Margaret River
Tuesday 9th December – Easy drive from Perth to Margaret River, about 250km and much of it freeway, which we are just not used to. The most striking thing is the massive change in the terrain, there are green fields, sheep, lots of them and cows, lots of them too, not just a few skinny ones here and there, big fat black and white ones. And trees, huge trees, proper trees not scraggy struggling little runts like we’ve been used to seeing in the outback! Well they are not really huge I suppose, they’re normal, we’ve just seen low scrub for months and a tree would be not much more than 3 metres high, these trees look like giants! It’s almost feels homely, it’s like driving to the Hunter Valley or some of the outer suburbs of Sydney. We like it already!
We are both really looking forward to this next chapter of our journey, we’ve wanted to visit Margaret River for years and just never got around to it. It’s expensive for Sydney siders to come here for a holiday, there’s a 5 hour flight, then hire car, then accommodation. We looked at it a few years ago and it was cheaper to fly to Vietnam for a week! So here we are now and can’t wait to see what Margaret River has to offer.
We had chosen a camp called Wharncliffe Mill, which is more of a bush camp in a National Park than your traditional caravan park and it’s just outside the town of Margaret River too. What really appealed to us was all the bush tracks leading from it where we could run, walk or cycle.
Driving in we were so excited, the track in was lined with huge Karri, Jarrah and Marri trees, it was so beautiful. This place reminds us of camping in the Booderee National Park in Jervis Bay, just gorgeous.
The drive in to Wharncliffe Mill
As I jumped out of the car to check in, couldn’t believe how cold it is though, the car was saying 18 degrees… I don’t think we have been as cold as that since we were in Bedourie or Birdsville. I had worn three quarter length pants today and a long light sleeve and thongs, I clearly need socks, trainers and a fleece!
We found a wonderful spot, backing on to the forest, not far from a natural playground for Maddy. She zipped over there and found lots of news friends to play with while we set up the van. I made us a lovely juice for lunch and then we headed in to the Margaret River township to the information centre.
Our site for the next 2 weeks – Wharncliffe Mill
The information centre was excellent, such wonderful staff, so helpful, so much to do here! We have 2 weeks to play with, I think we are going to need that! Drew and I are both so excited, we can’t stop grinning. There are perhaps 130 wineries within a 40 km radius, then there’s cafes, cheese shops, olive oil, artisan foods and deli’s. There are some of the most amazing beaches along the coast, just 10km from here and so many other things to see and do. We haven’t done or seen anthing yet and already Drew and I in a happy place. We have been discussing along the trip if there is anywhere we would rather live than Sydney, and the Byron Bay hinterland is high on our list, but we hadn’t seen Margaret River… funny because we both had thought it straight away, that this would be the sort of place we could live, and we haven’t even done or seen anything yet!
We had a potter down the main street and in to a few shops here and there, then picked up some groceries for dinner and headed back to the caravan. It’s so cold that we are going to have a camp fire tonight! We haven’t had a fire for many months now, haven’t needed it. So we picked up some wood from the roadside on the way back before we get in to the National Park (because you can’t collect wood from within the park – even though there’s heaps of it!).
As it is so cold I opted for a warming stew for dinner rather than the raw vegan salad I was making… what a contrast! We had a wonderful evening, sitting around the fire pit next to our van, eating stew, drinking a fabulous Margaret River red and then toasting Marshmallows… it doesn’t get much better than this!
Camp Fire
Wednesday 10th December – Drew was keen to try out the mountain bike tracks this morning so he headed out early.
He found an amazing set of mountain bike tracks called The Pines, which are really technical, he came back exhausted but happy.
I went for a run on another track, an old railway line that leads from here to Cowaramup. I ran for only 10 minutes before my left knee started playing up, it’s so sore I have to stop and walk a while and stretch and run again for a minute or so then stop again. How annoying! I did manage to get an 8km walk/ run in though and the lane and the forest was so beautiful to run through. I did get a little lost on the way back, which is why I managed 8km really…. I found my way back in the end though, tomorrow I must remember where the turning is back to the camp! As soon as I got back I made an appointment with the physio for both me and Drew as he’s suffering with a sore shoulder. Doh! We’re getting old!
So out to explore Margaret River… first stop an olive place, Olio Bello, selling the most delicious organic olive oils and olives and tapenades etc. We did purchase a few things here, some olives and chilli jam.. yummo! Looks nice for lunch too although we didn’t stop as Drew has his sights set on a vineyard called Cullen for lunch.
Olio Bello – tasting…
Drew had marked on the map some of the wineries he wanted to visit, ones he knows of that are good such as Vasse Felix and Cullen. Cullen also has a restaurant so we headed there for a tasting and then lunch.
Lunch was wonderful, we had a vegetarian tasting plate and a microrganic salad, and then a little venison chorizo treat as a side dish. Great restaurant and location. While we were there we tasted their wines of course, which were all wonderful but rather pricey, the ones we liked best were between $55 and $115 a bottle, a little out of our budget…
After lunch we had a wonder around their gardens, they have a cool veggie and herb patch that we would dearly like in our garden and these groovy bean bag outdoor chairs which were just lovely to relax in for a moment after a sumptuous lunch and a glass or two of wine…. it was hot in the sun too!
