Margaret River

Sightseeing  around Margaret River is very scenic, with rugged cliffs and clear blue water, a nice deep blue. One last cave for us to explore was the Lake Cave, it is one of a few quite active caves in Australia. It was stumbled upon during the late 1800’s by a girl and her horse looking for lost cattle. The horse stopped suddenly and she couldn’t work out why until she hopped off and looked. There was a great big hole in the ground, she couldn’t believe what she had seen and raced back to tell her parents, unfortunately they did not find the hole again. It was not discovered again until 30 years later, this time two men explored the cave. They knew they had seen something special and in the early 1900’s they opened it up for tours. They promoted the cave as a fantastic honeymoon spot for newlyweds from Perth. It took us an hour to complete the tour today, when it first opened for tourism it took them 10 hours.

One thing to mark off the list at Margaret River is to sample some local brew at one of the many wineries. As you drive towards Margaret River along the coast there are so many wineries, every spare piece of land has grape vines on it. Unfortunately the Cheeky Monkey Brewery Bar was quite average in flavor, but most beautiful in scenery and the playground for kids.

 

Busselton

Another quaint seaside town with an attraction, a 1.8km timber jetty the longest in the Southern Hemisphere. You could either walk the length of the pier or catch the train and look at the underwater observatory at the end of the jetty. We were too late for the train and decided to walk.

From Busselton we headed for Margaret River, we stopped off at Augusta to climb the lighthouse and explore the Ngilie Cave. The cave was very interesting and looked fantastic under coloured lights. As we head further south the pretty wildflowers come alive this time of year.

 

Bunbury

There was a lovely black and white checkered lighthouse and a viewing platform with 360 degrees views. On the waterfront Taffy’s, American owned is a toffee shop where they make their own toffee/chocolates on the premises. The kids’ eyes lit up the whole time we were there. Donsborough has the largest outdoor playground in the Southern Hemisphere, how’s that for a fact. After a coffee and a run around the park we went for a drive through the countryside, it was very picturesque and had a wonderful country feel.

Perth

On our arrival to Perth we were greeted with more cold, wet weather, however, the wind had dropped. Before Perth we stopped at a town called Gin Gin and went to the Gravity and Science Centre, we all enjoyed playing with the experiments. During our first day at Perth we walked and saw the city sights, a highlight was Kings Park, the Kokoda Track and the view of the city.

The following day we caught a ferry to Fremantle, which is a very pretty town and lots to do. Once docked we walked to the Little Creatures Brewery where we had a delicious lunch and beer. From here off to the pub to watch the rest of the Grandfinal where it was a buzz. Just outside there were street performers that kept us entertained also.

The weather is on our side, woo hoo, a sunny 34 degrees, we went to Cottesloe Beach for a few hours then back to Rockingham Foreshore where we spent the afternoon. Both places were quite relaxing.

Mandurah is where we walked along the harbor and ate lunch, afterwards we wandered through the local market.

On our way to Bunbury we visited Abingdon Miniature Village, where they have miniature villages from England and a hedge maze. At one point Jack couldn’t find his way out so I stood on the viewing platform and guided him out eventually.

 

 

Yay, I finally found my way out!

 

Cervantes (The Pinnacles)

As we headed further south, we drove through a couple of coastal towns and decided to stay at Cervantes near the Pinnacles. It was a lovely Caravan Park with a fantastic reception and coffee shop, here they displayed and sold many different types of shells. Again we woke up to another overcast day, ten minutes down the road we called into the Pinnacles National Park. You can either walk a two kilometre track or drive a four kilometre track. With the weather that day we wisely chose the car. Driving into the National Park, the road is lined with dense bush shrubs as far as you can see, as you get closer the Pinnacles pop out through the bright yellow sand. It was not too exciting, but it was worth seeing the natural landscape.

Geraldton

Well not much to report here, wet, cold and windy. We did however looked at the HMAS Sydney Memorial which sank at sea during a battle during World War 2, there were about 645 who died. It was a lovely memorial with birds symbolizing each soldier and a statue of a woman looking out to sea with a pained expression on her face, hoping the war ship would return.

I must say, as we have headed further down the coast the playgrounds have been very popular with our kids, lots of different equipment. The kids love to turn them into obstacle courses and see you can get through the course the quickest.

 

Cervantes (The Pinnacles)

From Geraldton we travelled along the coast and looked at most of the coastal towns, deciding to stay at Cervantes where the Pinnacles are. We travelled to the Pinnicales the following morning which were quite stunning in the natural light and very yellow sand. You can either walk through or drive a 4km track, we chose to drive due to the wind and rain.

From Cervantes and across to Gin Gin where we went to a Gravity and Science centre. We've ended our day at Rockingham south of Perth. This will be the base for our travels to Perth and Fremantle.