After arriving in Margaret River yesterday I figured I should actually do something in this town so I booked myself on a beer and wine tour of the region with a company called Big Day Out.

I had a late sleep in this morning and rose to discover it raining pretty hard and was thinking today was not going to be the best day for a wine tour around the Margaret River region, luckily though the weather cleared up nicely and it turned out sunny. I was picked up from the hostel at about 11am and bundled onto a bus which had 8 other people on it, mostly women and apart from a few people from New Zealand I was actually regarded as the only 'foreigner' on this trip. Our first stop was the Cheese factory (which I had already been to with Ruth) and we got to taste some nice cheeses. I think the lady was a little desperate for us to buy something as she rolled out more cheeses than on display...either that or she had the hots for our tour guide or something *laugh*. I never bought any cheese because I knew I would have to eat it in the next couple days. Onwards to the first Winery of the day and we went to a place called Evans and Tate. The lady was very knowledgeable and they had the cutest (but chubbiest) little sheep dog in reception. I will admit to drinking all of the wines she gave us (little alcho me...) despite not liking everything although I didn't actually buy anything. We went next door and tried some Balsamic vinegars and some olive oils before boarding the bus to our next destination. My god there was some nice stuff there which now looking back I wish I had bought! D'oh, never mind.

We then went to a place called The Grove, which is an liqueur distillery. On the way in there is a sign which says beware of the Crocodiles and I swear those plastic things had little sensors in them following us around as we went to make it look like they were watching us lol. We went in and got schooled by a guy called JC (not short for Jesus Christ...although we did have a little chuckle) on everything to do with cocktails. I can honestly say we must have had about 8 or 9 shots in that little bar before starting to feel a little tipsy! He just kept giving us alcohol, not sure whether he was supposed to give us that much as part of the 'tasting' but ho hum! Apparently though, mixed or layered shots are actually illegal in Western Australia. I think back to some of the things we used to drink in Bar Med in Beaconsfield and think Christ you wanna come over this way! There were some very cool things on display though, giant glass guns full of alcohol at about $350 a pop! I bought some White Chocolate liqueur in a small bottle and tried a sample of their Absinthe...felt rather ill after that one. Won't be doing that again that's for sure!

We left The Grove all happy and merry before going on to the Bootleg Brewery to have lunch and sample some beers on our tour. The lunch spread was amazing! It was platter food but there was so much of it we didn't finish it all. Although, we did have the munchies thanks to all that alcohol during the course of the day. We tried 4 different beers, and it is amazing how people let down boundaries when they have had a drink, the conversation was flowing, randomly mainly about people visiting Las Vegas. Which I have to go back to at some point!

After lunch we went onwards to another Winery which I forget what this one is called. The lady talking to us there seemed a little eccentric to be honest. I bought a bottle of wine though which was nice but I am not sure when I think I am going to drink that. We made a pit stop to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory (also another place I'd already been to with Ruth) and of course all of us felt a little sick by the time we'd come out as being a little leathered we'd all stocked up on free samples. I caught one or two people filling their handbags with samples, my god that's going to have melted everywhere by the time they remember! The last stop of the day was at another brewery where I ended up buying a pint of cider since that was the minimum spend on a card, I drink pints all the time in the UK but for some reason this one just looked massive. Finally finished it and we got on the road back to Margaret River. I am definitely drunk by this point.

Hahaha on the way back we stopped in Cow town (it's called Cow Town because not very many people can pronounce it's actual name and there are giant statues of cows all over town!) mainly because we berated our driver into doing it so that we all could hop on top of one of the statues and have our pictures taken. I laughed my head off trying to get on the back of that cow outside the shops and it certainly winded me trying to get up there! God only knows what the passers by thought, perhaps something along the lines of there goes another group of drunk people! Getting back on the bus I think I realised just how drunk and tired I had become and wondered when on earth I was going to drink the stuff I had bought...getting back I will admit to feeling a little bit old. I cannot be bothered to go out to Settlers to the live music night, despite saying I would! I just want a cup of tea and to watch a movie...is that so wrong?!

The picture is pretty self explanatory, it's in Cow Town.