This blog is a short update on our Easter
weekend adventures! As with many southern hemisphere countries, Easter is the
longest holiday period until Christmas. The consequence; everybody takes the
opportunity to maximize their time off work!
In Perth we joined an annual migration
south, named locally as ‘the great migration’. Like birds, flying to a water
hole we voyaged to the Margaret river, one of Australia’s most renowned
watering holes (for wine that is!).
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| Ice cream stop at Busselton beach |
On Thursday evening we combed the last of
the local inorganic collections for some foam mattresses- check! Packed our
tent, cooking stove and other necessities (such as our treasured aerator) and
called 10 fully booked campsites. To our luck we managed to get a booking and
had a back up option prepared.
On Friday morning we ventured south, traffic was
heavy but moving at the limit. We stopped regularly at the free roadside coffee
stops and made our way to Bunbury, then Busselton, checking out the beaches.
As
intrepid travels we moved down the peninsula before stopping at Lake Cave- one
of the greatest places we have been. Taking a tour into the cave was
breathtaking (literally), the cave was 11 stories underground which equates to
about 500 stairs.
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| Chilling in the autumn vines, Bettany Wines |
After checking out several national parks
in the area, we then moved south to Augusta where our campsite was- and was probably
the most daunting finding (a 14acre campsite with approx. 600 campers if
not more) it was like a mini community… and all sharing 8 toilets.
From Augusta
over the weekend we travelled to Margaret River- tasting the wares on offer.
Not only does Margaret River make wine, the area comes with over 10 micro-breweries
as well as free chocolate, nougat, cheese and ice-cream tastings. As a point of difference wineries also offer
olive and olive oil tastings and dips/chutneys etc. Although we aren’t really
wine connoisseurs (yet), and we didn’t quite make it to half the wineries in
the area, we were surprised that there was little diversity in wine variety.
You had a choice of sparkling, semillion, chardonnay, merlot, shiraz and
cabernet sauvignon OR a dry red, or sweet red (which was a mixture of
everything) ek. So maybe we aren’t experts… but we could be turning into wine
snobs! We’re just saying, with the beautiful Mediterranean climates maybe some
temprenillo or granache might have been nice?
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| Master Chef John cooking up a hearty breakfast |
The natural beauty of the Margaret River
region was also surprising, the coast line was stunning. The water was crystal
clear with patches of the most amazing colours. We spent several hours hiking
around both ends of the peninsula as well as a tad of rock climbing (to get a
better view). The weather, although regarded as cooler in the south remained a
calm 28 degrees (with even some cloud on Saturday morning!).
Overall it was a fabulous weekend, we met
lots of friendly local Auzzies (some who took delight in showing us a massive
crab they caught), spent several nights camping under the full moon and took
part in the ‘great migration’.
Check out some more of our photos below!
Tot siens,
John and Kara
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| Amazing stalactites in Lake Cave |
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| Deep in Lake Cave |
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| Visiting Cape Leeuwin lighthouse, southern most tip of the Margaret River peninsula |
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| Walking down to the estuary |
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| Checking the waves at Redgate beach, Prevally |
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| Some awesome wave action, Canal Rocks |
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| Time to try some famous Margaret River Shiraz, Brookland Valley Vineyard |
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| Missioning along the coastal track at Cape Naturaliste, northern most tip of the Margaret River Peninsula |
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| Dinner along the waterfront at Spur, Mandurah |
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| After a long weekend, it was nice to get home and shower! |
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