We’ve Hit
The Big Smoke…. We had a good run into 
It was then off to Fremantle
which was pretty busy being a Sunday and also the day “The City to
Surf” a 12 km walk/run had been held.
Fremantle Market was still as popular as ever, and after a wander around
we made our way back home.
Hilary’s Boat Harbour was another
tourist spot to visit with lots of restaurants set on a marina, but again the
weather was fairly cool or we were just feeling cool after being up north. We must acclimatize before heading
south. Our last day in Perth, Emma along
with Ellie took us to Kings Park to see the wildflowers and have lunch
overlooking the park, and that night we had dinner with Emma and Steve at their
home. It was great to 
catch up with them before we headed off the next day
for Mandurah to stay with Pam and John who we had met
in 1999 in Cape York.
Heading South To Catch Up With
Old Friends…. Pam and John live just out of Mandurah at Dawesville and their
home overlooks the water. It is away
from the hustle and bustle of Mandurah. They made us so welcome and we enjoyed two
nights in a house, walking on carpet and having our own ensuite
and big bedroom with water views. John
and Pam drove us around the area. It was
unbelievable to see the number of housing estates that are being built. There is building going on everywhere and
apparently is Mandurah is one of the fastest growing
areas in Australia. We all went out for
dinner to a restaurant on the water and the next day, we spent the day
exploring the area around Mandurah while Pam and John
went to Perth for an appointment.
Another couple, Ken and Marg who were also in Cape York in 1999 joined
us for a BBQ that night. It was great to
catch up on everyone’s news plus their travels of 2004.
Time For
Some Tastings…. It was time to say goodbye and make our way to Margaret
River for a few days, so we hitched up the caravan and left, arriving in Margaret
River around lunch time. The Riverview Caravan
Park is a refurbished park within walking distance to the township which has
really grown since we were last here, so we spent the afternoon walking the
town and visiting all the shops – four of which are very trendy homewares shops.
Amazing for such a small town.
There is really so much to see and do in Margaret River - the home of
fine wines and food. You can
easily eat and drink your way around which we were quite conscious of
doing.
Our first stop was the
Margaret River Dairy Company, famous for their fine cheeses then on to the
Margaret River Chocolate Factory.
Nothing like a chocolate fix but not good for the waistline. It was then a visit to the best coffee place
we had ever been too called Yahava Coffee Works
attached to The Grove Vineyard. Rob was 
in his element as we all know how he loves his coffee
and coffee machine back home. There were
many coffees to taste and each one we tasted was ground and served in a
plunger. There is so much involved in
coffee and after tasting them, we decided on our favourite. Not only were there different coffees
available, but also different coffee essences, different plungers, cups -
anything to do with coffee. So after hyping
up on coffee, it was time for a couple of visits to the wineries before returning
home for Rob to watch Melbourne play Geelong in a
preliminary final. It would have been
better if we had visited more wineries as sadly Melbourne were 
badly beaten.
Next day we decided on
visiting a few wineries, Vasse Felix, the first
winery in the Margaret River area, Xanadu, Redgate and Voyager Estate.
For those visiting Margaret River a visit to Voyager Estate is a must
do. From an architectural perspective
this has to be one of the best wineries in Australia. Beautiful gardens and magnificent buildings
as you can see from the above photos.
And the wine is pretty good as well.
It was Fathers Days the next day so Liz took Rob out for lunch at Flutes
Restaurant overlooking a lake at the Brookvale
Winery. The menu was brilliant and we
enjoyed a nice lunch with one of their wines – not bad either.
A Bad Case Of Wind….. It was time to head onto Denmark and see Liz’s
sister Jan. It was a good day for
driving with the odd shower and overcast skies so we reached Pemberton for
morning tea and a visit to the Bakery for the yummiest french
vanilla slices and coffee. We arrived mid afternoon in Denmark and we 
were shown our luxury bedroom and own bathroom which
we really enjoyed. It was a nice break
from the caravan and community showers and toilets. It was great to see Jan and Ian again and
even though the weather was pretty ordinary with wind, wind, wind and rain and
a number of cold fronts coming through; we were able to enjoy each others
company as well as Sasha their dog. Between the wind and rain we did get in some
sightseeing.
