Margaret River

(Haven't had internet (or enough data) to update this for a while but here's a little bit more.)

We weren't sure what to expect of Margaret River - we knew it was beautiful but thought it may have been more touristy than what it was.  The campground we found is only 1.5km from town but in lovely forest and with great facilities for campers, a good base for exploring the area.

The beaches are absolutely beautiful - Prevelly, Redgate and Gnarabup especially.  We thought the sign, above, was very appropriate!  I've tried every other sort of rehab for my back but this beats them all :)

It wasn't really swimming weather (for us anyway) but we thoroughly enjoyed our time on the beaches.

 Then there are the caves.  Many, many caves in this region.  We decided on Mammoth Cave as it's a self-guided walk with personal mp3 players so we could take our time and experience it in our own way.  Well worth doing and different to some of the caves we've seen elsewhere.  We could have done several others as they all have different features, but at $22 each per cave it gets a bit pricey.

This is Lake Cave, which has a suspended deck way above the entrance.  The views were lovely and there are perspex skylights in the deck for looking down into the forest below.

Apart from the hundreds (?) of wineries, there's a chocolate factory, ice-creamery, silkworm farm (which we saw a story on last year on Landline) and numerous attractions within a short radius.  One little village was Cowaramup which trades on its name with cow-themed business names... we thought "Wholey Cow" was a good one for the wholefoods shop.  There were plenty of cows scattered around the village too.

We had a great time and even caught up with a friend from Beechworth (Ilena) who was visiting with a friend of hers.  When we realised we'd be in the area around the same time we arranged to meet and do a couple of things together.  

Then we headed south into the Boranup forest, driving among the beautiful karri trees, camping in the national park, visiting the gallery (one of the best we've seen anywhere), walking etc.  This eventually took us down to Augusta and further on to Cape Leeuwin down on the coast.  A bit chilly and windy but fun to be so far south nonetheless.