf Club Inc. I’m now 3 up. It’s a lovely course, undulating fairways and black sand greens.
Now we are in Walpole, about 250km to the east. Came through Pemberton on the way, famous for the Gloucester Tree, which is a former fire lookout. The tree is 60m (200ft) high, and you can climb it by means of steel stakes screwed into the trunk. Hold on tight on the way up, and tighter on the way down. Not bad for a couple of pensioners. Most of the landscape along the way was forests of very large karri and Jarrah trees, though we are informed that all the good straight trees were milled out years ago. Every now and again, a gap with a vineyard or dairy farm, and then back into the forest again. Lots of Australia has underground water, but not here, so each property has a large lake for its water supply. I suspect that the land formation and its ability to collect and store water is part of the reason for these widely spaced properties.
Weather is now cooler, not much
Cape Leeuwin
Lots of offshore hazards hotter than Auckland.
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PandD
13 March 2012
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Chris and Lynne
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Great area, we loved it too!
Good to see you made it to the top of the Glouster Tree, and are loving the area. Really following in our footsteps! The best place to be in oz at present, away from the floods. Enjoy your travels. Regards Chris and Lynne