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Published: December 11th 2008
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Entry by Jules We got an early start from the hostel on Sunday as we had a reasonable drive to complete to get us to Margaret River. Many Perth residents head down to the Margaret River region over the weekend to head to the beach, surf, sample the local wines and generally relax so we’d picked a good day to be travelling in the opposite direction.
From Perth down to almost Bunbury, there seemed to be endless building of new communities or eco-villages stretched out alongside the highway. These looked like they could be second homes (hardly new communities).
Along the way I caught sight of my first wild Kangaroo. Unfortunately he, along with the other 5 or 6 I saw, were dead at the side of the road.
We stopped in a place called Yallingup to grab some lunch. This is a small beach resort in the Cape Naturaliste National Park. White sandy beaches with enough wind to create reasonable waves for surfing characterise this part of the coastline. Not ideal for sunbathing though, unless you like the sandy with goose bumps look.
We arrived at our destination, Margaret River, late afternoon and checked into
our accommodation. We were staying at Bridgefield Guest House, allegedly the oldest guest house in the town and now home to a locally famous tea rooms (everywhere serves Devonshire Cream Tea!).
Margaret River is a lovely small town with an abundance of shops for both tourists and residents alike, a couple of decent bars and plenty of restaurants/cafes. I should imagine it’s a complete nightmare here on a weekend in the summer or during the school holidays however. We had, by chance, got our arrival day spot on!
I drank my first Tooheys New (a lager which has a bit of a bitter - as in the beer - after taste) in the Settlers Bar; a very popular drinking and eating establishment for all ages. They had a band playing - apparently on Sunday afternoons this is a bit of a tradition. The band was a bit loud so we sat indoors!
After a hearty breakfast on Monday morning at Bridgefield B&B (including pancakes - yum!) we started our journey further south. Our first port of call was the Eagle Heritage Centre, home to a collection of bird of prey. Having arrived early we decided to head
to the coast and Redway Beach to kill some time. At the beach we found it deserted apart from a lone surfer who had left his thongs on the beach. The white sand was untouched and still bore footprints from the many birds in the area. Also at the beach was a monument to the Georgette, a ship which was grounded just 90 metres off the shore in 1876. All bar 5 people survived following assistance from two riders on horseback named Bussel and Isaacs. Apparently this is a bit of a legend and the name Bussel appears frequently in the region (Isaacs doesn’t seem to at all so I’m not sure what happened to him).
We did retrace our steps to the Eagle Heritage Centre before moving on to the Leeuwin Estate Winery. Although not the largest winery by any means in the Margaret River, it claims to be the most internationally renowned. Following a tour of the wine making process, strangely delivered by a French man, we, or rather I, tasted some of the wine. As always, it’s the most expensive wine which is the most appealing so we decided not to buy any bottles as the
best ones equated to a nights stay in a guest house.
Our next stop was Cape Leeuwin, the most south-westerly point of Australia. On the way there we travelled through rolling hills of lush green countryside holding fields of cows and sheep. If it wasn’t for the rows of vines and emus interspersed by the cows and sheep you could be forgiven thinking that we were in England (ok, and the weather as well).
At Cape Leeuwin, aside from the lighthouse, are numerous small beaches being lapped at by the clear turquoise blue sea; this is the point at which the Indian and Southern Ocean meet. We stopped for lunch at one of the beaches but in the end, in true British style, had to return to the car to finish our meal as it was just too windy. At least we didn’t have to use the windscreen wipers!
The final part of our journey to Pemberton where we were staying, took us through Tall Trees country. Pretty self explanatory but nonetheless amazing to drive through on long, straight, seemingly endless highways through acres of trees which extend so far up that the sky is almost obscured.
We stumbled across a sign within the forest to Beedelup Falls and, as we had time, decided to stop. These falls aren’t mentioned in any of the local guides; in reality there are nothing to rival many of the well known falls in the Lake District etc but that’s not the point. The point is that there was no one at them when we strolled around the 500m long walkway loop (all disabled access allowed), the car park operated on an honesty scheme and there were plenty of information points all along the walk. Despite them not being completely awe-inspiring, the falls were pretty and the fact that we took an alternative route back over a swing bridge was amusing. I managed to film our walk across the bridge, albeit wobbly, with a soundtrack of wooahs, ahhs and oohs!
Pemberton is a much smaller town than Margaret River and has a slightly ghost town-like feel to it as part of the railway sidings in the centre of the town have overgrown. We did manage to get some snags (sausages), kebabs and patties (lamb burgers) for our first BBQ at the local butchers however.
Our accommodation was in a
chalet at Pemberton Farm, just to the north of the town. We settled into the chalet before heading out to stroll around the farm and see the various animals. The most amazing thing is that they have a pet Kangaroo and I was absolutely surprised when I saw my first live one! The pet Roo was hand reared from a Joey and is therefore very used to humans and I was able to stroke him. Heaven! Later on in the evening we saw plenty of other wild Roos in the field next to our chalet - as I sit here now typing this entry, I can see out the window about 8 adult Roos, 3 or 4 of which have Joeys.
Other animals include lop eared rabbits, guinea pigs, a pet Galah called Floyd, horses, goats and sheep. This is a good place to stay.
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Ben
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Keanu
Personally, if I'd been at Yallingup, I'd have had to have done some sort of recreation of the cliffhanging finale to "Point Break". Maybe it wouldn't be the same without the rain and Patrick Swayze though... Enjoying the dog pics - I think you should make more use of him. Perhaps in a "gnome on a world tour" style. Or maybe not. Hope you're having the time of your lives :o)