DAY 116 & 117 – A DAY OFF BEFORE HITTING THE ROAD AGAIN AND THEN HEADING TO AUGUSTA
A break from photos today,
as we are pretty much are just staying put at the Camping grounds. Lots of jobs to do, heaps of washing including all our sheets,
towels, and a whole basket full of clothes.
Steve has also got a little maintenance around the van that he wants to
do, and he also wants to fit in one last fishing trip before we leave.
It also gave me a chance to
catch up on editing some of my photos and the blog which is seriously getting
behind.
In the afternoon, Steve went
into Busselton to try his hand at fishing on the rock wall where we had
afternoon tea on Sunday. Whilst he did
this, the rest of us went and did a
grocery shop, dropped into the Info Centre in Busselton to pick up the Nullabor
map. All in all, it was a nice relaxed
end to our stay in Busselton.
Thursday morning we headed
off early on our way to Augusta. The
weather wasn’t the best today, but we are not complaining as so far this trip
we have had great weather in terms of sunshine, even if it has been pretty
windy at times, it still hasn’t stopped us from doing too much.
It was cold, cloudy and
drizzling with rain as we left. It was
not good weather to be outside exploring so we decided our first stop today
would be the Margaret River Chocolate Factory just before Margaret River. We headed down the Bussel Highway and then headed in along one of the
connecting roads to Cave Road.
It was raining when we
arrived so we had to find umbrellas even to be able to get from the car to the
Factory. It was the perfect place to
send a rainy morning.
The Chocolate
Factory is huge and they have a lovely little café there, which drew us like
magnets. Who doesn’t want a nice hot
cuppa on a cold wet day? Ian and Kathy
enjoyed a cappuccino, whilst Steve and I had a salted caramel hot chocolate. It was divine having been made of real
chocolate from the factory. We also
enjoyed a heated savoury muffin and caramel slice, which we shared.
We had a wander around the
factory and sampled some of the different chocolate. They have huge sample bowls filled with
chocolate buttons that you can spoon out on your hand. There was also a viewing window into the
actually factory where you could watch the workers working with the chocolate. We stood and watched a couple of workers
making chocolate santas with moulds for Christmas. Another one of the workers was cutting up
huge slabs of white chocolate ready for it to be bagged and put in the shop for
sale.
From here we headed across
to Caves Road and continued along the scenic route to Augusta. We had wanted to do the Boranup Scenic Drive
through the Kari forest but by the time we got to the turnoff, we discovered
that it was a dirt road and as it had been raining all morning, we really
didn’t want to drive the vans through there so continued on to Hamlin Bay.
This area was stunning….
Just a pity it was so windy and overcast and showery. We would have loved to have seen this area in
perfect weather conditions.
Hamelin Bay is
one of the best places in Australia to spot wild sting rays up close. The
gentle and friendly, yet completely
wild sting ray population that live in the bay are unafraid of people
wading in the water and swimming with them.
Unfortunately the
conditions for spotting these creatures was totally against us the day we were
there, as one the clarity of the water was not good, and no one was going out
fishing in this weather, so there would be no fisher men coming in with a catch. Still it is a beautiful area and one we would
love to come back and visit again especially in better weather conditions.
From Hamlin Bay
it was onto Augusta. We had booked into
the Westbay Retreat Caravan Park on the banks Bloodwood River. It was an older park with a very rustic
amenities block which would be great in warm weather, but it was so open and
with the wind howling, it wasn’t too pleasant in the cold.
We set up our
vans and then headed out for a drive. We
thought we might go and explore the Boranup Forest now without the van, and I
had read somewhere that the best time to see it was in the late afternoon when
the sun was streaming down through the trees.
Tall pale-barked karri
trees, reaching heights of 50 m or more, dominate the hilly slopes and valleys
of the lush, green and majestic Boranup Karri Forest and creates a powerful
contrast with the rest of the coastline.
We also drove up to the Boranup Lookout, which gives sweeping
views over the forest and the coast west to Hamelin Bay. I can only imagine how beautiful that would
be on a clear sunny day, as although we could see Hamelin Bay, due to the
clouds the water did not really stand out enough to take photos.
It was back into town then for a look around. Augusta is such a pretty place, not terribly
large but nestled in and around water, whether it be the river or the
ocean. We actually took a drive out to
the Lighthouse, although we didn’t hop out of the car due to the cold winds
that were howling around the lighthouse precinct.
Just around from
the lighthouse is an antiquated Augusta
Water Wheel to see how water was pumped to the nearby Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse
and the lighthouse keeper’s cottage back in the 1890s.
Cape Leeuwin Waterwheel
comprises a timber waterwheel, supported on a limestone base together with a
timber flume that carries water from a nearby spring. The waterwheel was used
up until 1925 to supply water to the lighthouse after which time the wheel was
bypassed by a pipe leading to the hydraulic dam directly. Having turned to stone over the years it is
now one of Augusta’s favourite attractions
It was then home for dinner. Too cold to be outdoors, and so cold that we
even drove down to the showers tonight.
Much too cold to walk back to our vans in the howling cold winds after a
nice warm shower..
Here’s hoping for
better weather tomorrow…
0 comments:
Post a Comment