20100911 to Margaret River, Western Australia, OZ
(Map Link) (Picture Link – O) (Picture Link – D – a big file)
Up somewhat slowly, it being Saturday. We had a big buffet breakfast in the hotel dining room along with several of the golfers left over from last night. Good food. We settled up our bill and departed. In doing so, we discovered I'd left my blue blazer in the room at Albany. Rats. Not worth going back to get, nor to cause them to mail it anywhere.
We decided to look at a couple of National Parks en route. So we retraced our steps back to Manjimup WA, then diverged west to Pemberton.
We visited Warren NP first and took their drive through the Karri trees (very tall, straight trees with smooth bark). Worrisome drive, lots of bumps and water. Dolores took pictures at one lookout.
Then we got back on the road, back to Pemberton and beyond to Beedalup NP to view the falls of the river there. It's not really a “falls”, it's a cascade, but that's not bad. Lots of water going downhill, anyway. But not all that spectacular.
We started out again and found the cruise control is working again. Yesterday, it quit after we did the drive to the Circular Pool. Now it works. Must be a loose connector somewhere.
The next stop was the Christmas Shop at Kerridale WA. After seeing a bunch of stuff made in China that we could get in the US, Dolores found a miniature kangaroo wearing a red stocking cap. Perfect.
Back into the car and on to Margaret River. Very obviously a tourist town. That's ok, we're ready for one. We found our motel (Vintages) and tried to check in. Then we found we'd made reservations for three days hence. The owner fixed us up in a cute room that will be adequate for the whole stay – we'll see if we want to move to the large suite we'd wanted originally later or not.
Then we hiked the two blocks to the main drag, then one long block uphill, then two short blocks west to the Catholic church to note mass times for Dolores. She selected the one tomorrow morning over the one tonight.
Then we hiked back to and down the main drag. We hit the ATM, then a souvenir shop where we got a few small things. We looked at restaurant menus and then went back to the motel for wine. Now we're heading out for dinner. More later …..
It rained again. Hard. We waited. It stopped. We drove down close to the hotel for dinner. They were full and not even taking names. The pub was jammed with a rugby game on TV. We hiked down the street a bit. We found the Spaghetti Bowl and entered. Now we're back after dinner at the Spaghetti Bowl. Good food; D had a chicken thing and I did a fancy spaghetti with prosciutto and olives. We came back with D feeling overwhelmed by the day.
So we rested and will go to bed in a bit. I finally got everything uploaded to the web site that I wanted uploaded – it will bring you readers up to date till today. 'night!
20100912 Margaret River WA
(Picture Link – O) (Picture Link – D – a somewhat big file)
We got up and did minor things over coffee. Some web stuff. Some planning. Some nothing.
I took D to church and went in search of things. I wandered through the local IGA store and bought things we can use for breakfasts in the room. I stopped in a pharmacy for more hearing-aid batteries (I wish I hadn't done all those submarine sonar watches with the gain all the way up). I looked in several places for the travel-size versions of mouthwash and so forth that we find in many places – not found here.
I went back to Vintages, our house while we're here. The proprietor pounced on me to say they're moving us today to a nicer room for the remaining four days we're here. Great. They offered to move us, but we had electronic gadgets plugged in everywhere, so I moved us quickly from room 7 to room 9. Then I walked down to the place we'd agreed to meet.
While waiting, I experienced six different weather states in a half-hour. They were: 1) Sunny, nice breeze, 2) Partly cloudy, nice breeze, 3) Partly cloudy, full gale, rain sideways, 4) Overcast, gale, 5) Sunny, gale, 6) Sunny, no wind at all. Strange place.
Dolores finally came along, some twenty-five minutes late. Turns out the mass included first communion for 17 youngsters, with the required ceremonies.
We had breakfast in Cafe 131, quite nice but the coffee was very strong. We haven't figured out yet how to specify coffee the way we do it. Then we walked back to the motel, picked up the key for room 9, and re-un-packed or re-set-up or whatever.
After resting a bit, we struck out to do something before the day got away. We went to the visitor's center and enquired about wild-flower tours. Sure enough, they knew of such things and booked us into two one-hour guided walks tomorrow.
They also gave us advice for a do-it-yourself auto tour for the remainder of the afternoon, so we set out to do that.
