Our home base in Margaret River is a lovely, spacious and modern home deep in wooded suburbia. Surrounded by large trees, teeming with wildlife, we are greeted by “our” flock of Ringnecked Parrots and wood pigeons in the morning and afternoon, and we even startled a rabbit on the front lawn coming home one evening.
Our first day’s explore of the region saw us heading north along the coast, with a visit to Canal Rock first. The coastline here is rugged and battered by rough seas. Canal Rock is a fascinating bit of geography, where the sedimentary layers have been tilted vertically, allowing the pounding ocean to cleave deep canyons (or canals) between them. The seas boil and crash and the currents are treacherous. There was a raised walkway across some of it, we also walked out onto a low jetty and were lucky not to get wet from the rough surf surging around us.
We had a spectacular rock hop to see the sights, then headed further north towards Sugarloaf Rock. Another ragged prominent weathered peak with boiling ocean around it, so spectacular.
We were heading towards Cape Naturaliste, as we had a lighthouse tour booked. We toured the museum and was really impressed with the way they depicted the lighthouse history and operations as a series of personal stories recounted as remembrance of past keepers and family members. The whole experience, including the moving shipwreck movie, were in the same artistic style – very well presented.
Our guide took us up to the short lighthouse, showed us the workings, explained the hardships the families faced living and managing such a remote facility. We usually think of lighthouses as tall structures, but this one was comparatively stumpy, mainly because it was already situated on the highest ground around. It really does take a special type of person/family to cope with such isolation.
After the tour we opted to do the Whale Watch walk, around and down to a viewing platform looking out over a pristine stretch of the Indian Ocean. We did manage to spot a Humpback Whale slapping the water with its front flipper out from the coast, which was great. The walk back was tiring but littered with new wildflowers.
On the way home we stopped at Happs Wines for a tasting. They have 42 varieties including whites, reds and dessert wines, all self-service. We bought some cumin seeded Gouda cheese and some interesting aged cheddar and chilli gf crackers and settled in for a relaxing afternoon. The aim was to find our bottles for the next week or so. Jo tried mostly the sweet wines and settled on the Moscato, I focused on medium to full-bodied reds and settled on a lovely Nebbiolo and a preservatives free Shiraz as standouts. Such a good tasting though as you could work through the part of the collection that suited your palette, at your pace. The cheese and crackers helped cleanse our tastebuds and soak up some of the wine and were delicious in their own right.
Next day was a scheduled rest day, Jo had us booked into Xanadu Wines for lunch – the food was fabulous, wine pairing delicious and yum. The desserts were the best so far this holiday.
Next day we headed South West to the southest-westest point of WA, where the Indian Ocean and the Southern (Antarctic ) oceans meet – Cape Leeuwen. On a stickey-outey rocky promontory there is a very tall old lighthouse complex well worth the explore.
We explored the museum, set up in one of the lightkeeper’s cottages, walked out to the south-western tip, then joined our booked lighthouse tour. Our guide was very informative, and wasted no time scaling the 175 steps up, barely pausing every 2 floors. We were a little slower and arrived at the top a bit puffed out. We saw the rotating lantern with its massive fresnel lenses, again this mechanism was “floating” on a mercury bath to reduce friction. It’s old clockwork rotator needed rewinding every 3 hours, and the old kerosene lamp needed re-pumping every 45 mins, so it was a full on job all though the night for the keepers. These days it is fully automatic, LED lantern and a small electric motor does all that. We did get out onto the observation deck and the views were amazing
The climb down the 175 steps was also pretty fast and we arrived at the bottom as the next tour began its ascent- slow coaches, but the steps were narrow and steep and our legs are not as young as they used to be. The coastline was rugged, lots of whitewater on the coast and out at see hinting at the maze of reefs, shallows and rugged rocks, making the lighthouse an important warning for passing ships.
We sat in the sun and ate our packed lunch, delighted to watch some rare green rock parrots feasting on seeds they were finding in the lawns outside the museum. Someone pointed them out to us, we had not noticed them as they were small, and well camouflaged on the lawn. It was interesting people watching, seeing others walk straight past these lovely rare critters.
After lunch, we fired up 10boop (our automatic winging machine) and visited the historic Water Wheel, just down the hill from the lighthouse. Apparently it was used to move water around on the site. Fed by a natural mineral spring, eventually the waterwheel seized up due to mineral encrusting.
We then headed along Caves Road to Jewel Cave. The limestone range that runs parallel to the coastline apparently is littered with underground cave systems, many of which are open to the public – we chose Jewel Cave as it looked the most spectacular and varied.
We had afternoon tea then joined our tour guide as we headed underground. The temperature dropped, cliffs of stairs led us down a number of levels until we were about 40m underground, surrounded by a glorious selection of stalagmites, stalagtites, flowstones, shawls, curious straws and other formations all made out of glittering calcium carbonate. We were shown the original entrance (a hole in the ceiling you had to abseil down from), and were instantly thankful for the staired entrance they dug to make this system more accessible.