After lunch we stopped at the Chocolate Factory which was huge!
Unbelievable selection of chocolate, and always great to have a free tasting but it was rather pricey, so all we came away with was a small packet of chocolate buttons for Maddy.
Look at the size of this chocolate shop!
Next to the chocolate place is the Providore, I think they are connected in some way, another huge place full of oils and chutneys and wines etc.
We bought a Raspberry Balsamic from there but refrained from purchasing anything else. We tasted their wines and a selection of liquors but didn’t fancy buying any. Best not to get too excited too soon, we have another 128 wineries to go to still…
Thursday 11th December – Drew was off early again for another bike ride, this time a different track, the rail trail to Cowamarup which is the track I ran along yesterday. There are so many tracks around here for him to ride on, it’s excellent.
He found it quite amusing that Cowamarup has so many cows dotted around the place.
I followed after doing a of of the stretches the physio had given me, so lets see how todays run goes. I am going to stick to the same track as it’s relatively flat for running and hopefully I won’t get lost this morning.
My run was much better, I ran further with less pain in my knee, the stretches and exercises are definitely working, I just need to keep doing them!
We are exploring south today, the weather forecast is excellent, a hot day in the high twenties, and probably the best day for the next 4 or 5 days, so heading to the beach with a few other side trips along the way.
The roads here are just beautiful, everywhere you turn there are green fields full of cattle and sheep, there are trees and rolling hills. It’s also much quieter than we expected, we thought this area would be much busier than it is, it’s not at all, we really do love it here.
First stop a Meadery which is wine made from honey!
We tried a few meads and can’t say I liked them too much, they had a honey beer too, which was interesting. It was run by a lovely old German couple, they must have been in their 70’s and still working away, looked pretty fit and healthy too! We bought a mead wine, a couple of beers and some honey…. although I am not sure why we bought the wine really… it wasn’t great!
Next stop the Karridale Christmas shop, cute little place, lots of cuckoo clocks which Maddy just loved.
We could have bought lots in there as it’s only 2 weeks to Christmas, but as we’re travelling, we made do with a couple of Christmas Tree ornaments and some stickers for the window in the caravan.
Then on to the Boranup maze for Maddy, this one is a lovely little home made maze, Maddy loved running through it until we found the middle and then lead us back out again.
We then drove through the Boranup Forest in the Leeuwin Naturaliste National Park, the trees here are just stunning, huge tall Karri trees.
As we drove through the GPS in the car showed lots of roads going in various directions, but they were just walking tracks. We tried one road that seemed to lead to the ocean, but it was so narrow and got narrower and narrower. The shrubs at the side of the track were scratching the sides of the car, so we turned around and headed back.
We eventually found another track and that took us to the beach. It was a very very bumpy track though, a real 4WD track! We parked at the top of a sand dune and walked down to the most stunning piece of coastline, a light turquoise blue ocean and white sandy beach that stretched for miles both directions.
There was nobody here except a vehicle about 500 metres up the beach.
So we took our lunch down and sat there and had a picnic on the beach. It wasn’t a swimming beach, looked rough and there were signs warning of dangerous rips, so we didn’t swim.
We stayed for a while while Maddy pottered around in the sand and Drew and I relaxed in the sun.
We headed from here to Hamelin Bay, we were expecting a small township but there’s just a beach and a caravan park here. The beach once again was stunning, we are liking this south west corner of WA more and more…. we weren’t expecting the beaches to be quite so pretty!
We had been told to look out for the sting rays that cruise the shore line here, and we spotted some straight away.
I was lucky enough for a sting ray to swim right up to me, I got to stroke it’s wing, wow how wonderful is that!
You do have to be careful though as there ones have the barb on their tail which can inject a lethal poisin.
We then changed in to our swimmers and went for a swim, a bit further down to the beach… away from the sting rays. The water here is much cooler than it was further north, but still lovely and refreshing. The weather today is perfect, hot but not too hot.
Hamelin Bay Boat Ramp
What a wonderful day, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. We drove back to the caravan and had a quiet night in and another fire.
Friday 12th December – We both needed a bit of a break from the exercise this morning having had 2 good mornings, so we took it easy before we drove over to Bussleton. Drew had to have an Xray at the hospital there, just a check up, all was good.
Driving back we stopped at the Margaret River Dairy and Cheese place and got to taste some amazing cheeses, we did buy a few ready for Christmas….
Then on to the nut and cereal place, again more tasting to be had, bought some fire almonds, perfect for nibbles over Christmas!
Then on to our first winery of the day, Sandalford, which was a lovely winery with a cute little dog called Poppy.
Their wines were pretty good, we bought half a dozen!
Sandalford Winery
Then on to Evans and Tate vineyard. They have a huge range of wines, one of the largest ranges in WA and their wines are sourced from not just Margaret River but all over WA.
