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Published: April 8th 2009
We are now in Margaret River which is unfortunately our last destination before we head back to Perth and on to Hong Kong. It was only a short drive here from Pemberton. We went via Cape Leeuwin which is where the Indian and the Southern Oceans meet. It is also the most south westerly point in Australia. When we got there the first thing that struck us was how busy it was. There were cars parked everywhere and loads of people! This came as a bit of a shock as we were used to always having the place to ourselves. After the obligatory walk to the lighthouse and the photograph taking we headed on to Margaret River. We did stop in Augusta for an absolute must of a photo opportunity!
When we got to Margaret River we found that the Margaret River actually went through the bottom of our caravan park. We decided to hire a canoe and go for a little paddle along it. It was very peaceful and there were loads of dragonflies buzzing about. One of them decided to set up it's new home on my hat!
Later on we went for a walk and found
another dream home (we can't decide if we liked this more than the one in Albany). This one was just a lovely house in a lovely riverside location. The gardens were lovely too. The garden was also filled with swamphens!
Our caravan park seem to be home to lots of tame birds. There were ducks everywhere. They kept jumping up the stairs to our patio. I fed them the first day and after that they were always hanging about. One morning we heard a strange noise and they were tapping their beaks on out patio door! One even pecked my leg!
There was also a very tame kookaburra on the site that seem to fly from one patio to the next looking for food. I was very excited to see it sitting on ours. As well as these birds there was also the now ubiquitous flock of galahs. Even though I have seen them everywhere I am not tired of watching them, they are such comical birds.
Margaret River is a big wine producing area so we decided to spend our first full day sampling some! As well as the wine it also has a range of
gourmet food outlets ranging from olive oil to chocolate. As it is such a tourist mecca all these places have free tastings. Armed with the map we headed off on a little tour. We started with the
Margaret River Dairy Company for some cheese before heading to
Margaret River nuts and cereals. They had lots of fruit and nuts covered in chocolate and yoghurt. I think I sampled most of them. The guy in the shop mocked me because of the way that I say yoghurt! It is the Ozzies that say it in a funny way not the British.
After the nuts and cereals we headed to
The Margaret River Chocolate Factory where as the name suggests they sell chocolate. They had 3 massive tubs of chocolate buttons that you could help yourself to if you wanted to taste their chocolate. Needless to say I indulged!
As it was now about midday we decided it was time to hit the vineyards. We started with Vasse Felix before visiting Pierro. At Pierro we decided to treat ourselves to a bottle of blanc de blanc (and a blanc de blanc cheque book and pen!). The wine was very nice
so we made rather short work of it last night!
We went to the beach for lunch and the essential walk along the beach before we headed off to visit a few more vineyards (Xanadu & Voyager). We also went to
Olio Bello, a company producing olive oil and dips. We bought a very tasty dip for our now nightly pre-dinner drinks and snacks. All in all a very enjoyable day.
Today we had an active day. We started by exploring Calgardup cave. There are lots of caves in this area. We decided to visit this one as it was self guided but still had paths so did not require scrabbling over rocks. When we got there we were issued with hard hats with lights and a big torch. The cave is not lit in anyway so needless to say it was pitch black. At the start of the cave the roof is covered with roots from the trees above. They looked really bizarre, like lots of bits of string. Further in there were loads of stalagmites and stalactites.
After the caving we went to the beach to watch the surfers. We were at a very popular
place as the carpark was rammed and everyone seemed to be wearing wetsuits. The waves were huge. The surfers looked like they do on the TV, riding the waves - well the good ones were. I never realided how long surfers spent bobbing about on their boards waiting for a good wave. Feeling inspired after watching all these surfers we decided to go bodyboarding.
After heading to the nearest surf shop to hire our boards and get the low down on the best beach to go to we headed to Redgate Beach. Some of the beaches around here have massive waves so we wanted to go somewhere where we wouldn't get washed away! Redgate beach was a great choice as it was a lovely beach with lots of waves to surf in on. Also the water was warm (we stayed in the sea for 2 hours without a wetsuit and didn't get cold). The bodyboarding was so much fun. We could not recommend it enough. When you time it just right you can zoom in on the wave really quickly and travel a surprisingly long distance. I can see why it is so addictive.
On our way back
to our unit we saw some kangaroos! I have spent the last 2 ½ weeks looking for kangaroos but up to now all we have seen is dead ones lying by the side of the road. To see live ones hopping by was a great end to another great day in Australia.
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