We slept for long and had long showers. Then we had good breakfast. Markus did hashbrowns, bacon and eggs on the campsite bbq. We ate in the sun and life felt good.
We spent the day exploring Margaret River town and surroundings.
Margaret River area has a mild Mediterranean climate and the area offers many first class wineries surrounded by dairy farmland.
All the rows of wine ended with a rose...
We drove to Margaret River Nougat Company where we tasted and bought good nougat liquor. Then it was time for lunch and we decided that before we tasted more alcohol we better eat some lunch. So we went to Gracetown, where we found the best view from a lookout and
had the rest of Markus' very good bbq burgers from the evening before.
After lunch we visited the Cheeky Monkey Brewery, where we tasted 4 different beers and 1 cider.
We both enjoyed the tastings in the lovely sunshine outside in the park area they built for people to sit and enjoy in their brewery. In the end of the day we had ice cream and for dinner Markus made more good burgers on the bbq in our campsite.
Tuesday - April 15.
We did not start the day with a big breakfast because on our way to Bunbury we stopped in 3 different places where they had all kind of tastings. First stop was a place where we tasted 5 different types of cheese and one yoghurt. Then we stopped in a place where they had all the cereals, nuts and chocolate/yoghurt coated nuts we wanted to taste. We were full, but we made one more stop and visited the Margaret River Chocolate Company, where tastings of 3 different types of chocolate, an enormous amount of everthing from jam and pickles to dessert wine, different licours and wine were free.
We had leftover burgers by the Canal Rocks.
Rocks that form canals and then we drove through the small towns of Dunsborough and Eagle Bay and stopped at some lookouts on the way to
Cape Naturaliste and the Lighthouse there. They wanted a lot of money to let us down to the lighthouse so we left, but we could easily see the lighthouse in the distant.
The last stop on the way to Bunbury was the Busselton Jetty.
It is the longest timber piled jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. Construction of the Busselton Jetty begun in 1865 and now the jetty is extending 1,8 km. in length over the protected waters of Geographe Bay and is on the Heritage list. After more than a century of use and servicing over 5000 vessels, the Busselton Jetty officially closed as a Port in 1973. Once closed to shipping, Government maintenance ceased, but in 2011 a 27 million dollar refurbishment of the jetty structure was completed.
Now The Busselton Jetty stands as a monument to the spirit and decloration of the Busselton community, and a Interpretive Center & Cultural Hertage Museum welcoms all visitors.
The Jetty has an underwater Observatory in the end of the pier and to get out there you can take a train.
You can pay to do all that, but we walked to the end and took some pictures of the view and then walked back. We were talking about that afterall is only a jetty and we will do a lot of underwater exploration ourself...
It took a while to get out in the end, but we got there.
While we were walking it got darker and darker and we feared that we would get really wet.
We have explored how heavy rain in Australia can be. But we made it dry back to Homie.
We payed to sleep in a campsite in Bunbury after spending 1,5 hours of still not finding a Dominos Pizza place. Dominos Pizza have cheap and ok good pizzas on monday and tuesday.
Wednesday - April 16.
With sunshine we explored The city of Bunbury.
It is Western Australia's third largest city and located 175 km south of Perth.
First we went to the Information Center to get a map and some ideas what to do in the area. Then we went to Marlston Hill Lookout with views over the city which is surrounded by the Leschenault Inlet to the west, the Geographe Bay and the Indean Ocean to the nort and northwest and the Koombana Bay to the east.
We had lunch in the sunshine in a quiet neighbourhood's picnic area, that looked like a large roundabout.
The last hours of the day we spent in an animal wildlife park. Because it was some kind of familyday in the Wildlife Park, it only costed us 3 dollars each to get in. In a Wildlife Park in Australia they have all the animals of Australia. Its like a zoo, but limited to a park with Australian animals. The cool thing is that here you can see and pet free kangaroos as they jump around in the park as they want.
The best part is that you can be sure to see koala bears.
You can also see all the nocturnal animals that you dont really get to see otherwise, for example wombats and all the reptiles.
We slept in a free camp site in the town of Pinjarra.
Thursday - April 17.
We went to the waterfall "Serpentine" inside the Serpentine National Park and used our Parkpass for free entry for the 6th time. The waterfall was nothing much and the weather was not so warm that we felt like taking a swim, so we had our breakfast in the park and then went on to Perth. While we had breakfast a ranger came to tell us that we needed to be preparred for agressive kangaroos as long as we had food on the table, but we did not make close contact with the kangaroos.
We tried the Go Pro Camera we bought. Carina looked completely stupid with the camera strapped to her head, but it works.
It is pretty smart that you can take pictures and film without using your hands. The other good thing is, that it can be used under water for down to 60 meters. So it is going to be perfect for snorkeling and diving.
We came to Perth and used the first hour finding a free parkingspot for Homie. Then we used about an hour of taking the bikes from in front of our old hostel, where we had looked and left them before we left on our roadtrip, to our new hostel. They were in as good a condition as when we left them. Which was not the best, but they could take us around. So good bikes.
In the evening Markus went out drinking some beers with a friend he met in Cairns, Australia earlier and Carina stayed in the hostel for some alone time and time using the hostels surprisingly good and free internet.
This was pretty much our itinerary for our first road trip.
Friday - April 18.
After breakfast we drove to John Forrest National Park,
where we used our Parkpass for the 7th time for free entry. We drove to the roadhouse, but because of the many many people due to easter we went out again after saying hello to the kangaroos.
Then we drove to the Yanchup National Park. Here we used our Parkpass for our 8th free entry. In this National Park we saw many different types of birds, we saw kangaroos and we saw koala bears. We forgot the camera so we decided to go back the day after.
Each entry to a National Park would have been 12 dollars. 8 x 12 = 96 and we paied 88 dollars for the Parkpass so now it has paid itself off.
We tried to find a place to sleep in a campsite near the national park, but without luck... They were all full. In the end we found and slept in free campsite on the highway.
No comments:
Post a Comment