Kathleen
Margaret River, Australia – April 28-May 1, 2016
From Adelaide, we flew all the way to the far west of Australia, into Perth. Perth is the capital of the province of Western Australia. Planning to circle back to the Perth area, we immediately picked up a car and drove three hours south to the town of Margaret River which is also in the Margaret River Wine Valley and close to the extreme southwest corner of the country. This area is home to beautiful coastal areas with limestone cliffs and caves in abundance.
There was a bit of a cool, wet spell as we were arriving, so we didn’t get any beach time but we did get to explore a couple of very impressive caves and do a coastal hike on the third day, when it cleared up a bit. There is a hike that goes about 150 kilometers across the southwestern coast here, and the small bit of it we did had us wishing we had time to spend several more days exploring the beaches, caves and inlets that abound. This is surf country and swells are gigantic where the Indian Ocean meets the Tasman Sea.
We did hit up a couple of wineries, but quite frankly, we are pretty wined out at this point. One thing is certain, that Australia has both red and white wine varieties and blends that rival any we have found around the globe.
We stayed right in Margaret River, which was a delightful small town with everything a person could need. We found the Margaret River Brewing Company, where we had a tasty dinner on Friday night and had the pleasure of seeing The Brow, which is a hip hop electronica band with horns and was actually quite fun. We can definately recommend some time in this area, and if it is summer, make sure to allocate a bunch so you can enjoy the many, many beautiful beaches.