Margaret River 9 – 11 December 2006

Peter set out on his garage sale odyssey and brought back a few interesting items – he still dreams of the ultimate garage sale which is stacked with antiques and no dealers on sight. Said goodbye to Neil and Marie and headed down towards the wineries. Stopped at Cowaramup and bought a few yummy goodies, including red schnappers, raspberry vinegar, verjuice and some red apricots that were so nice we went back and got some more.
Onto Margaret River, which is a small upmarket town, a bit like Berry, but we were amazed not to find any large liquor outlet – we suppose they expect you to get your supplies directly from the wineries the fun way by tasting all the samples but paying top price! Indulged in a picnic lunch on the edge of town in Kate Park right on the tiny Margaret River with the ducks. Felt very lucky to have some very fresh Margaret River Cheeses that Marie got for us. Spent a couple of hours browsing up and down the main street, but did not find any antique or junk shops! Moved out to 10 Mile Brook Dam next to a national park amongst lots of birds and settled for a very quiet night. The next day we went for a 10km walk through the park that incorporated lots of tracks and bridges left over from the 1920s settler’s allotments. There are still lots of really monstrous trees there, and some Blackbutts were up to 350 years old and 40m high! although lots had been taken out by a mini rail system. We were taken by the blue wren and the large green parrots (yet to be identified). Although we “missed” the mass colour of WA wild flowers in spring, there are still many wild flowers out on shrubs and in the grasses and the diversity is definitely different to the east coast. Peter is being driven nuts by Heathers growing obsession to photograph every tiny flower! The native birds keep us both interested thank goodness!
Headed back into Margaret River to listen to a local blues singer in the pub. By late evening moved out of town amongst the wineries and found a cute spot on the corner of a winery to park ready to go sample in the morning. It all starts at 10am! Amazingly the corner has a lot of blue wrens here so it was extra cute! You can not believe how blue they are! All blue! In the morning we went to a number of the local wineries, the most famous being the Leeuwin Estate and the fanciest being the Voyager Estate. This is fairly recent winery and all the buildings are in the Dutch style. The gardens are superb and eight gardeners are employed to keep them looking spectacular. We had an enjoyable time sampling the different wine styles and learnt a lot more about the wine process. We ended up getting some wine from the Leeuwin Voyager and Redgate Estates (sorry, none for you Neil).