The South West

After leaving Mandurah we headed south to Margaret River, one of WA’s best known towns which is synonymous with wine.  We visited and supped wine at a number of wineries including Voyager Estate and St Laurance which seemed to be in competition for the most magnificent grounds as roses and water features abounded.  The wines were OK too.  We also visited a meadery and sampled honey wines.  So that we could both drink and not worry about driving we went a on a wine tour which was great fun.  We tasted at four wineries, a brewery, chocolate factory and a cheese factory and had a big bush tucker lunch including native berries, a Kakadu plum, kangaroo meat and wild turkey.

Winery & Brewery Tour - Lunch with all the trimmings, kangaroo and  witchety grub

I loved this sign that said I'm in the vineyard ring the bell, we had to rign it a few time before anyone responded

The Garden of Eden

Margarer River

We used Margaret River as a base to explore other areas of interest in the region.  Firstly we went north to Busselton where we caught the train down the jetty to the underwater observatory where we saw lots of marine life including a few catfish.  Whilst north of Margaret River we also went to Cape Naturaliste where we went whale spotting and visited the lighthouse.  We saw lots of seals frolicking in the ocean but were not prepared to believe that the water spouts in the ocean were whales as technically we only saw waterspouts and not the whales themselves.  Ever body claimed them as whales except us.

Busselton Jetty

Busselton Jetty

Under the Jetty  

Dunsborough -Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse

South from Margaret River we went to Augusta and Cape Leeuwin on the south west tip of WA.  Cape Leeuwin is a signpost between two oceans; the Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean.  We climbed the 176 steps up the lighthouse for a spectacular view including the precise point where the two oceans intersect.

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse

View form the lighthouse

round the twist

The Southern or is it the Indian ocean?

From Margaret River we went to the little timber town of Pemberton.  The town is surrounded by some of the largest trees in the world.  We went on a tram ride through the Warren National Park and saw beautiful karri and jarrah trees.  The most well known tree is the Gloucester tree which is a 61m high fire lookout. The climb of the tree consists of a series of stakes hammered into the tree and winding their way upward.

Pemberton

Pemberton sits in a quite valley surrounded by some of the tallest trees in the world

The GloucesternTree

Another feature of the area is the Beedelup National Park which has a karri tree big enough for people to comfortably walk through.

The walk through tree Beedelup National park

 The Beedelup Falls are 106m high, are rocky cascades with walking trails and a suspension bridge.

From Pemberton we travelled east to the little town of Walpole. Nearby in the Nornalup National Park is the Valley of the Giants Tree top walk.  This consists of steel walkways suspended 38m high in the tree tops.  It was pretty windy when we were there so the walkways swayed a far bit but the view was superb and gave us a greater understanding of the giant tingle trees in the park.  The Ancient Empire interpretative boardwalk allowed us to walk at ground level amongst these great trees.

The Ancient Empire interpretive boardwalk weaves its way through the veteran tingle trees.

  Giant Red Tingle a 25m circumference defines this tree as one of the 10 largest living things 

 On leaving Walpole heading for Albany we stopped at Denmark and sampled more local produce at a ciderey and toffee factory. 

At Denmark itself we sampled a pie for lunch from the local bakery that had won a lot of prizes from the Perth Show.  Our last stop before reaching our destination for the day was a place called Green Pools a natural rock pool and the nearby Elephant Rocks which were really beautiful.

Green’s Pool Denmark Elephant Rock – massive rounded boulders resembling elephants.

Elephant rock

Unfortunately the weather in the south west was consistently horrible but it did not stop us gaining a really positive impression of the diversity of the area.    A little bit for every taste we reckon.