Have I died and gone to heaven? My thoughts exactly as we walked through the door of Gabriel's chocolate gallery. It's not just wine around here but any number of boutique food producers tempt us eager foodies in, offering such temptations as cheese, olive oil, nougat and lavender. (the climate is similar to Provence)
Chocolate is made from scratch at Gabriel's and you can smell the cacao beans roasting as you walk through the door. We are given a talk on how they hand-sort, roast, winnow, refine and conch the beans to produce their fine chocolate. Like vintage wine, each single-origin bar offers its own distinct character and by tasting a range of their finest we are encouraged to discover the complexities of palate from cherry to citrus to licorice. All yummy to me. The freshly made hot chocolate and choc chip cookie was double double yummy.
The cacao beans are from the equatorial growing regions of the world like Venezuela, Madagascar and Java. There are a few cacao plantations in northern Australia and more starting up. They hope to join the word market within the next 9 years. More chocolate in the world can never be a bad thing.
It's not all food and drink around here you know. Yesterday we threw a couple
of apples and some water into our jolly swag bag and set off from the Rotary Park on a trail along the Margaret River.
Springtime is wildflower season as we had seen in Kings Park Perth. We are told there are over 2,500 different varieties of wildflowers to be found in Western Australia (most only grow in WA) 150 of these are orchids. Spring has just begun here so the flowers are just coming out. Walking along we felt like early botanists yelping out each time we spotted yet another different variety. One flower that we do recognise is the arum lilly which carpet the roadside verges and are considered by some to be a pernicious weed.The mammals are pretty much all nocturnal but we enjoy hearing the butcher birds chattering away and being laughed at by the kookaburras. Our eyes are attracted up by flashes of green parrots and my new favourite bird the sapphire coloured splendid fairy wrens.
Today we cycled mostly uphill for half and hour to Woody Nook winery for a long leisurely Sunday lunch with a decent drop of Merlot. Thankfully it was mainly downhill on the way home and we waved cheerfully to the Roos grazing peacefully up our drive.
Tomorrow we hit the road again for a few days heading further south through the valley of the giants (ancient Karri trees) and on to Albany.