Evans and Tate Winery
We only sampled a fraction of them but that was plenty enough for us to purchase a dozen all up! These were well priced compared to some of the wines we’ve seen so far.
Maddy driving her first car at Evans and Tate
Evans and Tate – no that’s Nikki and Drew!
Then on to Vasse Felix winery for lunch, what a gorgeous location.
We had a wonderful lunch here, gourmet food no less and top wines to match.
We didn’t do any wine tastings here as we’d had enough wines with our two tastings of the day… plus a glass or two with lunch… I guess we will have to come back another day for a proper tasting.
Overlooking the vines at Vasse Felix from our lunch table
After a long lunch we headed back for a quiet afternoon. Maddy and Drew discovered the sensory trail at Wharncliffe Mill which is an excellent obstacle course through the bush that you do blindfolded. Maddy led Drew through blindfolded, then vice versa! It’s an excellent idea, much fun, but lots of bruised shins as you stumble over the fallen logs….
While they were having fun on the sensory trail I enjoyed an hour reading…. bliss!
Tonight is the Margaret River Christmas Carols in the park, which we thought would be fun and add a little bit of Christmas magic to our time here. It was super busy, we got there just as it started but we found a little spot at the back to lay our picnic rug.
So many families here, what a wonderful community event. We sat and sang along to a few carols and other Christmassy songs, Maddy thoroughly enjoyed it.
Santa came along and distributed lollies to the kids in the crowds which was very exciting for all. It was mighty chilly so we wrapped up well but didn’t stay quite to the end. Another wonderful day and evening in Margaret River.
Saturday 13th December – More exercise today, Drew cycled to Prevally, which is on the coast, 24km and back and a great tarmac cycle path for most of the way.
I then headed out for my run along the rail track again, the body is fitter but the knee is not. Struggled to run a solid 30 minutes without pain… grrr!!!
There is a farmers market on this morning in Margaret River township, and we LOVE a farmers market, so we were off there before 9am.
It’s sunny but there’s a nip in the air, it feels wintry still, like a lovely Sydney winters today, yet it’s summer! The farmers market was wonderful, a great variety of food and wine, cheese and crafts.
We enjoyed chatting to the local stall holders, they are all so friendly here. We bought some lovely cheeses and wines and some fabulous organic grass fed lamb and beef, so much for trying to eat more vegetarian and vegan meals!
Maddy loved the quails, we bought a dozen cute little quail eggs which I will save for Christmas!
This market is every Saturday morning, at the high school, and it looks very much like a great community catch up. We’re so loving this area and can imagine living on a property here and being part of this community. It’s a long way from Sydney though…
After the market we came back to unpack our food and have a spot of lunch. Maddy wanted me to play in the park with her for a while, the park here is a real bush park, lots of poles and ropes and logs to climb over. We collected a large bag full of honky nuts which we’re going to make in to some christmas craft later.
For the afternoon we headed over to the Howard Park/ MadFish Winery as they have a “pop up” Christmas market there today.
What a wonderful idea to bring the crowds in on the weekend, it was a busy little place with about 30 stalls or so, selling anything from locals crafts to clothes, jewellery, even a wonderful idea of glamping, called Soul Camping. We love love loved this idea and enjoyed chatting to the girl who’s business it was. They had returned from a year travelling around Australia and wanted a sea change, So moved here and set up Soul Camping. These tents and all the trimmings can be rented for a night or as long as you want, they even set it all up for you too! They set them up in various places around here, not caravan parks but special secret little spots. I love it!
We had a little wine tasting or two and came away with another dozen or so wines…. Not sure where we are going to put all these wines, nothing has been said about weight yet… I’m waiting for it!
The Howard Park vines
Maddy had her face painted at the markets too which she loved! A market is not a market without someone groovy looking doing face painting!
This one was wonderful, she loves having her face painted, one of the best she’s harm even had little sparkly gem stones too!
We spent a few hours at the winery and markets and then headed to the ice creamery, what another fabulous spot, not only was the ice cream delicious, they had a wonderful kids playground too.
Another stop at the organic fruit and veg shop to stock up on what we couldn’t get from the market. This little shop has a great variety of produce, all organic but not manned, it’s done on an honesty system. You weigh up your produce, write it in a book and then pop the cash in a box! We love it!
Last stop on the way back was to the pine forest which is just near the camp and where Drew has done some of his mountain biking. We wanted to collect some pine cones for Maddy to make some Christmas things with too. She had spent a good hour looking for ideas and pinning them in Pinterest, so she was keen as mustard! We collected a box full of pine cones, she loved it!
Back at the caravan, it was getting cooler so Maddy and I started on our Christmas craft, glittered honky nuts! We made this little tree just to hang them on to dry but as it looks so effective I think we may have to try to recreate something for our Christmas table! She absolutely loved this and they worked out pretty well. She’s so like me when I was a kid, I would love nothing more than spending a few hours doing craft.
