Margaret River Adventures

We spent three days down to the south of Perth in Margaret River. You’ve probably heard of wineries like Evans & Tate, Vasse Felix??? Well Margaret River is their home. It’s also full of awesome food places, gorgeous scenery and for us, precious memories.

The 10 of us (My family + cousin Emily) stayed in a backpacker hostel. Verrrrry interesting. We had to stay in two rooms.. a boy’s room and a girl’s room. In bunk beds. Very uncomfortable ones. But despite all of that, it was an adventure and an experience, and it wouldn’t have been the same holiday without it.

Day one of our trip… we drove down, via Mandura and Bussleton, settled in, and visited a couple of wineries, a coffee place, a chocolate place, a cereal place (sounds boring but seriously, best.ever.museli!) and a brewery. Yum yum and yum yum.

Mayana was so hilarious at the chocolate place. When you walk in there are these three massive bowls full of their chocolate chips: white, milk and dark, and you are allowed to walk by and scoop them into your hand for tasting. Well I had my Mayana-berry on my hip, and my chocolates in my hand. I had given her one weeny little white button, which she devoured, when all of a sudden, this little hand worms its way into mine, and half of my buttons disappeared into her mouth!!! From then on, whenever she walked past any of us, she pinched a handful of our buttons. She looked like such a bogan baby by the end of it, with chocolate all over her face!! Ah well, you only live once.

 

Mayana playing on the grass at a winery | Mum, Beth, Emily, Mayana, Jordan & Alexie at the coffee place

This pic has to be shared. Apparently on the drive down, Alexie (in a different car to us) had fallen asleep. While she slept, Jordan & Emily licked her sunglasses, and took photographic evidence. I know, ferals, right? Anyway, this was Alexie’s face when she found out later:

Soooooo funny.

My Mama and I at the coffee place.

This was at the brewery. I love hydrangeas, and how their colour is determined by the soil they are grown in. I have NEVER seen pink ones in Qld, they’re always blue or shades of purple. The ones I saw in the Margaret River region were all shades of gorgeous pink and bright purple. So amazing.

In the evening, we took a stroll through town, and had dinner at a lovely and very satisfying Italian restaurant.

Mayana couldn’t figure out how to unhook her dummy from Stella’s arm, so this was the second best thing

Day two began with another stroll through town, this time with the shops open! Yes, much to my Papa’s annoyance, more shopping.

We didn’t buy this hat for Mayana, but oh I wish we had have! How cute is it!!!

After shopping, it was more wineries…. mmmm. They are SO good down there. I don’t think there was one I didn’t enjoy. I did however find that the reds were a lot drier there than what I’m used to. I was in love with the whites though, particularly Chenin Blanc. Which I’ve never had before, or seen or tasted in any of my other winery days in Qld. It’s my new favourite.

 

We went to so many, but I *think* this is the Watershed, and Mayana playing out the front of it.

We hit the Berry Farm for lunch. Oh goodness. If you’re ever in Margaret River, you really have to go there and have the Pickers Platter for lunch. Amazing.

Enjoying our lunch!

Little blue wren who stopped by to watch us lunch | Gorgeous fuchsias

Next stop: Voyager. Wow! Aside from awesome wine, the whole estate was just absolutely incredible. Manicured lawns, Australian flag as big as a football field (no joke!), impeccable rose gardens… just stunning!

The massive flag

Rose bower 

 Mayana and the gorgeous lawns…

Pete and I pretending it’s all ours…

After we were all wined out, we took a drive over to the coast, I’m sorry I can’t remember the exact spot, but I do recall there was a light house. We walked up some goat track for practically forever, all to watch the sun set over the water… didn’t I mention it was a bit of a novelty for us Qld Bumas??

Gorgeous girls: Mayana & Emily taking in the sunset

 

On the way back to the backpacker’s, we stopped in at a random Chinese restaurant attached to a roadhouse. Surprisingly, it was some of the best Chinese I’ve ever had! We were the only people in the entire restaurant, and the hosts (a mother-daughter team) were pretty ecstatic to have all of us. The mother fell in love with Mayana, and even picked her up from her highchair and took her to see the fish in the big fish tank while we ate.

      

Honestly, as I write all this I just cannot believe the amount of stuff we did each day! Crazy crazy people. No wonder I’m so tired!

Our final day of our backpacking adventure… and Christmas Eve (Though we had to keep reminding ourselves of that, it just didn’t feel that way!)…

Mama and Mayana had a grandma-granddaughter date whilst the rest of us went out for some serious caving.

The Giant Cave is very aptly named. At its deepest point we were about 83m underground. Creepy. Especially given that I had just finished reading, “Bad Ground”, the biography of the men who were trapped in the Beaconsfield mine disaster. *shudder*.

Hi-ho hi-ho.. it’s off to the cave we go…

It was certainly an adventure. It was fun, and scary and exhilarating, and something I feel proud of myself for doing.

In the ‘Ballroom’

It was while we were in the bowels of the cave that I discovered I am claustrophobic. Convenient huh? I was totally fine in the open spaces, but there was one spot where you had to climb up a 6m ladder into a space that.. well I felt that I was only just squeezing though. I felt like I was going to hyperventilate, and got quite overwhelmed. BUT: I did it! And finished the rest of the caving adventure beautifully.

After caving… more wineries (of course), then back to Perth (Via Bunbury Hungry Jacks for lunch), where we made it *just* in time to our Christmas Eve church service…

I had an awesome few days in Margaret River, even with the uncomfortable back-packer beds it was one of my favourite parts of our holiday. I can’t wait to go back, and visit some more of the wineries we missed, and see some more of the coast and the other caves down there. Awesome place to visit!!!

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