Margaret River
Just had to clean, the car, it was a pig, the van is a
pig, there is dust and dirt everywhere. We are staying in a beautifully clean
park where the van and awning are situated on pavers. We are only a walk out of
town and close to everything. Spent all day cleaning, vacuuming and washing.
Calgardup Caves, amazing and slightly bewildering all at
the same time. These limestones caves we originally formed by limestone being
dissolved by water and then large sections collapsing forming caves. Huge
stalactites, stalagmites and walls of flowstone. You descend into the cave by
large
stainless steel staircases and have wooden walkways with stainless steel
handrails guiding you in the absolute blackness. You are given a helmet with
headlight as well as a handheld torch. The handrails dip when you need to duck
your head.
You can't help but wonder how these large caverns don't come
crashing down. Roots from Kari trees hang down like wet hair hanging from the
ceiling. The flowrock which is dissolved limestone looks like water frozen in
time. Some parts of it are coloured by
We dropped into Swallows Welcome, a winery recommended to
us by some people we met at Parry's Beach. The first thing I noticed was the
wedding chapel, mud brick with stained glass windows, rough sawn timber floors,
I just fell in love with it. Patricia is an illustrator who specialises in
native plants and has produced many books for the West Australian government
and other organisations. She is a fantastic person and just sat and chatted to
us for ages in
the chapel. Patricia has taught herself how to do woodwork and
has made the seating, tables and huge wooden doors for the chapel. Both
Patricia and her husband have built everything on their property.
They have
even sourced most of the materials from their property. We then met Tim,
Patricia's husband. Tim is in his 70's loves loud operatic music, makes wine
and loves a chat as well. He is very eccentric but this is what is so
interesting. Other people dropped in while we were there and Tim just ignored
them and kept chatting to us. He makes his wine in an open shed, it is known as
the smallest winery in Margaret River. Tim had only just finished pressing some
grapes so he was a little tired but it didn't slow his conservation down, mind
you I was finding it hard to listen every time one of the music pieces was
hitting a crescendo. The wine was ok, even Trice tried the port which as she
said she tolerated. He tends to use about 30% Cabernet Franc in his Cabernet
Sauvignon. I also tried his Merlot blend but preferred the Cabernet Sav/Franc
blend.
Patricia's illustrative work is
outstanding, one display was a sea
dragon that her grandson had found, she drew the sea dragon and then mounted it
all in a frame, it looked she had taken a photo of the sea dragon. It was now
too late to visit any other wineries so we headed back to the van.
We travelled the town looking for a hairdresser for
Trice, starting price was $75. I looked at Patrice and she looked at me so I
said I will have a go. Back to the van and out came the scissors, the bloody
figure holes are too small for my fingers and Trice's hair is like horse hair.
After much deliberation she allowed me to have a go with the clippers as I was
adamant that I could do a better job with the clippers. Well after hair went
everywhere I was very happy with the final result, now for Trice to have a look
as mirrors were banned throughout the procedure. Believe it or not she was very
happy. Since this event 2 hairdressers have seen it and did not believe that I
had done it and certainly did not believe that I had used clippers. Signs and
hairdressing could be my new found profession.
Kevin and Belinda arrived and after hugs and kisses we
headed off to town and yes we ended up in the Margaret River Pub as the Rugby
League test match was on.
The next day we headed off to see a bit of the sights
including the Jewel Cave, spectacular, a bit different to the Calgardup Caves
as this one was privately run and far more commercialised.
The lighting was
fantastic as far more civilised that the National Park run caves. Onto Augusta,
Hamlin Bay to see the Stingrays and Cosey corner, we were exhausted after a
pretty full day.
We organised Wine tour with Cheers which
took us to Watershed and Evans and Tate Wineries, first class and very
informative. The Venison farm followed by Knotting Hill winery and of course
the Margaret
River Chocolate Factory. The Cheese factory preceded the slower
pace of the Colonial brewery, what a day, I am exhausted once again.
It was great to see Kevin and Belinda who were fabulous,
it made us realise that 6 months on the road had slowed us down a bit and this
hectic pace tired us out.
The camp is on the edge of the Wellington Dam, it has flushing toilets and a cold shower. Potters Gorge is now under water in the middle of the lake after the dam was built in the 1930's. 
I had been looking at the sign for Potters Gorge and decided it needed some improving and was happy with the result.
We had read about Gnomesville so we decided to go for a drive and find this place, my sense of direction has certainly not improved and although Gnomesville was anly about 20 kilometres away, we had travelled nearly 200 kilometres by days end.
Ken and Noela packed up the next morning to get closer to Perth as they are flying to Broome for a few days the next day. Both Ken and Noela have survived the ordeal of camping but I am not sure if they have been converted. We have given them a bit of caravan park, national parks and a bit of touring, I bet the stories back home will be interesting. 
We met a great family from the Gold Coast who were great company and their 2 boys were being taught by their mum and dad and were so articulate.
