Long day of driving ahead today. Checked out of Margaret River hostel about 9.30am and drove into Margaret River to see what the place looked like during the day!
Parked up in main street (free parking-love Oz!!) and it seemed like a very small US looking town. Massive foot paths, all tree lined. Went into Coles supermarket to buy a few things but also some bananas...now it was probably our own fault for not reading the sign correctly but we ended up paying 10 bucks for 4 bananas! Nearly had a stroke there and then! We called Carol's sister Sinéad to 'vent' and she said banana growth in Oz was really slow this year due to floods so they were charging through the roof for them. Jesus like. In Ireland we don't pay that much for them and we bloody well import them!
While talking to Sinéad she also explained me to me how they get the figs into the fig roll! www.powerofgoogle.com
After 'banana-gate' we strolled into Margaret River info centre and found a leaflet on a fudge factory in Cowaramup (see..another town ending 'up') which did a honeycomb making demo at 11am.
The honeycomb making demo was cool (& free) and we got sample some of the just Prepared honeycomb..
We had to buy some after the tasting and we bought some other varieties of chocolate.
We commenced the long drive back towards Perth and the roads were busy but all moving. I found that about Australia, You're never caught behind a tractor or lorry or some oul one doing 30 on a 100 road. (love Oz!)
We filled up tank our little KIA in Bunbury (cost about 50 dollars / 35 euros - that should give you a guide on how small the tank was, not how cheap unleaded petrol was!).
It was about another 90 min drive to Cottesloe beach where we would stay the night. Was looking forward to this area. Got caught in torrential shower on Highway 2 en route but we did see 2 cops on motor cycles who looked like the lads from C.H.I.P.S. (California highway patrol - used to love that show growing up, wish I was a CHIP) who were get absolutely soaked.
We drove around Cotesloe for a while trying to find ocean beach hostel an after driving past it twice we found it! It was a lovely day, town was nice but dead quiet due to off peak season. We went into ocean beach hotel for a bit of linner (lunch / dinner!!) and we met Carols uncle Michéal in there. Had a bottle of wine, a few expensive beers and watched the near perfect sunrise over Cotesloe beach. Left hotel restaurant and bought bottle of wine from drive through bottleshop (love Oz!) and brought it into our alcohol free hostel! Hee hee! Like proper Irish backpackers we proceeded (I say 'we' I mean 'I'!!) to drink from the bottle in our room as I could not find any wine glasses (probably expected in alcohol free area!!). We got early start tomorrow, need to drop our KIA back to Perth domestic airport and catch a flight to Daaaarwin. Plan is to tour Kakadu and Litchfield national parks before catching a flight to Alice Springs in Tuesday PM. Stay tuned!!