We then lit another fire and enjoyed sitting around it eating dinner and toasting marshmallows. Bliss!
Sunday 14th December – We decided to have a family bike ride today, so no early morning exercise for us, slower morning enjoying some eggs and spinach and tomatoes for brekkie then we headed off on the rails to trails track to Cowamarup. It’s a 12km ride there, mostly a steady uphill, we cycled the whole way with Maddy on the tagalong bike, peddling away, happy as a skylark. The forest is spectacular to ride through, we are just loving it. We probably only saw 1 other rider and 2 people walking the whole way, also loving how quiet this place is!
There’s a little park just a you get to Cowamarup, with a silly gold cow on a pole.. that now appears to be growing out of Maddy’s head!
We stopped in the park for a while for Maddy to play…. and mummy. Why do you get dizzier as you get older?
Cowamarup is a tiny little village, on the Bussell Highway, which is really just a road, not a highway as such… it has a few shops and a few café’s, bakery etc.It’s pretty cute.
At least the locals have a sense of humour – this is the local health food shop in Cowamarup
So we pottered down the street for a while until we came to the Settlers Organic winery cellar door…. So we had to pop in there and have a taste… now I know you can’t carry much wine back on a bike, so we bought a case and will collect it tomorrow!
While we were wine tasting, Maddy rode a cow!
The ride back was wonderful, it’s slightly downhill most of the way which is a rather nice way to finish…. weeeeee!!!!!
We cycled 25km all up, pretty happy with that!
We had lunch back at the caravan, another healthy juice! Then Drew went to town to pick up a few things and Maddy and I did some more Christmas craft.
Drew brought some silver and gold spray paint back to paint our pine cones we’ve collected, so he spent some time with Maddy doing that while I cooked a vegie red curry for dinner… yummo!
Besides the great natural play area for the kids as this bush camp there is also a sensory trail, which is a trail through the woods that you lead someone through blindfolded. So Drew and Maddy tried that out and then I had a go with her. You have a rope to hold on to and come across obstacles such as logs to climb over or under etc. It’s amazing actually how hard it is to do with your eyes closed, it really is quite scary.
Spent the evening huddled around the campfire, enjoying our curry and toasting marshmallows. It’s quite cold in the evenings, we’re glad we can have a camp fire.
Monday 15th December – Not such an early start today, we were both awake in the night as we heard a few rain drops, not used to those! So I was up and out in the dark night popping the chairs under the caravan and bringing shoes inside. Then we heard an animal on the roof, probably a possum! The rain didn’t actually come to anything in the end, we still haven’t really seen rain since May!
Drew still headed off for his mountain bike ride, a good hour and a half today, to the dam and back, a new route AND he got a King of the mountain on Strava… which is apparently pretty good!
I tried a new route for my run, down the driveway and across the road and on to the bike track Drew had followed. I wanted to beat my 30 minute total run time and did a good 25 minutes straight before the pain in my knee set in… grrrr… but I managed to add on another 10 minutes on the way back so achieved 35, phew! Must do more of those exercises the physio gave me, and perhaps rest the knee tomorrow and try a ride instead.
Then the news of the siege in Martin Place in Sydney came in, so I called work and they were all safe, but all in lock down in the building and unable to get out of the city. Wow it must be pretty scary to be there right now, we’re all a bit shocked and will be following the news closely.
We headed over to the Cheeky Monkey Brewery for lunch, there’s a cool kids playground there which kept Maddy entertained while Drew and I sampled the beers… can’t say we were that keen on any.
Lunch was delicious though and the setting is just beautiful.
It’s a huge brewery, we are finding that the breweries are much more geared to families than the wineries. Their prices are cheaper, their food is too and they usually have a playground.
Inside Cheeky Monkey
There is also a winery attached to this brewery, Killerbey wines and after a great tasting, where we enjoyed chatting to the local lady serving us, we came away with another dozen bottles…. I think we may have purchased enough wine now to get us to the end of the trip. Time to start getting the rest delivered….
We then drove back in to Margaret River, Drew dropped me off so I could have a wonder up and down the shops in the main street and he took Maddy off to the Maze and Crazy Golf just south of Margaret River.
It was an incredible maze, they loved it!
View over the maze
Maddy running through the maze
Maddy in the centre of the maze
Gardens at the maze
Mini Golf at A-maze-n – Miss Maddy does love a game of mini golf, I think she did pretty well and gave Drew a run for his money!
I had a wonderful couple of hours shopping and just pottering up the street; there are lots of great little shops in Margaret River, bought a few chrissy pressies and a t-shirt and shorts for me!
Quiet evening in, still listening to the news and although some of the hostages have escaped there are still people being held hostage, how terribly sad!
We’re trying very hard to eat more healthy and try new foods etc. Tonight I am trying a virtually gluten free, dairy free and meat free pizza. A recipe my good friend Kristi sent me, made with eggplant and a flax meal and almond meal base then veggies on top! I did add a little leftover grated cheese and 1 slice of bacon, as they just needed eating up, so not quite the real deal, but happy to omit those next time! Thanks K!
