Wine, Cheese, Chocolate, and Beautiful Beaches!

After returning back to the mainland from Rottnest Island, we headed south along the coast of Western Australia. Our destination was Margaret River, a region known for its wine making.

Rockingham. Apparently there is a spot here where you can swim with dolphins.

Bussleton. This jetty is the longest in the southern hemisphere...almost 2km long!

Once we arrived in Margaret River, we settled into our accommodation for the next two nights. We walked into "town", where we found food for dinner and strolled along the main street. The next day we were up early, so we decided to check out the Margaret River Pro surf competition. The waves were big but sloppy, so it wasn't the best of conditions, but it was fun to watch and experience a major surfing event.

From there, we spent the rest of the day visiting wineries. We stopped at 3 Oceans, then the cheese factory (Erik's favorite stop, of course!), Howling Wolves, and Providore, followed by a stop at the Margaret River Chocolate Factory and then two more wineries: Hay Shed Hill and Knee Deep. There are SO many wineries in Margaret River and they are really close together. Lots of bang for your buck, you could say!

These distances are in kilometers, so even closer than miles, folks!

Spotted this kookaburra at one of the wineries

Needless to say, we were quite tired that evening, but we headed out to a local pub to watch the footy game (the two teams from WA were playing each other, so it was quite the rivalry). In the morning, after a short run along an awesome wooded path near our accommodation, we said goodbye to our lovely host, her "chooks", and the family (mom, dad, and joey) of kangaroos that we saw wandering through her yard that morning. It was a hard place to leave!

We drove south until we reached the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean. Pretty cool, huh?

The Indian Ocean starts just beyond the lighthouse.

We stumbled upon a black sand beach, reminiscent of our honeymoon in Hawaii!

From there, we started working our way north again, and our next stop was Hamelin Bay. This was one of the highlights of our trip for me. The beach was absolutely gorgeous, and I had read that manta rays frequently swim along the shore here. Apparently if you let them they will suck on your toes, which we did not attempt, but it was really cool to see the rays swimming along in the shallow water.

I thought our experience of seeing a few rays was great until I came across this YouTube video showing someone's experience at Hamelin Bay. Awesome!

We drove north through Leeuwin Naturaliste National Park, home of the famous karri tree, the third tallest tree in the world.

We continued the drive along Caves Road, stopping at another winery or two along with a second (and even better!) chocolate factory, Gabriel Chocolate. Then it was time to check out more beach views, so we stopped in Yallingup and walked a short portion of the Cape to Cape Track.

We also visited Bush Shack Brewery, where we shared a sampler of tasty beers. I was lucky enough to be doing most of the tasting on this trip, as Erik volunteered to be my driver! That afternoon he drove all the way to Mandurah, about an hour or so from Perth, where we stayed for the night. In the morning, we took a walk around town before hopping back in the car, where we drove north of Perth to check out Cottesloe and Scarborough beaches before heading to the airport for our late flight back east.

Scarborough Beach

After our trip to WA, I am now even more interested in going back there for a longer period of time. In fact, if we both did not have jobs in Melbourne, we might consider moving there. There are certainly downsides to living there, mainly the high cost of living and the isolation from the rest of Australia (it is the most isolated big city in the world, I've been told), but the lure of the Indian Ocean coupled with lots of sunny days is hard to resist. Until we meet again, Western Australia!