Denmark is a village amongst
forest and rolling hills. The Denmark
River flows into the protected Wilson Inlet (left) which flows into the Indian
Ocean so we were able to see the coastline and the huge surf and waves breaking
on the cliffs. Denmark has some fine
wineries which we visited as well as a cheesery. Jan had organized a dinner party with
Liz’s friend, Sue Beverley and her husband Jack (right). Liz and Sue go back to the days when they
both worked in the Overseas Travel Department at Ansett
Airlines nearly 40 years ago. Sue and
Jack have retired to Denmark and have been good friends of Jan and Ian’s
for many years. We enjoyed the evening very
much.
Moving East… The morning we
left for Albany, the weather decided to improve so instead of wind and rain, we
had a cloudy day to reach Albany just 54 kms down the
road. As we had visited here in 2000, it
was a quick overnight stay, but we did visit the Albany Wind Farm. This wind farm has 12 wind turbines, the
biggest in Australia. We walked the boardwalk across the cliff top with
spectacular views of the ocean. It was a
wonder we didn’t get blown away and we can understand why the wind farm
was built here. Nothing
like a bit of wind to “blow away the cobwebs”. We must make mention the wind farm had the
best 5 star “drop loos” we have ever come
across on all our traveling- absolutely spotlessly clean. It may sound like trivia but “loos” are a very important item when traveling.
Again it was very windy and
cool when we went to The Gap – a 24 metre drop
to the sea and the Natural Bridge a huge span of granite demonstrating the
awesome power of the sea when a heavy swell is running. The Blow Holes were our last bit of
sightseeing and exercise for the day as this was a long downhill walk, but a
long uphill walk as well back to the carpark.
1865 Kilometers, Esperance to Port Augusta…. Esperance was also a quick overnight visit. The weather was around 16 degrees and
windy. A local told us that we should
have been there a week earlier when it had been 24 degrees. For those who have traveled, it seems that
quite often you are a week too early or a week too late!!!! The feeling was coming over us that once on
the Nullarbor you are heading home, so we headed for
Norseman, filled up with petrol at $1.39 per litre,
and found out from the tourist bureau where the cheapest petrol was on the Nullarbor then turned right for the long stretch of
driving. Our first overnight stop was Cocklebiddy where we had a powered site and hot showers
available. Petrol here was $1.60 per litre but fortunately due to long range fuel tanks we did
not have to get fuel. It was at Cocklebiddy that we drove off and left our green outdoor
mat behind. Over 700 kms
later, a couple recognized our caravan and returned the matt to us.
Next morning we continued on to Mundrabilla
topped up with petrol at $1.45. At the
moment everyone traveling is interested, naturally, on the fuel prices. Jan told us of a deal going at Liquorland which we have taken advantage of a couple of
times. Buy 6 bottles of wine (which is easy
enough to do anyway) and save 20 cents per litre at Shell/Coles
Express. Filling up a Landcruiser with 180 
litres of fuel has been well worth it and a good
saving. Eucla
was a quick stop only, with petrol at $1.50 per litre. From here there are various parking areas to
stop and see the Great Australian Bight and the spectacular cliffs along the
coast. Our overnight stop was just off
road 29 kms west of the Nullarbor
Motel/Hotel.
The next day we drove into
the Head of the Bight, 12 kms from the Eyre Highway
to see the whales and their calves. It
was well worth it. Boardwalks have been
set up along the Bunda Cliffs. It is a premier spot to whale watch and we
could have spent hours watching the movements of these beautiful creatures. One
whale and its calf were just 40 metres off the beach. There were quite a few cruising close into
the shore and further out. At least 40
whales and their calves were visible and up to 100 
Southern Right Whales have been sighted. It was a lunch stop and a visit to buy some King
George Whiting from the fish co-op at Ceduna before
continuing on.
As we drove on towards Port
Augusta you could see that we were heading into very dark clouds, with thunder and
lightening around us. It became darker
and darker then the rain started. Once
it started raining, it was time to stop and wait for it to pass. We pulled into Minnipa
and ended up staying the night in the Apex Park along with a few other vans
that had also stopped because of the rain.
This park had a very unusual toilet block called the “Concrete Crappa”, nothing like the 5 star one at Albany. This one would have only received 2 stars but
you know what they say, “any crappa is better
than none when you are desperate”.
From Minnipa,
we drove onto Port Augusta, but there was no reason to stop so we continued on
our way to Clare where we intend to stay for a few days.