Tuesday 16th December – Drew had a day off the cycling and I went for a ride this morning, along the rail to rails track, just 30 minutes each way. Totally loved it, it’s a bit of a rise heading out but slightly downhill on the way back which is very welcome.
Clocked up just 14km in an hour, a couple of hours would have been better but we were keen to get out for the day.
This is the rails to trails track – pretty nice!
The weather is supposed to be average today, so we’re going to head to the caves, where it doesn’t matter what the weathers like!
We chose Mammoth Cave first, it was $54 for the 3 of us and it is by self-guided audio tour.
You get an audio guide, which gives you all the information about the caves as you go along.
It was a great cave, huge inside and so pretty with thousands of stalactites and stalagmites etc.
The information was probably a bit much for Maddy at times but she listened attentively to it all and thoroughly enjoyed it. We left Drew to follow us along taking photos.
Coming out of Mammoth Cave
We’re meeting up with Julie and Pete today which we are super excited about, haven’t seen them since the night we caught up with Kristi in the city a week and a half ago, and then we didn’t get chance to catch up proper. They are staying a few nights in Yallingup on the coast, so we agreed to meet in Margaret River somewhere. We found a wonderful winery that had to be visited, Watershed, which was awarded winery of the year and has a café, a restaurant and a park for Maddy. That’ll do nicely!
We were there before Jules and Pete so had a wonderful hour wine tasting, their wines were all awesome so another case was purchased and this time they offered to cellar it for us for 5 months before posting it to us just in time for us arriving home, handy!
This winery is in another amazing setting, so pretty overlooking the vines and the damn.
This is the view across the vines from the cellar door where the tasting happens… it was a beautiful building too.
We sat outside for lunch, it was actually a tad chilly but just too beautiful a setting not to! We had a lovely catch up over lunch, this will be the last time we see them now as they need to head back to Sydney in the next 5 – 6 weeks, so they’re moving along quicker than us and we are of course heading back up to Perth to spend Christmas and New Year there with friends and family. My mum and dad are flying in to spend 3 weeks with us over Christmas and Caz and Craig and the kids are also booked in to the same site to spend Christmas with us too.
After our lovely lunch and on the way back we stopped at one of the many galleries in this area – the one is Payet Gallery, beautiful jewellery but too pricy for us!
We had a quiet evening in and were treated to a beautiful sunset
Wednesday 17th December – Drew went for his ride again this morning, he’s using his app strava and has already got one king of the mountain and is in 2nd place for another section near here… although he tells me the bloke who has 1st place must have been in a car…. So he doesn’t count!
I decided to have a rest day today, I’m pretty happy with the amount of exercise I’m getting in. Just to think just 6 weeks ago I was still suffering with Ross Rover Fever, glad that’s over!
We had a few chores to do in Margaret River and then we headed over to Koffee Works to check out their coffee. So this morning we had a coffee tasting with a very handsome American traveller. Makes a change from wine tasting! The coffee was OK, not brill, at least the traveller was cute! It was a great place though; Maddy was fascinated watching the coffee beans being roasted.
Got a snapshot of the shop but not of the handsome American – doh!
Next-door is an olive oil place, Vasse Virgin, which was a wonderful shop. Lots of oils and olives and dukkahs and pickles and mustards to taste. We could have spent a fortune in there but came away with some chilli olives and macadamia pesto…. very restrained!
Back to the van for lunch, healthy green juice today and one or two of my new home made crackers made from the vegetable pulp from my juicer, which are actually pretty good!
After lunch we decided to check out the geocaching we had heard about, Drew downloaded the app on his phone and read up a bit on it. It’s basically a game of hide and seek all over the world, where you are given a map co-ordiante and have to locate a geocache, which will usually be a little plastic container containing some treasures and a log book. There is also some information about the location and often some clues if you need them. There was a geocache just 400m from our camp, so we explained it all to Maddy and headed off in the direction of the geocache. It took us down a track and to an old chimney which was part of the old mill here at Wharncliffe Mill.
We looked around and around, all 3 of us scrambling through the bushes, but we couldn’t find the geocache, so we used the clue on the app and still couldn’t find it… hmmm… Drew eventually found it hidden under some sticks! It was exciting to find it, Maddy wanted to keep all the treasures but you can only swap a treasure, and we hadn’t brought one, so we must remember to do that for the next one. Now we have got the hang of it, we’ll do some more. There are lots in this area, Maddy loved it, a good idea for us to do something for her, in between wineries….
Maddy uncovering the geocache
The cache!
We then drove out to visit a couple of the wineries Drew has on his list, firstly Xanadu which was again in a wonderful location. So much money must go in to some of these wineries, the gardens are just lovely!
Maddy having fun in this little car!
A quick game of Boule in the gardens… fancy!
Inside the cellar door of Xanadu, it was pretty nice, the wines were excellent, very pricy so we only purchased 4 of the more reasonably priced ones…..
Then we went to Leeuwin Estate which again is a higher end wine and in the most fabulous location, beautiful grounds, just gorgeous.
