Brisbane to Barcelona: Margaret River

Thursday 27- Monday 31 January

So we had a VERY slow start to packing everything up and getting on our way from Yan and Amanda's because we really didn't want to go (and hadn't actually planned where we were going) but eventually we left Perth around 2:30 and made our way down to Margaret River. We looked at staying at a few campsites but it was super expensive: Yallingup was asking $50 for an unpowered site and the two campsites in Margaret River town were asking $30. We ended up staying at Gracetown which was actually a really nice ground with a bush camp feel (but with hot showers and plumbing). We didn't really do much that evening, although we did organise to go on a wine tour on Saturday (more on that later).

View to Gracetown Beach

On Friday we went into Margaret River, went into the visitors centre and basically just had a look around. We were going to go for a walk along the Margaret River but it started raining so we decided to go to some of the caves in the area. The Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) runs 2 caves which aren't lit so we went to those instead of the show caves run by the tourism association. It was cheaper and we thought it would make a good contrast to the Jenolan Caves.

The first cave - Calgardup - was pretty shallow so there are tree roots growing down into the cave

Not exactly sure what this is but it looks cool

Stalagtites or massive straws. They're hollow in the centre

Roof was only about 1m in this section but the formations were beautiful

Big ass tree root

View from inside to entrance to Calgardup Cave

View into collapsed cave at Giant's Cave

Heading down to cave mouth

Entrance to Giant's Cave

Flowstone

Lawrie looking down through very tight space we had to climb through

Made it!

Sexy in our safety gear

After the caves we decided we needed some beer for the night so we looked up the closest micro-brewer and headed to Cowaramup. The Cowaramup Brewing Co had great beer, good staff and local advice but unfortunately didn't do takeaways! We headed to the next closest, the Colonial Brewing Co, via the Margaret River Cheese Company (oh yeah) where we bought some vintage cheddar, smoked cheddar, Camembert and yoghurt - all very good. We got to the Colonial Brewing Co and bought a tasting paddle and decided to gat the India Pale Ale. It came in a 2L glass jar, which, although kind of expensive, we thought would make a handy water jug in the future. We headed back to camp and had a good night of cheese and beer.

Scuba Cow at Colonial Brewery

Front on Scuba Cow

Big bottle of beer

Lawrie drinking big bottle of beer

On Saturday we got picked up by our driver George for our Bush Tucker Wine Tour. We were the last to get picked up so we headed off the first winery, Bettanay, just outside of Cowaramup. They had some good wines but we weren't really into them so didn't buy any. They had some awesome looking nougat but we thought we'd be good to our waistlines and stay away from that too. The grounds were beautiful though and the house was made out of rammed earth, which Lawrie thought was very cool.

Bettanay Winery

Our next stop was Hayshed Hill. They made some pretty good wines here and we bought a Shiraz Tempranillo, a wooded chardonnay from the first vines they planted at the winery and a muscat, which even Kitty (who hates sweet wines) likes. We also learned that it used to be on an old potato farm and potato pitchforks have a potato shaped bend in the middle of them to better scoop them out of the ground with.

Topiary pitchforks at Hayshed Hill

After that we went just down the road to Willespie. They specialise in aged wines and we tried a few and bought a verdelho and a white port. We also had lunch here. Being a bushtucker tour, we did get some bush tucker for lunch: some native plums and limes and other relishes and Lawrie ate a third of a witchetty grub.
Our next calls for the day were the chocolate factory, cheese factory and another winery whose name we can't remember and then onto the Bootleg Brewery for the last stop. We sat outside and tried their beers and watched some people play giant jenga. One old mate was so sure he'd get a piece out that he put his beer on top. Guess what - he failed and had to do a penalty swim in the lake, which got him thrown out. Funny! It also prompted two more randoms to go swimming...who were also asked to leave.

At Willespie

Lawrie with bush lime

Lawrie after eating bush lime

Giant Jenga with beer before Old Mate's epic fail

Our tour group

The next day we didn't do very much - the weather was bad and so was Kitty's head. Lawrie tried fishing but the wind was howling due to the formation of Cyclone Bianca & settled for a swim and snorkel.

Point at Gracetown Beach

Pre Cyclone

Big Waves

On Monday we packed up and left, heading to Pemberton via Augusta and Cape Leeuwin. The weather wasn't any better and the winds at Cape Leeuwin were wild. You can understand why they needed a lighthouse there.