Wednesday 5 February we were up early, packed up, in readiness to pick up our hire car. We had to be ready early as the water in our Perth apartment was going to be turned off at 9 am. We had received advance notice of this so made sure all our laundry was done and we had spare kettles / jugs of water for washing up etc prior to departure.

At 10.20 am we left the apartment by Uber to the airport. We found the Ace hire cars’ office easily enough and went in – a bit early as the car was booked from 12 noon. To our delight it was ready – a Mazda CX30 this time and a bit smaller than before thankfully….

Richard drove towards Margaret River and the first thing we realised was that there was incompatibility between the brand new car (only had 500kms on the clock) and our old iPhones, so not able to use the Apple / Google combination for navigation on the dummy screen. Oh well, never mind, we’ll manage using the phone on its own. Then we realised that there was no USB plug – only C type – so again our old phone could not be charged. But, against every eventually, I’d packed a power pack into our luggage just in case. Could you guess I used to be a Girl Guide LOL.

About 1pm we were feeling peckish and came off the main road to a small town cafe where we had a fabulous lunch before continuing to Margaret River. We were told we ‘had arrived’ on the phone but couldn’t physically see the building…. So we drove around again and looked harder – eventually we sussed it out – drove in and checked in. The name of the apartments was actually hidden by the extensive foliage outside. These serviced apartments had a 24 hour reception on duty to help us – although on check in day the woman was not particularly welcoming. We picked up the keys and drove down to the allocated car parking area – let ourselves in – and were wowed by the size of the place. Absolutely huge, especially compared to Perth.

After resting up for a while – and a little unpacking – we headed up the Main Street towards the Settlers Tavern where we enjoyed a nice bottle of wine and dinner. Richard enjoyed his (fish and chips) but mine was just too fatty (beef brisket sandwich)! My bad choice I guess…

Back to the apartment we enjoyed a pontoonie although Richard was complaining of the cold – the air conditioning wasn’t that fierce and I was enjoying it…but hey ho!

Thursday morning we popped into the information centre in town and booked a full-day wine tour for Friday. We had a basic breakfast in the cafe and then shopped in IGA for some provisions. We also found out that Busselton (where we wanted to visit the pier / underwater observatory) had a swim meet on the Saturday and a cruise ship was scheduled for the Sunday. Desperate to avoid both of these busy events we were able to book our tram tickets online for 1pm departure.

We arrived early and managed to find a four hour free parking slot – very happy at that! We headed into the Brewery on the promenade for ice creams (I know a bit bizarre) before heading over to the jetty office to sort out our physical tram tickets.

We thoroughly enjoyed our tram ride up and down the second longest leisure pier in the world (at 1.8 kms) – with our local one in Southend-on-Sea being the longest at 2.14 kms. So that means we have been on the longest leisure pier in the northern hemisphere and the longest leisure pier in the southern hemisphere. Not many people can say that LOL.

The observatory at the end of the pier was interesting despite the throngs of tourists trying to check out the windows for sharks LOL.

Afterwards Richard decided he quite fancied the look of the dirt roads and we took off chucking up red dust and sand around us. OMG the car rattled like it was being shaken and was so uncomfortable – not sure the rental company would be too happy about that! Eventually we ended up at Cape Naturaliste lighthouse and a lookout which wasn’t that good to be fair. Moving on we headed to the surfing lookouts at the end of the Margaret River and enjoyed watching the surfers in action – it was absolutely wild out there! We met a guy with a small parrot on a lead – he’d rescued it after it fell from its nest – and it was very protective, clearly having imprinted on him as a parent. Not wanting to get bitten we moved to the lower side of the wall where we were not perceived as a threat…. Afterwards we returned to our apartments and stayed in to enjoy a home-cooked dinner.

