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Published: December 7th 2009
Day 219 - Conto Campground (Leewin-Naturiliste National Park)
It’s just bliss waking up in such a beautiful and tranquil setting, the Kookaburras were already laughing high in the trees (no sign of death and destruction as yet!) and Simone had walked to the beach and back by the time we got up! We enjoyed our lie in til 7am this morning and we weren’t getting out from under the warm covers for anyone.
The kids are on form again and it takes a lot of concentration from them to do some school work before we head out for the day but they do it and by 10.30 we’re on the road towards Margaret River.
Shockingly the weather does not look good and the sky suggests that it might even rain (sharp intake of breath) so we decide to go to the visitors centre for suggestions of what to do in the case of inclement weather. When we were here a couple of years ago we went on the
Bushtucker Tours Cave and Canoe expedition with Helen Lee, a very well known and respected tourist operator in this area. We’ve half a mind to do it again and we’re sure
we’d enjoy it just as much second time around as it’s a terrific tour and Helen is probably the best tour guide we’ve ever come across in all our holidays over here, she’s excellent. In the end we decide to save our cents and keep our terrific memories from 18 months ago, maybe the next time we visit we’ll swing by and try to drag Helen out of ‘office retirement’ again! If you’re visiting the area, be sure to check out Helen’s website and get yourself on one of her tours - you won’t regret it.
We get some information on the various caves that are close by, Mammoth Cave, Lake Cave and Jewel Cave but we think it’s an expensive option for all of us so we give that a miss too.
So, what to do with ourselves in a wet and soggy Margaret River, the home of a million wineries?! Hmmm, let’s see. What shall we do? I know, let’s go wine tasting, why didn’t I think of that before!
Everyone, except the kids and the drivers - so that just leaves me and Simone, is very excited but first we have some essentials to
sort out in town. We need to get some photographs printed and the Reeves need to purchase some warm clothes for the kids because they’ve mislaid the bag with all the jumpers in. It doesn’t take long for us to sort that little lot out and then get the shopping for a roast dinner tonight.
With a map of the local area in hand we’re off towards our first winery, Cape Grace. The area is stunning with rows and rows of grape vines in wide open fields of green it’s just gorgeous. I can’t remember ever going to a winery before so I’m not really sure what to expect but assume it won’t be free, that was my first mistake of the afternoon - it’s all free and you are invited to taste as many wines as there is on offer with no obligation to purchase. This is the sort of shopping I can get on board with! I only try a couple of the wines on offer in Cape Grace but Simone goes through the list in full! Unfortunately the wines here don’t tickle our fancy which is a shame but not to worry, there’s a few more
wineries to go yet!
From here we drive on to the Mad Fish estate where the wine tasting list is two sides of A4 paper. We go from Chardonnay to Dry Reisling to Semillon to Moscato and then I start to fall behind! Gosh it’s hard graft! Simone takes up the challenge and completes the list in full and then we go back round again picking out our favourites! Bless the chap behind the bar, he was lovely, patient and a good laugh. It was worth their while as Simone bought … well actually I’d better not say exactly what she bought because they could be surprise Christmas presents but anyway she turned dollars into wine! We bought a bottle of their finest 2009 Madfish Moscato for our wedding anniversary in January although I think I should have bought two bottles as it may well be devoured at Christmas! Nevermind, the thought was there!
The kids and drivers were getting restless so we headed for the Margaret River chocolate factory next where we found a huge array of chocolate for sale and a window for us to look through and watch it being made. There are three large
buckets of white, milk and dark chocolate samples on the counter for you to help yourselves too, which of course we did and then we wandered through the display trying to find something appropriately priced for us to purchase. It’s expensive stuff this chocolate! I can’t remember the cost of a single Thorntons chocolate back home but a single Cherry Liquor chocolate here is $1.70. There’s a lot of variety though and it’s all packaged very well plus the kids loved it and that was the main thing.
Our afternoon of delight wasn’t over yet as just around the corner is the Providore estate where the promise of cheese, jams, preserves and olive oil lured us in good and proper! Shock horror they also had wine for us to taste and frankly it would have been rude to decline but it was the Mango Coulis plus the Beetroot and Orange Relish which I could have eaten the lot of! Kenny was so overwhelmed by the Raspberry Jam that he did indeed pull up a chair and attempted to finish the jar until a lovely lady politely asked him to stop! Zoe dobbed Darryl in for using the same spoon
through all the jams and preserves, apparently he should have used a new spoon for each one but we had no idea so I did the same too but didn’t get caught by eagle eyed Zoe!
Our tummies were getting full now so we thought we’d start the drive back to camp via Margaret River itself. I was getting quite used to the map by this point and managed to navigate us back via the Howling Wolves and Moo Town estate then the Margaret River Dairy Company where we partook in some lovely Port followed by tasty cheese and yogurt. All in all a very good afternoon! Good on all the companies that we visited, it must be frustrating in a lot of ways when people are obviously just having fun doing the tasty tour so we thank you for your time and your products, we enjoyed it all very much. Hic!
Unfortunately we were 4 minutes too late to collect the photographs from the shop today, I could see the shop assistant inside eating a bag of crisps but it was painfully obvious that once the door is locked it’s locked and that’s that! Not to worry.
Back to camp we went and Mark set up the rotisserie for tonight’s roast chicken dinner. Now this really was started too late for an early meal, it takes a good few hours to cook a chicken in this manner so Simone rustled up pasta for the kids while we waited for the really good stuff!
We’ve not been disturbed by any humans whilst camping here, our only interaction has been with the wildlife and this evening Kenny beats the lot hands down with the appearance of a Tiger snake. He does the sensible thing, stays calm and alerts his Mum and Dad to the snakes whereabouts which is in the bushes on the way to the toilet. Of course they are nocturnal creatures so we’ll need to be careful now we know it’s around.
We enjoy a terrific dinner when it’s finally deemed cooked by the chefs! We only eat one of the chickens and leave the other for the kids to enjoy tomorrow night but as we’re tidying up we’re joined by a small furry creature trying desperately to get the left over bones out of our bin. We decide it’s a bandicoot and Mark goes
to get Kenny & Zoe who are in the trailer but still not asleep. It’s at this point we realise he’s got a terribly sore eye and we think he might actually be blind. Then we, and the kids, got a really good look at his bad eye and it looks like it’s been scratched out completely. The poor little chap really is in a bad way although he wasn’t the slightest bit concerned about us being around him infact he seemed to value any assistance to get into the bin to get food out. Ever the animal lovers, Zoe and Ken seem a bit concerned about the bandicoot’s survival but by the way it’s knawing on the chicken bone we think it will at least get through tonight!
With the washing up finished off in the camp kitchen we head for bed ready for another move tomorrow.
Thanks to those who have been in touch recently, it’s great to hear from you so keep the messages coming and we’ll write again soon.
All the best
Dar and Sar
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Excellent guide
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