We sampled every wine there, the staff were so helpful and friendly, we ended up purchasing yet another case and getting it shipped back to Sydney, plus we took another 4 away with us for Christmas and for Christmas gifts.
We’d love to be let loose behind these locked doors….
On the way back we stopped to search for another geocache, this one across from a haunted house! One again we looked and looked and couldn’t find it, had to resort to the clues and still couldn’t find it… then we did! Good fun!
Last thing to do today, drove up to the organic serve yourself honesty shop to stock up on a few more fruit and veggies, loving this shop, $30 for a huge bag full of organic produce. Makes me happy!
Back at the caravan we bbq’d for dinner and lit another camp fire, while we can. It will start warming up soon and also through summer there’ll be a fire ban anyway, so making the most of this while we can. It’s cool in the evenings too, so a fire is very welcome. Maddy loves it too.
Thursday 18th December – One of the things we love about Wharncliffe Mill is that it is so quiet!!! Look, we almost have the entire place to ourselves. There are a fair other people here actually, it’s just so well set out with all the trees that you’re not on top of each other like you are most parks.
Our adventure today is to do a section of the Cape to Cape walk. The full walk is 135km and runs from the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse in the north, all the way down the coast to the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse. We would absolutely love to complete the full walk one day, but for now, just a section or two will be great.
We set off from Gracetown heading south, it was a totally stunning day for us, hardly a cloud in the sky!
The coast along here is just spectacular, the colours of the ocean and the contrast of the white sand and headlands against the greens of the coastal plains, breathtaking!
We walked along the coastline for perhaps 3 or 4km before stopping for a snack and a rest before heading back again. The track is pretty small, we would have expected it to be much more defined. It’s easy enough to follow, there are markers along the way.
Gracetown Boat Ramp
One of the things we discovered along the way was a memorial where a large section of cliff collapsed during a surf carnival. It collapsed on to people who were sitting on the beach below, and it took with it people who were watching the surfing from the cliff top. There we many injuries and the whole town helped dig people out. Sadly many lives were lost and this memorial has been built to remember them. How terribly tragic.
This plaque explains about the tragedy
Gracetown Beach where the cliff collapsed
Maddy always has to climb on to the highest rock she can…. no fear none! I however will have grey hairs before she turns 10!
More glorious shots from the Cape to Cape track. It runs along the headland, then down across a beach, then back along the headlands… love it!
After our wonderful walk, we were all very hungry so headed over to the Duckstein Brewery for lunch, this is the entrance….
Another amazing location with a huge lake and a fountain. This area is such a massive contrast to what we’ve been seeing over the past 6 months or more. In the top end, you’re lucky to find somewhere to eat full stop! Here we just can’t get over the number of places to visit and the investment in some of these places is astounding!
Inside Duckstein Brewery – would be nice to see this fire burning mid winter! I can just imagine sitting on those sofas next to the fire, reading a magazine or a book with a large glass of Margaret River wine in hand….
Lunch was wonderful, very much a German style menu, Drew had some mahoosive german pork and potato dish, I think I actually had a salad! It was pretty quiet here today too. There were perhaps 3 or 4 other groups there, this place would easily cater for 150 or more when full!
We had a wonder around the grounds and the gardens, there was an island in the middle of the lake with a bridge, this is Maddy jumping across the path! The game was to try to jump right across it without touching the gravel park, she did it too!
After our lovely lunch we headed off to do something just for Maddy, the Sunflower Animal Farm. It’s a week before Christmas and we were greated by this very clever santa!
Oh my how Maddy absolutely loved this place. We were given a bucket of feed, mostly carrots and lettuce and some pellets to feed the animals as you go around. The goats were all incredibly keen!
They had 2 young kangaroos, joeys, only a few months old that had been taken there to be cared for as their mothers had perished. They were super friendly and didn’t mind the odd carrot!
There were 6 pigs, all gorgeous but you have to be careful as they bite! This one was called Wilbur, he seemed friendly enough, he sure was cute!
Maddy holding the chicks who were just a few days old, they were super super cute too! It was great for Maddy to be able to handle all these different animals. She was a bit unsure about some of them at first, how to hold them, and when to let go and how to avoid being scratched or bitten. She did pretty well though and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Greedy Goats! They were very gentle though when they took food from you, we were never once bitten.
This was Maddy’s absolute favourite, a baby rabbit! She called it Rosey! What ever happened to that childs hair! This photo makes me giggle, that hair!
Greedy Emu! You’ve got to be careful with these guys so it was stand back and just let him dig in to the bucket!
Me feeding one of the joeys milk, how lucky are we to get this opportunity.
Bottle feeding the calves, there was pretty much just us three there for the 4pm feeding so we got to feed everything.
I rather liked this pig – Wilbur! The next time we visited the brute tried to bite me though!
Well we had a wonderful time at the animal farm, Maddy loved it so much, she now wants a rabbit as well as a cat and a dog. I still want a few horses and now I want a few goats too. Drew wants chickens…. oh dear….
