Perth and Margaret River

Reunited – well almost

After our lovely morning touring the pinnacles we were on our way to Perth and a reunion with our car and then our home, Cool George.  But alas alack it was not to be.  When picking up our now almost entirely rebuilt car (when at least it comes to the engine) we were given a walk through of the requirements for breaking in the sparkly new engine.  As they were telling us we couldn’t do this or that, I asked can we tow (it should be said the company we were dealing with had known we were on a trip around Australia and towing a caravan).  Now the person we were dealing with didn’t know so called the mechanic over, he wasn’t sure so checked (thank goodness). NO we couldn’t tow for the first 1000k!!!  Well so much for picking up the caravan and heading to our caravan park.  

Again we had little time to reconfigure our trip – made more complicated by the fact that my mum and stepfather were joining us to have a look at Perth and Margaret River.  Fortunately the caravan park where we were planning to stay had a cabin for a night and then we found an apartment in Perth.  We also decided to rent a house for 5 nights down at Margaret river for all of us – we ended up in a lovely place at Prevelly beach, big kitchen, deck, even a games room for the kids and the bigger kids to play in.  So with our newly refurbed car we drove to see our beloved caravan and drop off all our camping gear and pick up a few things for our journey to the southern part of WA.

Margaret River – the Berry Farm

We spent our first day exploring the town of Margaret River and stocking up on supplies.  We ended up at the Berry Farm for a latish long lunch.  The Berry Farm was both a winery and can you have a jamery?  It had lovely grounds with an outdoor playground for kids.  We had a very yummy lunch and may have left with a few purchases, the jams were excellent and we also really liked their pear cider.  But we really liked their amazing blue wrens, these guys were spectacularly blue.

Margaret River, the head of the river and the beaches

Our house was just near Prevelly Beach which like all the beaches here is beautiful, but it also has one of the best positioned cafes we have ever come across.  Literally right on the beach, with bar style seating looking out to sea.

 

The water here still has that turquoise colour we got so used to up north - it isn't quite the same as the sea on the eastern side.

Margaret River beach has amazing infrastructure (especially after some of the places we have been).  There are boardwalks and viewing platforms, toilets and parks up and down the beaches.  Of these viewing areas is positioned to get the best view of the waves and whilst we weren’t there on a particular wavy day, the view was still excellent.

We then went right to the river mouth, where Margaret River meets the sea.  It turns out that the river does not continually run into the sea but builds up behind a sand bank until it breaks over.  As we were walking along I couldn’t help thinking that the time for it to do this must be fairly close as the river was a lot higher than the sea.

We spent a very pleasant afternoon at this beach, and although it was quite cool (especially after all the swimming we had done in the north) it was such a lovely beach.  It doesn’t take much to amuse kids when they use their imaginations.  The boys had cuttlefish races until their lips were almost blue.  As we were hopping into our cars we looked back at the beach to see the river just start running over the sand bank.  In a minute people were there surfing through the growing gap.  As we drove past the next day the river mouth was wide and the water flowing freely.  The day after though it had sanded back up to start the whole process again.

 

 

Mammoth Cave and Leeuwin Lighthouse

Margaret River is also a region of caves and lighthouses, in fact you can buy an above and underground deal, but we were interested in another cave.  Mammoth cave is first a beautiful cave that has amazing ceilings of stalactites which are very well lit.  But importantly for us the path through the cave is fantastic and easy to use (the first chamber is even accessible for wheelchairs).  The cave had an informative self-guided MP3 tour which the boys loved. 

Some of the chambers in the cave are really big and you get amazing vistas throughout the walk.  Over 10,000 fossils had at one time accumulated inside this cave most of now extinct megafauna.  There is still a 50,000 year old zygomaturus jawbone embedded in the cave wall.  There are quite a few steps through the cave and especially at the exit, but for those with some mobility impairment the path has continuous handrails on both sides making it quite accessible.  The handrails also acted to steady my camera so I could get some ok shots inside the cave (normally I would take our tripod in such low light areas).

After leaving Mammoth cave we continued our drive south through Karri forests and ended up at Augusta for lunch.  We then made our way to the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse but decided against a walking tour because the weather had turned grey, cold and wet.  We explored briefly around the cape including a good look at a gorgeous old water wheel, but in the face of rain headed home.  I had hoped to photograph the Karri forest we had come through in some afternoon sun (there had been little on our drive down) but there was of course no sun at all now. 

 

 

  

Busselton and its funky jetty tour

After a slow start in the morning we ended up at Busselton not too long before lunch time.  We had heard that not only was Busselton Jetty long (almost 2 km) it had a most unusual observatory at the end.  Our cool rainy weather remained with us today as well (after not thinking about it for so long I had to find our long sleeved tops and long pants).  After the boys had a play on the beach including a boardwalked pool area and giant sandbags, we had an ordinary lunch at the end of the jetty and then it was time for the Jetty itself.  You can walk the length of the jetty (which is in a much better state of repair than the Carnarvon jetty), but like the Carnarvon jetty, Busselton also had a train to the end.  As we have two boys who totally love a train ride you can guess how we went.  The return train ride is included in the price of the observatory as well.

 

The observatory is not what we expected at all.  I have done some snorkeling around piers and jetties before and you do get really interesting seaweed and sea creatures hanging out there – but Busselton has so much more than this, is has soft corals and subtropical fish. It is the beneficiary of the land jutting out just past the jetty and catching the warm Leeuwin current which comes down from Indonesia, add in the permanent shade under the jetty and you have a marvelous and unique marine environment.  After your quite long train ride (which for us started in a rainstorm and ended in sunshine – yep it is that long)you step out onto Busselton Jetty and then you go into a small building and down, down, down  (a bit like Alice in her rabbit hole).  The observatory is a very large concrete tube with a circular staircase and windows all around it.  The best way I can describe it is like being inside a fish tank looking out – really cool, very funky.

A guided tour explaining the observatory is included in the ticket price and then you are given time just to watch the corals and fish.  You also have time to explore the end of the jetty before the next train arrives to take you back the long way to shore.  I will say this jetty must be awesome at sunset and during a good storm with large waves, apparently they do crash over the jetty then.

We left Margaret River feeling we had done the sampler, not the full banquet.  As with quite a few of our recent destinations we are leaving feeling our exploring has but scratched the surface and that we need much more time in this part of Australia.