We then walked around into a second chamber that up until the early 90s had a lake at its base. Apparently changes in the water table has seen this cave system dry out and stop growing. The guide let us experience “cave dark” by turning off all the lights. To be honest it freaked me out a bit, as I was already a little claustrophobic, with my heart rate climbing I was glad when the lights came back on. We then wove around some narrow twisted walkways, challenging for someone as tall and non-bendy as me, to a third chamber before heading back to the main chamber and out. We have not done caves recently – thinking back our last caves were probably Jenolan Caves some 30 years ago. This cave system was just spectacular however, well worth a visit.
Back on the surface we then decided we needed some fresh air (well, I did) so we did the walking track loop through the forest, and located 2 old cave entrances. It seems trees send down tap roots that penetrate the roof of the cave. The tree gets big, the roots work their way down, when the tree perishes and rots it leaves holes that early spelunkers then find. If the hole is emitting a breeze (usually due to temperature/pressure differences) they explore hoping for a cave system below. Not sure I am keen on cave spelunking if I am honest, but everyone should have a hobby I guess. It was a busy but brilliant day exploring the south western tip of Oz.
Next day we were up early and off to the local Margaret River Farmers Market, on the search for breakfast and the makings of lunch, and to see what else we could see. Our experience of “farmers” markets has been many a varied. It was pleasing to see this market was primarily farm producers spruiking their produce. It had poured rain through the night and so there were a few less stalls than expected, but it was interesting to walk around, and it began a provisioning run that was completed via stores in town.
Later in the afternoon we went for a drive to surfers point. The aim was to go for the sunset, but the weather was closing in and it was really blowy and rough – interestingly this did not deter the surfers, as there were people in the water, wetsuits and not, on boards and windsurfers having a ball in the blow. We then drove on to the mouth of the Margaret River, which ends as a set of rapids into the ocean. Our observations of the river is that it is not very deep or wide, but it seems to meander far and wide through the district. There is even a reach of it just down from our accommodation, and a riverwalk we will do later.
Next day we had a bit of a sleep in then headed out to Maison Lassiaille French Providore and Patisserie for a posh morning tea. We then headed to the Margaret River Providore to browse some pretty incredible preserves, vinegars, ingredients etc before dropping in to the Margaret River Chocolate company for some much needed chocolate therapy. Suitably fortified we then headed for Ambergate Reserve.
Ambergate is a nature reserve that straddles a 4-way crossroads. It has a circuit path that wends its way through all quadrants of the reserve in such a way that you can do as much or as little as suits you. When you hit the road, you can either cross it and continue or return to the centre car park. The weather was variable, we went in with our raincoats on because of the rain squalls sweeping the area, but exited carrying them as the weather temporarily changed to sunny as we finished, having gone though most types of weather in between.
Concerned by dieback, a fungal infection that effects members of the Myrtaceae family (the vast majority of bushland species here), they provided footwear cleaning stations to be used going in and coming out of the reserve. Jo and I really enjoyed the walk, spotting loads more wildflowers we had not seen, and some local variants of those already encountered. The 4 quadrants of the reserve contain many different microclimates so the variety of plant life was diverse and ever changing. We managed 2 of the 4 quadrants, we found to a couple of orchid species and were amused by a flock of red-tailed black cockatoos noisily crunching on gum nuts high in a tree just off the path.
We sat in the shade and ate lunch, pleased with the walk but watching the changing weather. We then headed back towards home, stopping off at Cowaramup to have a walk around, after getting caught in another rainstorm. Cowaramup seems obsessed with black and white cows – sometimes called “cow town” or “cowie”, the township is littered with model cows. Most of the shops sell cow-based tourist merchandise etc. Like so many country towns, it is a bit dead on a Sunday afternoon. We were happy with the day.
Monday saw us finally tackle the local (just down the road from our accomodation) Rotary Park river walk, a lovely meandering 2.2km path beside the Margaret River, taking in lovely bushland and the 2 weirs across it. We did a bit of wildflower spotting, took in the forest vibes, very nice. We then returned home and boarded 10boop for a visit to a local curiosity shoppe in nearby Witchcliffe and wondered how the proprietor sold anything given how eclectic his stock of second hand jumble was. We then headed off to Stella Bella winery for tastings, the aim of purchasing our last bottles for the coming journey fulfilled. Jo had made a reservation at local restaurant “El Toro” for dinner, and just WOW, I had the beef short rib with soft tacos and accompaniments, Jo had the perfect Picahna, with wine and cocktails to boot. The chef was amazing and so helpful, navigating food intolerances with ease. Just a fabulous meal, certainly a standout for the trip so far.
Our last day in Margaret River was a scheduled rest day, but we were also booked for a long lunch 10 course degustation tasting menu at Rustico Winery at Hayshed Hill. This was another standout meal, again they worked with Jo and delivered delicious alternative courses that catered beautifully with food intolerances. So many exquisite tastes, textures and combinations. Boozed up and wonderfully full we headed home, for an evening of packing in preparation for the move to Pemberton tomorrow.
We have loved Margaret River, the relaxed vibe is just wonderful and the variety of food/wine/wildlife and wildflowers has been just brilliant.