We started with Cape Natrualiste Lighthouse and Sugarloaf rocks
There were a LOT of stunning formations within Ngligli Cave
A quick stop off to scramble about Canal Rocks
Next came the wineries. Maryanne was kind enough to let me take a step back when I asked for volunteers to be the driver, so that I could be the one doing the lion's share of the tasting. Our first, Wills Domain, was in a beautiful spot overlooking the adjacent valley. The wine was good, but the experience was marred by an aloof guide who poured such grudging portions that the inside of the glass barely got wet. Perhaps it was because we weren't dressed up all posh, like, but you don't wear a tie to go to a cave and half the people in the area are alternating caves and wines, caves and wines...
Wills Domain, our first Margaret River Winery
Next up was Clairault-Streicker. We immediately liked this place much better. The setting was beautiful, the staff was friendly AND poured me enough that I could taste the wine, not just smell it. For that, we bought two of our favorites to take home and also some food to keep us going.
Clairault-Streicker Winery was a hit
From there, we went to the very highly recommended Vasse-Felix. It was on beautiful grounds, scattered with sculptures. We had yet another amiable server, with whom we sorted out the meaning of life between tasting notes.
We has a LOT of tasting at Vasse-Felix winery
It was getting late in the afternoon by then, nearly closing time for most of the vineyards. I was feeling all warm and content inside and looking forward to dozing off while Maryanne drove us home. Ha! Not yet. Maryanne had gone to some trouble to make a list of the best places to go and she was loathe to miss any of them. The next place, Cullen Wineries, was practically next door, so she decided we would pop in and see if we could get a look inside even if they had stopped serving any new tastings by the time we arrived.
Cullen winery was a bit new-age crazy for us, but the wine was GOOD, and in a cozy setting!
The place was still pretty full, even though the sign at the door said they should have been closed for fifteen minutes already. I went to the bar and asked about getting a tasting. The guy behind gave me a confused look and told me I could buy glasses of wine to taste, or I could just go to the table at the far end of the restaurant and taste whatever I want.
Behind that table was a guy pouring as fast as he could for a multi-lane line of people in front of him. It seemed to be a bit of an open bar situation. I expressed interest in a couple of varieties and the next thing I knew, I was holding a glass in each hand. Well, alrighty then!
Maryanne got me a couple of spares and we retired to the gardens to enjoy them. As we were ambling around, we came to a demonstration garden laid out like a one-way labyrinth. The signboards there explained why they planted which flowers at the end of each row of vines, etc. Then things really went into the weeds, so to speak. Subsequent signboards started talking about auras and chi and feng-shui. They then went on to explain how their planting scheme was being done at the direction of a specific amazing astrologer (because all of the others are just charlatans). She would tell them how to make sure they were burying that ram's horn full of potion at just the right time during the ascension of Saturn. This was, of course, using astrological tables that only roughly correlated with the night sky in the 13th Century. Saturn is nowhere near that now.
I hate to admit it, but all of the wines were pretty good. That was the case for wines in the area generally, so it probably had less to do with the ram's horn than the whole blind-squirrel-nut thing.
Just as we were finishing up, someone came out on stage and thanked everybody for coming to the winery’s 50th anniversary party. Ah hah! That explains everything.
We arrived a bit too early to spot any possoms at Tuart Forest
But we did spot the kangaroo! Our last stop for day one.
We were up early the next day for the drive down to Cape Leeuwin. The last time we were here ten years ago, I thought that would be the only one, since we had no plans to come anywhere near here by boat. Now we were back. How strange it felt to be seeing it again.
Augusta-Flinders Riverfront
Cape Leeuwin calcified waterwheel, and the old Lighthouse
We were last here in 2009 on a much longer road trip around Western Australia!
Next, we were headed to Jewel Cave. We had a bit of extra time, so Maryanne suggested we leave the main highway and take a side scenic road. Once we pulled off, my phone went nuts trying to get us back onto the main road. Once Maryanne entered a 'via' spot on the desired path, it shut up again. What we didn't realize was that Google just had us touching the scenic road and then taking a shorter route to Jewel Cave.