We went to Prevalley Beach, an international surfing competition place. The waves were up, but not competition level today. Still, we took pictures. Then we went on to Gracetown, a little village at the end of a road down to the water. The lookout gave us the chance to shoot some surfers and a stand-up board person.
On the way out of town we pulled into another lookout. Dolores was taking pictures of flowers and so was another lady. They met and started a conversation that resulted in us finding out we're on the same wild-flower walk tomorrow afternoon, and more importantly the location of a bunch of “kangaroo paws”, the somewhat rare flower that Dolores has been seeking. The lady's husband said there would be a test on paws when we meet tomorrow.
We found the paws and took a bunch of pictures. See her pictures for the red stalk with the green fingers. No doubt Dolores will pass the test.
Then we went off to the cellar door (tasting room and sales) of Madfish Wines. We tasted and tasted and finally took away three bottles.
Onward then, to the Margaret River Chocolate place. We sampled a few chocolates, but escaped without major damage to the credit card.
We decided we'd had enough fun for the time being and returned to the room (now 9). We settled and sipped until we decided we were hungry. We went down the hill to the hotel dining room. We took a nice table. D had a sauvignon blanc & I decided to go with Victoria Bitter. We had the fresh bread with dukkah to share, then Dolores had the fricassee while I had the linguini with chicken. All quite good.
We straggled back up the hill into the room and are now settling in for the evening. Another good day.
20100913 Margaret River WA
(Map Link) (Picture Link – O) (Picture Link – D)
Up at reasonable hour, had a mini-breakfast of cereal, coffee, and danish in our new suite. Great place. If we could un-encumber ourselves as we have for this trip, we could live in this place. But then we wouldn't have all our “stuff”.
The internet here is different. When you ask the desk, you're issued a unit to plug into the wall socket. Then you plug an ethernet cable into it and your laptop. Ethernet-over-power-line. It works quite well in the evening but less so in the morning. I suspect that's due to the cleaning staff using vacuum cleaners and so forth, dirtying the power line with electronic noise.
Getting ready now to do the two wild-flower walks we booked yesterday. More later....
We went to Lake Cave's ticket office and checked in. A few minutes later, Jane Scott, local wildflower expert and author, started the walking tour. We probably didn't get farther than 100 meters from the starting point at any time, but she pointed out all sorts of flowers, trees, orchids, and plants in that space. Very good speaker, knows what she's talking about. The tour group totaled eight. Dolores shot pictures like one possessed.
Then we did lunch in the Lake Cave tea room. We were seated when Ray and Di, whom we met yesterday afternoon at Gracetown, came in. They sat with us and we chatted. Then we moved to Mammoth Cave's ticket counter to meet Jane Scott (again for us). The four of us were the tour group, so Jane had lots of time to devote to us. Di and Ray are both knowledgeable in many things including flowers, so they asked most of the questions and made most of the comments while we listened and learned from all of them.
We exchanged cards and went on our ways. Dolores & I went to Cape Leeuwin (Photo Link) at the very southwest corner of Australia. Rugged place, as you might expect with nothing to the south until Antartica and nothing to the west before Africa. We took pictures and observed. Then we realized we were getting tired and returned to our little home.
We rested and did computer stuff. We reviewed the menus in the house book, and settled on a place for dinner. Then we couldn't find it at the address listed. So we returned to the hotel dining room. D had beef and ale pie, and I did fish & chips. Both were quite good – and really filling.
Returned to Vintages and our house and settled in. Made a booking for a place in Perth for Thursday and Friday nights. More computer stuff. Then the house lights started going off and on by themselves. Mostly, it was two lights on a string of three that were doing it, but once it was all three. Very strange. Finally turned them all off and went to bed.
20100914 Margaret River WA
(Map Link) (Picture Link – O) (Picture Link – D)
Interesting day. Good weather.
Up, mini-breakfast in room. Loafed around for a bit. I did a walk to the main street and up/down it, looking at things. Bought one souvenir.
Consulted the local photo shop about my old (ancient) Canon camera having lost its little screen display. Consensus - probably cheaper to buy a new one than to fix the old dog.
At 1100, Glenys came along. We told her about the ceiling lights going on and off by themselves last night.
