Margaret River, AUSTRALIA

November 25 – 27, 2008

We decided to tour the southern part of West Australia. Margaret River was top on the list due to many recommendations.

Busselton Jetty

After checking out from Goodearth Hotel and some errands, we drove south. The portable GPS came in handy in finding the places of interest along the way. First stop was Busselton, a small town near the sea. It is famous for its jetty, claimed to be the longest in the southern hemisphere. It used to be 1,800m long but was reduced to 1,700m by a storm in 2004. The wind was strong making the walk uncomfortably cold. We forgot to wear jackets.

This is Southern Hemisphere's longest jetty

With my favourite son & daughter

After some souvenir shopping at the jetty and coffee at a restaurant on the beach, we headed south to Margaret River, about 47km from Busselton. It was wine country all the way with vineyards and wineries along the road. The area is a major wine producer for Western Australia.
We checked into Comfort Inn, Grange on Farelly, a beautiful motel with garden setting. We had dinner at the motel and spent the night reading tourist brochures, looking for places of interest to visit the next day.

Comfort Inn, Nina & Anas

The next day, we headed north on Highway 10 towards Yallingup. Before Yallingup, we turned onto Wildwood Road to Canal Rocks. It was a rocky outcrop on the beach that makes a beautiful backdrop for photographs.

Canal Rocks

Canal Rocks

On the way back to Margaret River, we saw a beautiful place that we could not resist. We stopped at a restaurant cum rest area called Laurence of Margaret River. It is a family owned and farmed vineyard located in the Wilyabrup sub-region. There was a rose garden that attracted the ladies’ attention.

Wine Country

Laurence of Margaret River

Rose Garden

Wine Glass Chandelier

Shopping for Wine?

Further down the road we stopped at, Margaret River Chocolate Company. After tasting some free samples of chocolates and buying some, we got back onto Highway 10. We stopped at a cheese cottage to sample and buy some cheese. We were actually looking forward to seeing how cheese was made but there was no such thing.

Chocolate Factory

We drove to Surfers Point hoping to grab some bite there. There wwere no surfers and no lunch. We made our way back to town and had some kebabs at a Turkish Restaurant, the only halal place we could find.

It was a bit late. We drove to Witchcliffe to visit a winery. Unfortunately I could not find it and it was near closing time. So we went back to our motel to spend the last night in Margaret River.