Margaret River continued

Our second week in Margaret River was spent visiting more wineries (!), the better known ones being Vasse Felix, Cape Mentelle, Mad Fish and Leeuwin. We were quite impressed by the different styles of buildings, gardens and restaurants incorporated in the large operations. We have also enjoyed the wines and tried some of the varieties not often seen in the retail outlets.

We have visited Prevelly Beach which is at the mouth of the Margaret River. The day we did this was very windy and we have probably taken more photographs of waves crashing into rocks in the last week than in the last 20 years - beautiful and powerful. We also visited the Mammoth Cave which does not have much colour but is better known for its fossils. The cave is in the middle of a Marri forest (not a spelling mistake) and the walk through this was delightful.

As the election was getting close we drove to Bunbury to the AEC Divisional office to vote so we had a look around this rather nice township. We climbed its viewing tower (another 100 steps on top of the 170 that it took to get out of Mammoth Cave), walked the mangrove boardwalk and visited Capel Vale winery on the way back.

On the days we were not feeling energetic we took short walks along the River bank and visited local galleries where we did see some rather lovely paintings, jarrah furniture, colourful glass and exquisite jewellery. Had we won lotto it would have been fun shopping, as it was we just admired.

The other area we visited was Cape Naturaliste where we walked out to the whale watch viewing platform and did see three whales making their way south. From that point we drove through Dunsborough which was already filling up with "Schoolies" (Western Australia's Gold Coast) on to Busselton. The jetty was 1.7km long and we got our exercise walking to the end and back. In addition we visited the Underwater Observatory which descended 30ft and we could see the beautifully coloured coral and sponges attached to the piers. Several largish schools of fish swam past as well as many small coloured/striped specimens

The whole strip from the tip of Cape Naturaliste to Busselton is in expansion mode. There are more caravan parks along the sea shore than you can poke a stick at and each religious/school group seems to have camping areas for members to use.

The end of next week takes us on to Pemberton where the really big trees start.