At least that is what the visitor marketing information claims about Margaret River which is tucked away in the south west corner of Western Australia.
Today was another ‘travel day’ and mainly concerned with getting ourselves from Albany to Margaret River. Our now, well rehearsed routine of breakfast followed by packing up the car progressed without incident and we were on the road by 09:30. It is becoming more challenging to pack the car and avoid getting covered in any of the red dust that has pretty much covered the car since we left Perth.
Our readers have probably realised by now that the distances between major towns are vast and that the main road network was established to get you from A to B as quickly as possible without consideration as to whether the journey was scenically, or otherwise, interesting. Todays 5hr route was not to disappoint in this regard, although most of the journey was through forest which provides a more ‘enclosed’ feeling compared to the more ‘open’ journey through the expanse of the desert and outback. I have to admit to preferring the latter as you are better able to understand the sheer vastness and openness of the country and wonder at how some of the 100,000 acre ranches or stations as they are called, are actually managed. We have downloaded a number of podcasts and BBC Radio 4 dramas to the phone to listen on the drives and these certainly help pass the time. We alternated driving every hour as normal and stopped at a roadhouse after about 3 hours for a late lunch. I had a minced beef, bacon and cheese pie, which I must admit I’ve become quite partial to and Xanthe had a pasty which unfortunately was rather dry, anyway, it filled a hole and allowed as to have a longer break. We arrived in Margaret River around 3:15 and as is customary for a ‘new’ location went to Tourist Information. The key ‘must visit’ sights of this region are any of the many wineries or any of the numerous cave complexes nestled in the Leeuwin-Naturalist limestone ridge. We’ll pass on the wineries, although I’ve added a picture of one of the cellar stores to the post, but we have organised which of the 100 plus caves we want to visit tomorrow and we’ve also worked out the route to visit the lighthouse at the South West tip of land where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. We’ve also roughly worked out what we want to visit the following day on our way to Perth airport. Our flight is at 10:30 pm so we have some time to visit some costal areas and possibly some more caves as we make our way back northwards towards Perth. This is definitely the beginning of the end of our trip!