Last stop for the day, popped in to the venison farm shop. You get to taste everything in Margaret River, which we like very much, and here of course you get to taste the venison. They have an amazing selection of salami style venison and pates and then cuts of venison. and sausages. We sampled a few different ones and then purchased a few bits, some chorizo and venison steak and some sausages which we’ll save until mum and dad arrive as they’ll enjoy sharing these with us.
Friday 19th December – Big bike ride today, we’re cycling to Prevally and Gnaraup beach, which is about 26km all up. It’s a beautiful day already, going to be in the high twenties today, so we pack swimmers and towels for a refreshimg swim when we get there.
One of the tracks from the camp leads to the track to the beach. The first part is forest track and then we move on to a lovely tarmacked track just for walkers and cyclists all the way to the coast. These bike tracks are just amazing, the local council here has done a wonderful job. It’s a little bit hilly in places and there are some good climbs which test your fitness, but mostly all good.
First stop the headland north of Prevally, known as surfers point I think. Beautiful new car parking area and boardwalks and steps down to the beach. This looks like a popular surfing and snorkeling spot too.
Cool statue at Surfers Point
Maddy and Drew at Surfers Point
Surfers Point – look for the dog waiting for his master
From there we head down to Prevally beach itself, again lovely area. The ocean looks beautiful again today, turquoise blue water. This is also where the Margaret River meets the ocean, a popular beach and swimming spot. We decided to stop here for a swim and a play on the beach for a little while.
Margaret Rivermouth
While I was getting Maddy changed Drew saw a seal hop on a rock on the edge of the beach, he was so excited and worried we might miss it. When we came out it was still there so we wondered down the beach to get a closer look. There was a lady there from Parks and Wildlife, she explained it was a sub arctic elephant seal and she was there to make sure that people didn’t get too close as they can get quite nasty.
It had been here yesterday too, hence why she was there so soon. Seems they are quite rare in these parts, this one was a female about 3 years old. We stood watching it and while we were there we bumped in to Adrian the owner of Wharncliffe Mill and enjoyed chatting to him for a while, learning more about the Mill and what they’d done etc. While we were chatting Maddy was having a lovely time digging around in the sand.
We only stayed an hour before getting hungry for lunch, so we left the beach and cycled along the track that leads over to Gnararup where there’s a lovely little café right on the beach front called White Elephant.
We found a table and had a lovely lunch, 2 healthy salads and a freshly squeezed beetroot, carrot and apple juice.
What a wonderful spot, it was pretty busy too, goodness knows what it will be like when the busy Christmas season hits.
After lunch we went to sit on the beach for a while for Maddy to have a play in the sand. It’s a lovely spot here although there’s a fair bit of seaweed around and the flies are a tad annoying. The water is too cold for me to have a swim but Drew braved a quick dip!
We then went to look for a geocache which was nearby, it was just a little further along the coast from the café, on the edge of the beach. We found it pretty quickly this time. Maddy had some of her treasures with her so she left a purple flower in this one. The idea is you can take a treasure but must leave a treasure. You should then leave a treasure you take in another geocache and so these treasures can move all around the world potentially! We call then treasures but they are often just some small kids toy or a marble or a shell.
Then we cycled off heading back towards home but stopped at another geochache location, this one was in the bush at the side of the road. Drew and Maddy scrambled up in to the bush and I held on to the bikes, they returned 10 minutes later not finding it, the bush was too thick, what a shame, first one we haven’t got to so far.
Then 1 more to look for on the way back, not far away, back in Prevally itself. This one had the strangest clue but again we found it pretty quickly, or should I say Drew found this one. This is our tinyiest geocache so far, about the size of blueberry.
We then cycled back, up the steep steep hill and wound our way back to the camp. We had a thoroughly wonderful days cycling, we all loved it. It’s just so good to feel fit again!
Quiet night in tonight, watched a movie. Tired, and happy!
Saturday 20th December – Drew dashed off for his ride today before we headed off to the farmers market. We visited it last Saturday and loved it, and wanted to go back and get a few more things ready for Christmas. It’s such a lovely little market, fresh free range eggs, local organic produce, olive oils, hand made cheeses, local wines etc. All from small local producers, it’s really good to support them too. We bought a couple more wines there, a beautiful organic one too.
After that we drove out across the west of Margaret River, firstly to the Berry Farm.
Great shop at the Berry Farm which sold some amazing jams and pickles and a whole range of berry liquors etc. Lots and lots of tasting to be done here too!
Then we stopped at a small olive oil producer 34 degrees south and tasted some fabulous olives and oils. Great building, it was a huge tent!
They will fill a wine bottle of oil for you for $12, which is a bargain for fresh organic olive oil!
Ready for lunch, so trying another brewery today, Colonial which also had a great kids playground for kids. The breweries here seem to cater well for families and have huge playgrounds, more so than the wineries do.
This area has a whole lot of cows dotted around the place which was part of a charity fundraising idea, this cow is painted like a beer….
