Margaret River 1

Our alarms were set for 6, but I woke up at 5:40 when they turned on some sort of engine that sounded like it was trying to shake the ship apart. We got dressed and went up to the pantry for breakfast and were ready to get off the ship by 7:20. We had VIP debarkation, so we went down to the Blue Room and they immediately escorted us to the exit – except that the bags weren’t going to be out yet, so we went back to the blue room for maybe 5 minutes, at which point they called our group (orange 2) and we headed towards the door. Mike and Judi were coming in right then, so they left with us and we went and picked up our bags together, then walked out of the terminal to find Daniel waiting in his giant black Mercedes van.

It's about a 3 hour drive from Freemantle to Margaret River, and I slept for a lot of it. We stopped at the Busselton Jetty and Dave and I walked out almost all the way to the end, narrowly avoiding being run over by the Busselton Jetty Train (not really, it moves very slowly and can be seen and heard a long way off). Daniel waited in the van. Lunch was at A La Carte restaurant at Aravina Winery in Yallingup. It’s a beautiful location and the weather was absolutely perfect; we sat outside on the deck and the food was both beautiful and delicious. The wines were good but not outstanding, but my miso roasted pumpkin main absolutely was. I word about courses: in Australia the entrée is exactly what it means in French; the beginning or starter, and the main is the main. It makes much more sense.

Next stop was Skigh (pronounced Sky) winery where we had someone who I think was the assistant winemaker come over and tell us everything and pour us everything, including a Verdejo (white Spanish varietal) that he used a wine thief to draw out of the amphora where it was undergoing whole cluster fermentation. It was a wonderful stop, even if the wines were more interesting than tasty.

Our next stop was at Windance Estate wines, a small biodynamic producer. The pourer was less engaging but the wines were definitely better, especially a Sauv Blac-Semillon blend and a botrytized Semillon dessert wine that was very light and delicious.

Our next stop was supposed to be a winery and a chocolatier, but we only had time for one of them so you can probably guess which one we picked. And when they found out it was our first visit to Gabriel Chocolate they did a tasting for us, starting with the 45% sweet milk and ending with the 80%. They are all single-origin chocolates and we ended up coming home with two 72% bars. I was unable to resist the orange-chocolate ice cream which was superb, as I’m sure the chocolate chunk cookies would have been if we’d gotten one.  Dave helped with the ice cream.

Then we drove to the beach for the sunset. There’s a huge surfing competition going on this week and Monday is Anzac day so thing are a little crowded. But Daniel knew where to take us, so we got to walk along the beach for about an hour. The sand is less firm than Oregon, more firm than Cape Cod. There is almost no tidal variation – less than half a meter today, sometimes as much as 2 meters in the winter (compare that to the 12 foot variation we get in Oregon). There are lots of interesting rock formations, some looking volcanic, others sandstone-y, and still others like remnants of coral reefs. The water temperature was perfect for wading with our pants rolled up. We walked along the beach to where the Margaret River almost makes it to the beach – during the winter it makes it all the way, but we’re at the end of the dry season. 

We came back to where Daniel was waiting and he set us up in super comfy butterfly camping chairs to watch the sun set while he went and got us fish and chips – in this case, the fish was just lightly fried, not even battered. It was perfect. We stayed for a while and watched it get dark, looking at Venus and a very thin crescent moon. Then we walked back to the van and he brought us to our hotel, the Margarets In Town Apartments (there are no apostrophes, although it feels like there should be), which are similar to the Matthew Flinders and will do just fine for the three nights we’re here, even if they have no shelves or drawers for unpacking. It’s clean, the bed is comfortable, and the internet is only slightly flaky. We’ll take it!