The shorter route ended up being a tiny forest road that wasn't even on any of our other maps. It got narrower and narrower until there was no room to turn around. Then it got even narrower still until we were basically scraping our way under low branches. Every one or two hundred meters, I would have to stop the car so I could clear a log or a fallen branch out of our path. At the far end, the road widened a bit, but became very four-wheel-drivey. I scoped it out on foot and figured out a winding path through that I hoped would not leave our rental car high-centered. Maryanne stood by guiding me through while I inched the tires over rocks and through ruts.
At the next junction, we were directed back onto the scenic road we had been trying to be on the whole time. It was dirt, but wide enough for two. It tunneled under the arcing branches of giant white gum trees. That was pretty scenic after all.
Jewel Cave (with no actual jewels, but naturally priceless)
From there, we got the first tour of Jewel Cave. The name is appropriate; Jewel is enormous and filled with all kinds of fantastic structures lit with carefully placed lighting. Both the guide and the attendant inside were founts of knowledge beyond our ability to absorb it.
More caves were on the itinerary. We stopped next at Giant's Cave. Giant's is one of the caves in the area that is administered by the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Park Service. The others are managed jointly with the Margaret River Shire. As such, the infrastructure was less refined and there were no formal tours. Instead, they offer self-guided tours. These consist of a briefing, a map, a helmet with lamp and a backup flashlight. Inside, the cave has no additional lighting. There are stairs and ladders and roped off areas to keep you on the general path, but no attendants and no time limit.
Self-Guided walk through Giants Cave
With some very steep and narrow sections
Maryanne and I arrived between groups and after a short walk, approached the cave mouth. Before us, a VERY long set of stairs (maybe 300ish) descended into the darkness. Once we got to where we needed our helmet lights, we saw that we had only seen the first half. At the very bottom, the map told us we were 85m below the surface. We were standing in a very big cavern whose walls and ceiling were covered in stalactites and soda straws.
The cave was actually much better than I expected. I had thought most of the good stuff would have been chipped off or vandalized, but so far, people seem to have to been well behaved. Since the cave is so extensive, there are a lot of areas out of reach or otherwise inaccessible. Those contained vast areas of delicate calcium carbonate.
We walked for ages, going up and down, up and down. We never heard or saw anybody else and occasionally would turn off both of our lights to experience the total darkness and silence of the cave.
At length, we came upon a series of ladders squeezing through person-sized apertures and connected by crawl spaces that actually required us to get on all fours to traverse. After a while, we started seeing dead leaves, then we could feel little puffs of the hot wind outside. The exit wasn't nearly as grand as the entrance, just a small hole capped by a grate with a ladder sticking out of it.
On the walk back through the karri forest to return our gear, we realized how far we had gone in the cave. It hadn't seemed so inside because we stopped a lot and there were lots of caverns and rooms to break up the distance. It was a nice walk and would have been a worthwhile break in it's own right.
Next came Lake Cave. Lake is very different because it is the wettest cave in the region and it is accessed by descending into a large sinkhole. Inside, there is in fact a lake of crystal-clear water, which contains the only remaining populations of cave fauna in the larger system. The most prominent structure in the cave is a suspended table, made from a couple of columns that spilled onto the floor below. As the water level receded, the floor below was eroded away, leaving an imprint of the ancient cave floor suspended in air.
We squeezed in a visit to Lake Cave too
We weren't disappointed!
Okay, enough with the caves. Time to go wine tasting.
The day's first wine stop was Leeuwin Estates. It was very pretty and notably had a helicopter parked on the expansive lawn. It wasn't theirs. It belonged to a guest that didn't have time for traffic.
Their wine was also very good and served by a lady who managed to serve ten of us while making us all feel like we were each the center of her attention. We tried some very high-end wines, but on a hot day, the chilled rosés tasted best. Two more for our wine cellar.
