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.