Friday morning we were picked up at 9.10 am for our wine tour – the small minibus was filled exclusively with British tourists so it was quite fun to hear what they were up to. The driver / tour guide was very knowledgeable about wine and the history of the area so we were delighted by our tour selection. Have to say we found the scenery around the Margaret River area absolutely stunning…

The first winery was Leeuwin Estate which is a pretty fancy corporate place famous for hosting big name concerts back in the day. Now it is concentrating mainly on the wedding market and even has a helicopter pad available for that special day! Nice tastings and I particularly enjoyed both the Sauvignon Blanc (Art Series) and the Prelude Vineyards Chardonnay. Now I’m not a Chardonnay fan – disliking the intensity of the flavour from the oak barrels – but this won me over. Fabulous! And we were also won over by the friendly kookaburra sitting on the small wall in the manicured gardens.

This was followed by a visit to Brown Hill which was like comparing chalk and cheese. A family-run winery operating out of one big shed where we had the tasting. The women talking us through all the options was incredibly informative, had a sense of humour and we enjoyed patting her collie dog LOL. This winery does not sell outside of the immediate area and is not to be found in bottle shops….so decided to take the rare opportunity to purchase a bottle for later.

Then it was onto Xanadu which is also very large and very corporate. Again a good tasting but the formality meant it wasn’t quite as enjoyable…. We then headed into their on-site restaurant and had a fabulous lunch (with the most amazing potatoes ever!) which had been pre-arranged through our driver.

After lunch (which came with complimentary wine of course LOL) we headed to McHenry Hohnen. Another small family-run brewery which we enjoyed very much – especially the cheese plate that came with it. My favourite this time was the very pale rose….

Then it was time for chocolate! So we headed to Temper Temper artisan chocolatiers which is based in Cowaramup a delightful village based mid way between the surf and the vines…. We had a tasting – of course LOL – and came away with a few pieces for later.

And so this was the end of the gourmet wine tour and we said our farewells to the gang and returned to Margaret River. We got dropped off at the top end of the high street and had a beer in the local bar…followed by a wine bar further down the road – but was driven out by the live singer who was doing some original dirge…all about saving the planet…. We then visited the Tavern for the last time…before returning back to our apartment for an early night. Had been a pretty full-on day!

Saturday morning we drove to Leeuwen Lighthouse and enjoyed the historical nature of the place with its renovated buildings, films and maps and charts….what a terrible coast this is! Can see why there were so many wrecks back in the day before proper charts became available. And the mixing of the two oceans….

This is also the place for a beautiful memorial to those navy sailors who had served and since perished….

Driving on we headed to Augusta and enjoyed views along the coast before settling into the local hotel for a basic lunch (tiger prawn salad) and watched the Australian Royal Navy band setting up for an afternoon concert. We later found out this was a memorial concert in relation to a Navy disaster when 12 people were swept off a Royal Australian Navy vessel called Nizam by a freak wave and who were not recovered….. Sadly we were on a mission to see other things otherwise I would have quite liked to have stopped to listen for a while…

We then headed to Hamelin Bay where we walked the beach and checked out the sting rays that frequent the shallows…. Was lovely!

Afterwards we headed back to our accommodation and picked up a curry takeout along the way for another quiet night in.

Sunday we were up early and drove to Perth (3+ hours) – we had hoped to go via Fremantle and see the Sunday markets but on arrival we could not find a parking space anywhere! Absolutely manic…. So after driving around for quite a while we decided to leave it behind and head back to Perth – and check out King’s Park once again. This time we wanted to explore the war memorial in more depth and enjoyed an ice cream as well.

See there were a few McCarthy’s listed but none for my maiden name….so from convict stock or settlers….that will be the question!?!

Moving on we headed to our accommodation for the night – a B&B near the airport. We drove to the address given to us by Booking.com and was told to wait when we rang the bell. Then this guy came from next door to say we were staying there and he let us into our allocated room. It was absolutely huge with a fab en-suite bathroom. Once the guy had left I checked out the rest of the property while Richard emptied the car…. There was a communal kitchen, patio, lounge etc. And was obviously newly renovated. Very different to anywhere we had stayed before…but…who cares it is only for one night!

We went out and walked to the local pub – called Around the Corner – and it was a bit sketchy in places. But, never mind, we had a lovely dinner and good drinks all at very reasonable prices. Later on we walked back and had an early night. The bed was comfortable with quality linen and thoroughly enjoyed….

So that bring’s this part of our Australian adventure to a close.
Check back soon for some more.

Bye for now Jan