Leewin Estate Winery
We then went to Voyager Estate. Voyager looks like a proper estate with expansive gardens, all trimmed to perfection. Maryanne said it made her feel like she was back in a winery she had been to near Cape Town in South Africa many years before: Groot Constantia Estate (established in the 1600's!). As we sidled up for a tasting, she mentioned this to the woman pouring my wine. Sure enough, the owner had been to Groot Constantia and had based Voyager on the design, even going so far as to import some South African materials with the help of the Groot people,
The wine was also very good there and they also did two excellent non-alcoholic grape juices (for the driver!), one white from semillion and one red from shiraz. This was the first place Maryanne had been offered anything other than water. Oh, we are going to run out of money fast at this rate!
The beautiful Voyager Estate, based on the South African Groot Constantia
We weren't finished yet. The wineries were closed, but Maryanne had found a brewpub in Margaret River, so we drove there for dinner. We were very lucky when we got there because the place was packed. The lot was full and there were cars parked along the street for blocks.
As we were looking for parking, we spotted a sign: La Scarpetta Trattoria. We both looked at each other and yelled, “Scarpetta!” in unison. Screw the brewpub. We're eating here!
Okay, what's that all about? Well, when we were living in Agropoli, Italy in the building with our new friends Enzo and Pasquale, Pasquale taught us about scarpetta. Scarpetta means 'little shoes' in Italian. In southern Italy, your bread is used as the scarpetta that walk around your plate soaking up the leftover sauce. We have not seen the word since then. We were instantly excited.
La Scarpetta Trattoria was closed, but the sister restaurant, Pizzica, operated by the same family in the same building, was open. Pizzica is not a food, but a type of dance. However, they do sell pizza.
Stopping at Margaret River for an evening meal - another hit
Oh, what a marvelous place that is. The first thing we noticed was the décor. It was as if we had stepped through a portal into Italy itself. Then came the sounds. ALL of the staff and even a few of the customers were communicating in Italian. We ordered a pizza and a salad and while we waited we learned the story: The Margaret River region had a lot of Italian P.O.W.s that stayed on after the war. Some decided to have a go at wine making. This one particular family, who was from the very tip of the heel of the boot, decided to open a restaurant. They wanted it to have the look and feel of their beloved homeland, so over many years, they imported the oven, most of the décor and even the plates from home. We flipped over ours just then – terracotta. Magnificent!
We were hoping the décor wouldn't be the end of the good part. It most certainly was not. The food was absolutely incredible. The pizza crust had the perfect combination of chewiness and crunchiness. The salad dressing was sublime. The very best thing for me, though, was the crostini – the 'croutons' on the salad were actually millimeter-thin slices of Italian bread brushed with herbs and olive oil and toasted for just a second. They were perfect. No, they were divine. I honestly believe that it would be impossible to make crostini better than that. I pushed them to the side and after finishing the rest of the meal, savored each bite.
Then, THEN, as if there could be a 'then', I topped the whole thing off by ordering a limoncello. Yep, as soon as I saw it buried in the way back of the menu below the grappa and the cinzano, I knew I had to have one. I was not wrong to do so. Theirs was the good stuff, made right there. If I closed my eyes, I could think we were back in Enzo's apartment again, full and happy after he and Pasquale tried to prove to us who was the better cook.
Amazingly, since it was Sunday and all of the businesses back in Busselton were closed, we did not top off our car rental with a marathon provisioning trip to all of the stores in town. Instead, Maryanne returned the car. I got the dinghy ready while she walked back and we had a surprisingly early night.
After a suitable lie-in, we hosted Andrew and Donna of Infinity over for some tea. Andrew had introduced himself in Fremantle just as the riggers showed up. He could see we were busy, so we agreed to catch up later. We finally had time a hundred miles south.
They had both semi-retired and were relatively new at taking up the cruising life. They knew the area well and gave us lots of good advice on where we were heading next. In fact, both boats were going the same way, so we would likely be seeing them again soon. They left us to our preparations and we left them to theirs as we wished them Bon Voyage for now.
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