Friday Dec 8

Happy Birthday Dad! Hope you had a great day.

We’ve continued to be busy the past few days and keep loving this region, with all its diversity on and off the coast, beautiful trees, beaches, gourmet cheeses, olives, chocolates, fruits, jams and wines.

On Wednesday our car still wasn’t ready so we stayed on in Busselton, while the repair work was finished. The weather was surprisingly warm, probably the first really hot day since we came south, and we took a drive through some pretty farmland and forests, through the small towns of Nannup and Balingup and Bridgetown, where we stopped for lunch. We stopped at a jam place in Nannup and picked up some nice sauces/jams and other stuff. It was a good day. When we arrived back at Busselton we went for a swim and a bike ride, and ate a hastily thrown together picnic dinner on the beach, which was fun.

Yesterday it was cool again and cloudy, and after a morning bike ride around the water, we picked up our car and journeyed with the caravan south to Prevelly, on the coast near the town of Margaret River. On the way we stopped off at a vineyard and also the little town of Cowaramup, where we visited the Fudge Factory (yummm) and a nice body products shop and had lunch at a little café.
Once we had the caravan set up in Prevelley we watched a couple of guys kitesurfing- it wasn’t super windy, but there was a fair bit of swell around. We watched a few whales off the coast heading south.

Today it was still quite cool (about 17 degrees) and we toured south, to Augusta and Cape Leeuwin, which is Australia’s most south-westerly point. It’s a wild and beautiful stretch of coastline, and Augusta itself has some nice protected beaches in a large bay area. We visited the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, and despite having packed tuna and crackers for a cheap lunch, instead went into the Lighthouse Café for sandwiches and Devonshire tea! It was very tasty and beats tinned tuna any day. Once we are out of this region, we will no doubt return to our more budget fare, but right now we are enjoying the change.

Today we also toured through one of the limestone caves which are dotted throughout this region. We went into Lake Cave, which is down more than 300 steps, and a ladder, through a small hole in the ground. As its name suggests the cave still has water running in it (it’s water which formed the cave, by dissolving the limestone over many many years), and is quite beautiful. We were very impressed, and lights in certain sections of the cave, reflected in the water, added to its eerie, magical beauty.
Coming out of the cave, you can look up and see the sky and giant karri trees, framed by the cave entrance- it looked great.
This afternoon we checked the beach to see if Adam might be able to go windsurfing here- but the wind wasn’t strong enough and the swell was right up, so it wasn’t a very attractive option. There was one guy sailing and he was impressive to watch on the sizey waves- there were even a couple of guys out surfing on the same break, right near the reef. A bit later on a few kitesurfers went out, as they can handle lighter wind conditions better (their kites are larger than a windsurfers sails).

Tomorrow we continue our journey- heading east to Pemberton, home of the giant karri trees. We’ll spend a few days there and are looking forward to it, hoping to do some bushwalks in the surrounding national parks.
More news soon and hopefully some photos!
Love Emma & Adam xx