Cowaramup is just near the township of Margaret River, and about half way between the 2 capes (Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin). Our plan today was to check out the southern area from Cowaramup to Cape Leeuwin. There are basically 2 roads parallel north to south - the Bussell Highway (inland side) and Caves Road (coast side), with lots of roads connecting one to the other at various points, and hundreds of wineries along each road (much like other winery areas). This area is well known for surfing, so our first stop was Gracetown - when we rounded the bend it was amazing to literally see hundreds of cars in carparks, on the roadside, etc - the beach was packed and all the houses on the hillside looked like they had holidaymakers inside. It was the busiest little beachside community we've seen - the hundreds of surfers out in the great looking water with excellent breaking waves had long forgotten the quite recent shark fatality here obviously!

If we thought that was busy, it was nothing on the Margaret River township which we dropped into for morning tea. The place was teeming with cars and people and crossing the road was even a challenge. We had morning tea at a wonderfully eclectic placed called The Bakery - weird tiles adorned the walls, plants were everywhere, and the chairs & tables were all mismatched, and a couple of guys in santa hats started playing music!

The Prelc family whom we met back in October and spent some time with at Carnarvon and Monkey Mia had similarly left their rig in Perth for a couple of months, and flew back to WA on Boxing Day, so we met up with Joe, Trudie, Zoe and Sam at Alexandra Bridge, a great campground on the Blackwood River. After lunch, the children spent a couple of hours kayaking while the adults chatted. Once the adults coaxed the children out of the water, we agreed to travel to Leeuwin Lighthouse, about 30kms south. Renee went with Zoe in the Prelc's car, while Sam travelled with Eamon in the Lewis' car. We arrived at the Lighthouse, paid our entry fee (the children were free!) and we each obtained an audio set for the tour which was actually very interesting (for the adults at least). Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly point of mainland Australia, and it's where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean. The lighthouse is about 54m tall (whereas, Rottnest Island's lighthouse was only about 34m tall), making it the 3rd tallest in Australia.

On our trip back home, we stopped at Augusta briefly, which looks like a great little holiday destination as it's quite elevated. We followed the Prelc's to Conto's Campground and had a couple of beers at their place to round off a great afternoon. On the way home, we drove through Cowaramup amazed by the 25 fantastic life-size cows strategically placed all through the town.