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A three hour drive south from Perth to Margaret River, one of the country's great wine-producing regions.We stayed two nights at Lara and Jamie McCall's Burnside Bungalows, in our own bungalow, one of four on this working organic farm. The McCalls grow all types of vegetables and herbs, Zinfandel grape vines, olive trees for oil and soap, macadamia nuts, capers, and also raise cattle, pigs, geese, and of course hens for their own eggs. All organic and biodynamic. And with almost no outside help. When we arrived we were given eggs from their hens, given leave to pick lettuce, herbs, zucchini and tomatoes from the garden if we wished (and we did), and we bought some of their own honey. Together with a few groceries from the local deli and butcher, we were set to cook breakfasts and dinners at the bungalow, a nice change from so many days of restaurant meals. We tasted wines at Edwards (which we knew of from our friend Graham, who imports their wines to London) and at Cullen, where we also ate lunch. We're in the heart of the wine growing region, and a drive down any road reveals fields of vines and signs for "Cellar Door", which is the indication they are open for wine tasting. We also tried local cheese, olive oil and venison-it's a real foodie paradise. Sheep and cattle are also big businesses locally so there are lots of open grazing fields, where in the morning and early evening kangaroos also come out to feed. As our bungalow looked out on a cattle field, we saw numbers of kangaroos up close. Our first evening we saw, among some trees near our bungalow, a family of three: pa, ma and baby roo. They were standing quite still, as the baby had its head inside ma's pouch, presumably feeding. The parents stood look out but were not the least bit bothered by us standing there, taking pictures.
Another asset to this region is that we are less than a mile inland from the Indian Ocean. So we did a bit of beachcombing every day, finding sea urchins and other lovely shells. This area of coast is rocky with cliffs, and stretches of lovely sand beaches in between. We also walked a bit of the cape to cape 140 km trail that follows the shore line, and when that got too hot we took a trail through the woods, shaded by the massive marri trees. Weather here was perfect, sunny and warm but not too hot, and really cool in the evenings and early morning (Glenna had a lovely run one morning with lots of kangaroo sightings). We wish we could spend more time here and really recommend it as a lovely place—it has so much to offer.
The Margaret River is in one of the largest limestone areas in Western Australia and consequently is peppered with many underground rivers and caves. On Sunday we visited 2 on our drive down to the southernmost point. Lake Cave has a good exhibition on cave formation, discoveries from the pioneering explorers, excavation works, and prehistoric remains but as the passages underground were very narrow Glenna and I opted for the much larger Mammoth Cave a few miles away. This was discovered in the early 1900's and has a vast cathedral-like space. These caves are all sited in the Leeuwin Naturalist Reserve and so after an interesting walk underground for half a mile we emerge out of a vast hole in the ground to find ourselves in the middle of a forest of giant Karri, Marri and Tuart trees (members of the Eucalypt family) which are some of the tallest hardwoods in the world. The forest echoes with the sounds of parrots and kookaburras.
Further down the coast we came to Cape Leeuwin where a lighthouse at the end of the point marks the southwestern tip of the continent, and is where the Indian Ocean on the west meets the Southern Ocean on the south. Not a single tree grows here as it is exposed to fierce winds, but luckily it was a fine day when we got here. This site is marked by a monument to Flinders, an early Western explorer. Bathing was attempted but found to be too cold. Instead we found a giant sea cucumber - a delicacy in China, I believe, but Glenna didn't fancy taking it home to cook.
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Betsy I've eaten sea cucumber - smart move to reject it! You must be carrying a trunk to fill with all your beach combing finds and shopping loot.