Blogs from Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 12

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It turns out it wasn't a good place to spend the night and we found ourselves being confronted by another park ranger. This campervanning lark is not as easy as you'd think. Anyway, we had planned to spend tonight in a proper campsite so we knew we wouldn't upset anyone today at least. Margaret River is right in the middle of the South-west's main wine producing region. As you drive through the area you see a sign for another winery at least every 100 yards. It seemed a shame therefore not to sample some of the region's produce. Del and I booked ourselves on to a wine tour. We got picked up by Silvano at 10:30 and headed off to the first of five wineries. Wine at 11 o'clock is the life for me! By lunchtime ... read more


Day 2 began with a very rude awakening by the name of Melinda. Apparently your not allowed to sleep in your vehicle overnight and the park ranger was not happy. We thought we'd better ship on out so we headed across to Surfer's Point to see a surf competition - surfers have the best names, Dusty Payne being my favourite. The rest of the day was spent by the coast after finding a brilliant spot where the waves against the rocks were incredible and another where we thought the sunset would be good and where we thought we could spend the night. Wine tour tomorrow! Kangaroo watch: no sightings today.... read more
Waves
Campervanners
Sunset


To all those who have asked, yes, I am still alive and no, I haven't been eaten by a salt water croc. Just got back to Perth after Roadtrip 1. We haven't spent much time in towns so updates have been a bit slow in coming. Here's what we've been up to... Day 1 was pretty uneventful really. Picked up the van. Drove to Margaret River. Named the van (Kylie). By the time we reached Margaret River it was getting dark, not helped by the Welshesque weather, so we pulled into a layby and set up camp for the night. Kangaroo watch: Del and Rhod spotted several but driver Drew only managed to see two dead ones at the side of the road.... read more
Rhodri bringing new meaning to 'camp'ervanning

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Margaret River March 28th 2008

To view your Shaw Photo Share, click the link below, or copy and paste it into your browser's address bar: http://photoshare.shaw.ca/view/5373432842-1206697532-92991/53734 The wineries are to die for. We arrived in the Margaret River area on Wednesday. Larry had made his list of wineries that he wanted to see and we set off. Ross was the DD, Bonnie checked out the galleries that go with the wineries and I sipped a little. Larry was in his glory. We hit about 5 wineries the first day and he bought a couple at each winery. His theory is that you buy 2 bottles if you are going to buy any because if it is really good then you definitely would not be content with just a sip, so buy more!! In this case, we are lucky because Larry buys ... read more

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Margaret River March 13th 2008

13th March 2008 We slept late for us this morning and did not get up until 8-30am. It had rained heavily in the night and although it had stopped by the time we got up it was still overcast and very windy. The temperature has also dropped today by 10 degrees from 34 to 24. We managed to speak to Marta and the grandchildren in Canada on skype this morning before setting out for the day. It was lovely to see them and to know William and Hannah had been receiving the postcards I had been sending them. There are about 90 known limestone caves in this area so our first destination today was Lake Cavern. It has a very spectacular entrance. The cave entrance was once a very big underground chamber but the roof had ... read more
calcite columns and table
cave
calcite straws

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Margaret River March 12th 2008

12th March 2008 We were planning to leave early but as there was an internet connection available at the caravan site we decided to post the previous two days blogs before leaving our cabin in Fremantle. I took a picture of the aged bus opposite our cabin. It was another hot day at 34 degrees and we needed to find as much shade as we could. We also had a long drive (almost 300 kms) south to Margaret River.I made a mistake in thinking the old coast road would be more interesting than the highay as it appeared to follow the coast but it ran through suburb after suburb and had 60 and 80 speed limits and endless traffic lights. The road was not far from the sea but it is very flat country so you ... read more
The safari bus
The old 1962 Bedford truck
Kangeroo in bracken

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Margaret River March 10th 2008

Ok! so I'll pick up where I left off. The next morning we met Fabian, and another German girl he had met the day before named Barbara. They are twenty three and twenty five respectively. We had a quick greeting, briefly discussed our intrests to make sure that we were all after the same thing, and when it became clear that we were, we threw our packs into the car and started off. Because Australia is such an enormous country, one of our largest expenses will be transport. Without a car, much of the famed "outback" is unreachable, and this is an area of Auz we really wanted to explore. Fabian has bought an old Subaru with four-wheel drive, as well as some cheap camping gear (tents, stoves etc.). Not only will this allow us to ... read more


One for all and all for one........ I had been e-mailing Monti since I left Lancelin, working out the plans for the trip down South for the Labour Day weekend. (A bank holiday) Just so you don't think I have swallowed an atlas, the bit that follows is to give you an idea on the distances within WA. The plan was to go to “Waves Rock” which is in Hyden about 4hrs (345km) SE of Perth and “The tree top walk” is in Walpole, SW of Hyden. In total that would be 680.50km. I met up with Monti and we had an extra person, Uli a German guy on vacation for 3 weeks that Monti meet whilst in Exmouth on her tour up North. The more the merrier I say! We set off early Sunday morning ... read more
I was experimenting
How big is this
Amazing

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Margaret River February 22nd 2008

This is the first opportunity we have had to get onto a pc since our last post. We hired a car for a couple of days last week and headed south of Perth to Freemantle, which was beautiful and very oldy worldy. Scott thought he was in the set of Back to The Future! We went across to a little island called Rottnest Island where we did some snorkelling ans sunbathing and by the end of the day we both looked like lobsters despite the sun block! We took the car back last Tuesday and picked up a camper van which looks more like the Mystery Machine out of Scooby Doo, but is pretty cool really. We again headed South of Perth and have stopped in a place called Bunbury, where we went to a Dolphin ... read more

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Margaret River February 16th 2008

It was suggested to us today to continue our blog. It will give our friends overseas a chance to see a bit of Australia and keep our local friends up to date with our movements. (Thanks Larni) We certainly aren't going to give the detail that we did while we were traveling. For one thing we are far too busy socialising and for another most of it is much too mundane! However, the week after our return saw us heading down to Margaret River with Pat and Jack who'd come to visit my mother and us all the way from Canada. The first day we drove to Margaret River and whilst Rags was recovering from the long drive, Pat, Jack and Judy visited just about every shop in the township. The following day we toured south ... read more
Jack, Rags and Pat went to watch the surfers.
Mmmm.. great burgers at Karridale Pub.
The Southern Ocean




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