Australia: Margaret River Region

Australia: Margaret River Region

May 15-23, 2019

We left Jenny and the French and returned our rental car and then got the exact same rental car again. We had to do this as renting the car for two weeks was more expensive then renting the car for one week and the one week. 

We got a ton of groceries and headed south. First stop was in Capel. We rented a room in an Airbnb and the woman, Clair, was so kind. She had a family emergency at the same time so we basically had her entire house to ourselves. Vivi got a small job ($5/day) to feed the 2 cats and 2 chickens which she really liked. 

Our first stop was a winery called Capel Vale close by where we realized that all the wine tasting was going to be free. Amazing. 

I won’t go into all details of all the wineries we went to but needless to say we tasted some beautiful wines. 

We also visited Peppermint Beach where we were the only people there. White sand and turquoise water. We had a picnic there. 

The next day we visited “the longest jetty in the Southern Hemisphere” at Busselton. We heard this by so many people. It was mildly humorous. There were a few other “the longest, oldest, most curved things in the Southern Hemisphere” that we came across. It’s funny, you never hear about anything being the biggest in the “Northern Hemisphere” but I guess it’s a thing here. 

We also went out to the peninsula where we visited Eagle Bay and did a little walk around a lighthouse. Luc read to us about how the French came on some epic journeys way back when to discover Australia and chart the coach and discover the flora and fauna. And meet the locals of course.

We also visited a couple of other wineries and breweries. We enjoyed cooking in Clair’s full service kitchen and dishwasher! I knew it wasn’t long until we would be without a full range of cooking utensils so I wanted to make the most of it. 

The following day we left there and headed to Margaret River. We stopped at wineries, a chocolate factory and really enjoyed the coast. We stopped at Canal Rocks where the stormy Indian Ocean battered against the rocks. We also tried to find a picnic area but we were all so hungry so settled for a place that had a bunch of cabins but no one was there. Except for a woman who said “it’s private property but you can picnic on the table over there.”

We made our way down to this little seaside surf motel called Surfpoint Resort in Prevelly where they were basically waiting for us to show before heading home. They gave us a run through and said “you’re the only ones staying here so have fun!”  They let us have a double room (we only paid for a single), a massive commercial kitchen for us to cook in, they stoked the fire in the living room and then we were all alone. Was so neat to be the only ones. We played some new games that we bought.

The next day they offered for us to stay at the same rate we were going to pay at our next Airbnb but we had committed to that place so we packed up and set off. 

A few people had recommended that we go down south to Hamelin Bay to see the stingrays that were ALWAYS on the shore. So we drove down there through the amazing Boranup Forest. The trees there are something you’ve never seen. We had to stop and take a few photos. It smelled amazing. We got there and explored around but I think the big storm the night before was still dumping big waves so the stingrays were no where to be seen. Ah well. 

Then more wine and beer touring for our last day. 

We stayed at our little cottage Airbnb and took off again the next morning to do some shopping, get my glasses fixed, look for warm clothes to sleep in, try to find the book “are we there yet” by Alison Lester (no luck) and get some robaxacet (double no luck). It was a errands kind of morning.

Then we stopped at the delicious cheese factory and headed up to the Bunbury Farmer’s Market. This market is like IKEA. You go around and around and get to try samples all the way along. We stocked up for camping.

We said goodbye to the Margaret River region. It was so lovely to spend a few days visiting the rugged coastline and sampling delicious wine and beer. 

We stopped at an electronics store and picked up a new drone! We thought this next leg of our trip, the coast of Western Australia and the Northern Territory would be an awesome place to fly a drone. It’s also something we’ve been wanting for our whole trip. Turns out Luc is a natural at it. Check this video for our maiden voyage (it was me that flew it into a tree).

Next stop our Airbnb trailer in the trailer park in Dawesville. This trailer was a bit out of the 70s but it was a good price. 

We needed to do some prepping for our road trip so we took a day to learn how to fly the drone and I did baked potatoes, quinoa and Vivi and I baked chocolate chip cookies. It felt so good to do some cooking and prepping for our 5 week road trip. 

Just so you know what comes next… we rent a campervan and take off up the coast of Australia for the next 3 weeks. Destination: Darwin. It’s actually only 19 days so it’s a lot of driving but I adore road trips and camping in a van so I’m LOVING life. Remember: I did this exact same road trip 20 years ago with my cousin. 

Then we hop a flight from Darwin to Cairns and drive down to Brisbane for two weeks in the exact same kind of campervan. 

On the 23rd we drove to pick up the campervan. That took a lot longer than we had hoped. But, total score, there was a pile at the camper pickup place of free stuff that people left behind. I grabbed: oatmeal, rice, a big water container, a tarp, a big shopping bag, a beach awning, a thing to suspend laundry from, washing pods for clothing, sponges, a plastic bowl, lemons, and a few other things I’m sure I forgot. 

Then the bad news. Luc thought we didn’t need to get the insurance for the van because he thought it was covered under our Visa but we double checked the fine print and we weren’t covered. So we needed to pay $600 more than we thought we were going to. Oh geez. That wasn’t in our budget. We decided to forgo the extra $130 for windshield and tire repair. Cross our fingers we don’t need that. 

And we hit the road…. 

Check out the video that Luc made!
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