Inside Colonial Brewery – check out the funky lights
So Maddy headed off to play in the playground while Drew and I tried a tasting paddle of beers with lunch. Makes a nice change to wine tasting!
These ones were all pretty nice too, with a salad each for lunch.
Nice spot, we like this place.
After lunch we drove up to the organic farm for the third visit, love this serve yourself place, just to top up on bananas and Kale and strawberries etc.
Then we wanted to try another organic winery, Peacetree Estate. We had a lovely hour there chatting to the lady who owned and ran it almost single handedly since loosing her husband a few years ago. She’s from Sydney and still has a place in Manly, so we had something in common besides liking great wine. We loved hearing how they’d made the sea change to build this winery from scratch 25 years ago when at that time there were only 5 wineries in Margaret River, now there are over 130! We came away with half a dozen more bottles of wine… I hope we drink a lot over Christmas!
We got to the van early afternoon so Maddy could just play and do some craft while we caught up on Facebook and blog updates etc. We’re had an incredibly busy few weeks here and we’ve hardly had much time back at the van.
Sunday 21st December – We have loved living at Wharncliffe Mill for the past 2 weeks, for so many reasons. The camp is great, quiet, bushy, we’ve had fires and all the tracks that lead from here are perfect for our daily dose of cycling and running. Then there are so many beautiful beaches within 30 minutes drive, there’s the Cape to Cape track and many other great walks too. The whole area is pretty, huge trees, rolling hills, quiet country roads, farms… Then of course there’s the wines, the breweries, the cheese, the chocolate, the organic produce, the galleries, markets… need I go on! This is our last day here though, we need to leave tomorrow as my mum and dad fly in just after lunch. So I’ll give you one last look around the place before we leave.
Wharncliffe Mill
Maddy has loved the playground here too, it fits in so well with the surroundings, and of course the sensory trail too.
The playground at Wharncliffe Mill
Reception at Wharncliffe Mill – they have an amazing book and games selection, free wifi and they sell coffee too!
The original old Mill now the camp kitchen and one of the cabins
Inside the mill/ camp kitchen – as you can see – it’s huge!
So for our last day in Margaret River we stopped in at one of the other organic health food shops and café’s Blue Ginger, what an amazing shop and café, we didn’t eat there but I could have spent a small fortune on good food!
Today we’re going back to the Christmas shop in Karridale to price up a real Christmas tree… only $25 but just can’t see how we can transport it without filling the caravan with pine needles, so we’ll wait until we get to Perth.
We found another cache at another old mill in Karridale, which was a bit of fun.
It wasn’t inside the chimney….
It was hidden behind a fallen tree under a pile of sticks! Maddy wrote in the log book and left another treasure….
Adrian from the mill had recommended Hamelin Bay winery for lunch so we headed over there. We tasted the wines first and as they don’t charge for freight we sent another case back to Sydney, they’ll
also cellar it for us until May when we are back.
They have a beautiful spot overlooking their vines and damn. We shared a ploughmans plate between us with a nice glass of Rose, so lovely. Another top spot!
We then came back and dropped Drew off at the van and Maddy and I went back to the animal farm, we’d promised to take her again as she’d loved it so much and to be honest I loved it too. We timed it pretty well as the animals are fed at 4pm and we were there in time. There was nobody else there so we had the animals all to ourself again and got to feed the lambs, the joeys and the calfs milk. We spent a lot of time cuddling the little rabbits, the black and white one that Maddy loves was only 2 weeks old and hadn’t been named yet, so she called it Rosy and the manager of the farm (who was only 17) said she’d remember that and call her Rosy as they hadn’t named her yet.
Close up shot of Rosy… so cute!!!
What was really wonderful was getting to cuddle a 2 hour old guinea pig, when we were here a few days ago we couldn’t catch any of the guinea pigs, they were just too fast. But we could catch thes little ones, they were so cute, so tiny!
Maddy also spent a lot of time picking up the chicks, I’m sure they have grown since we were here 2 days ago. We then went around and fed the pigs, Wilbur who I spent quite a lot of time rubbing and scratching a couple of days ago very nearly bit me this time, he had a really good go anyway! Phew that was close!
We were there at feeding time for the joeys and Maddy was lucky enough to get to feed this little guy.
Maddy managed to pick up one of the bigger rabbits in the big pen and ended up getting her face scratched as he jumped out of her hands, bless her!
We had a lovely few hours, Maddy just loved it, she’s now very very keen to get a rabbit as well as chickens, a dog and a cat when we get home…
While we were gone Drew did a few jobs and then squeezed in one more bike ride., back to the pines and seems he did his best ride so far, lots of “pb’s” and finally king of the mountain for one particular section… hoorah!
Monday 22nd December – Packed up early to leave as we have to get back to Perth early to collect mum and dad this afternoon.
Driving out of Wharncliffe Mill, very very sad to leave this special place, we hope we’ll come back one day… turns out we do sooner than we think, but you’ll have to wait to find out about that!
Intrepid Travel Australia 