Then she began our promotion reward for spending five nights here. She drove us in their 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air 4-door sedan (beautiful shape, see pictures) to Brookwood Winery. There, we had a huge basket of cheeses, salami, ham, olives, bruschetta, melon, figs, orange slices, small tomatoes, and dukkah. We tasted the wine and selected one for the complementary glass with lunch. We nibbled and nibbled while we watched the vineyard crew complete the pruning of the vine field in front of the winery.
We bought a bottle of Semillon Sauvignon Blanc to further continue the nibbling. Then a car out of the past drove in – a 1964 Studebaker Hawk Gran Turismo (see pictures). The owners came in and tasted, then sat near us to do their lunch. Another couple came along and also sat near us. A tri-corner conversation started, and we had a lot of fun talking with them.
Finally, we bought more wine and had them call Glenys to come fetch us. She came with the Chevy and her two little dogs. One of them curled up behind her neck on the seat-back for the ride home. Lots of people looking at us as we cruised along back to the motel. Then we rested a while, debating what to do next while some of the wine wore off.
Off we went then toward Cape Naturaliste (see map), so that we can say we've covered the Margaret River region from Cape (Leeuwin) to Cape (Naturaliste). We pulled into the little town of Yallingup for pictures, then went on to Cape Naturaliste.
As we got out of the car, Di of the Ray-and-Di couple we met two days ago and walked with yesterday, yelled something about them letting anyone in here. So we joined them on the walk around the lighthouse and the grounds and a lookout walk. We saw a couple of sets of whales, but they were too far away to recognize. Di & D took a bunch of flower pictures. We all chatted about flowers, trees, navies, and other things. At last, we parted again as Ray said he'd bet we see each other again. [Ed: we looked, but didn’t see them again.]
We went back to the little suite and did computer picture work for a while. Then off to the Margaret River Hotel dining room (again – it's good) for dinner. All went well.
We returned to do these notes and settle in.
20100915 Margaret River WA
(Picture Link – O) (Picture Link – D)
Up for a coffee in the room, then down to the main street to Cafe 131 for breakfast. Bacon and eggs. They serve massive amounts of bacon with eggs here – I'm afraid to face the cholesterol analysis when I return home.
Out to Caves Highway and south in search of hiding flowers or orchids. We went all the way south and then onto Route 10 toward Augusta. We found the marker for the Augusta Yacht Club. We followed the dirt road to it, then onto the dirt road to the right of it, as advised by Di & Ray. We stopped when we climbed onto a vast rock shelf with flowers all around.
Dolores disappeared for a quarter-hour while I called the Hertz office in Bunbury to confirm they're ready to do whatever they want to do regarding the blitzed mirror. I think they're going to replace it and let us continue on our way. Poor phone connection with long delays via Estonia (send email if you're curious).
D returned and we returned down the coast on the Caves Highway. Dolores at some point yelled “roos”, so we stopped. She cranked her 10x lens out a ways and shot a couple of good roo pictures.
Then we stopped at several places for D to shoot the poor little flowers. We reached our goal of Gracetown. We drove in and all around the little place – a terraced set of houses reaching uphill – that must be cottages for wealthy Perth residents.
On the way out of town, we saw a few kangaroo paws, so I stopped. Dolores walked across the road and found a dozen or more paws. She shot them all.
Then we returned to Margaret River and to the house. We went to the main street (Bussell Rd) and walked around. We bought a few souvenirs. We scheduled me for a hair cut. We walked through the local IGA. Back across the street for more shopping. Then we bought stuff for dinner in the IGA and hauled it back to the suite. I left D there and walked down to the pub for a beer (VB), then to the hair-cuttery.
The cutter was a nice lady and knew exactly what I wanted after I started explaining it. We chatted, then we were done. I hiked back up to the suite. We started working on some of the surplus wine we've accumulated.
A bit later, we turned up the oven. When it warmed we inserted a ravioli dish. A half-hour later we did our ravioli with bread and shiraz, just like non-tourists. Wonderful.
So now we're considering packing, but not very seriously. We've enjoyed our five-night stay in a nice two-bedroom apartment/suite. We relaxed and reveled in not having to pack and move every day. In the morning, we'll get it together and move on to Perth. :-(