You know what they say about the best laid plans! We left Mandurah planning on seeing some of the inland south WA but we had a change of plans. We headed to Harvey where we stopped at Stirling Cottage which has been set up as a replica of May Gibbs cottage. This was a great spot to stop for morning tea. Although when we started the car as we went to leave, it began to run rough. We had a check around town and realized that there was not much hope of getting it looked into where we were so we had to head towards the closest largest town which was Bunbury.

We arrived and found the RAC and asked for their mechanical breakdown repairer and headed there. As it was late on Friday afternoon there was not much they could do, so we headed to the caravan park to set up and left the car with them for the weekend. We then had the issue of no car for the weekend so we put a call into RACQ to check into a hire car. Well as we have Ultimate cover, within ½ hour I was heading downtown to pick up a hire car! It was good because it meant that we could still do some sightseeing.

We did a day trip taking in Gnomesville, an area near a roundabout that people have come to leave gnomes – there were so many, the kids loved it. We then continued on hoping to do a replica underground coal mine tour but they weren’t doing them that day so we booked in for Monday. We then went to the Brunswick Junction show which is the largest regional show outside of Perth, we spent the afternoon and then watched most of the Rodeo they put on. We spent some time driving around Bunbury checking out the checkered light house and also the Rotary lookout tower. On Monday we were heading out to the underground mine tour when we were told the car was ready so we picked it up and took it for a run. We were the only ones on the tour giving us a history of the coal mining in the town of Collie.

Back in town we were pleased to be heading off and on Tuesday we drove to Margaret River stopping at Busselton to have a look at the jetty. It was still under repair so we were not able to walk it but we were still able to see where the old jetty was and see a display on the history of the jetty.

Once in Margaret River , we stayed at Taunton Farm and sat and wrote a list of the things to do and then made a plan. We started at the top with Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse and the Ngilgi Cave. The lighthouse is only just over 100m tall so was easy to climb and the cave was a self-guided walk, where they took us down and then we were left to walk through the cave ourselves. It was quite humid but spectacular, though keeping up with the kids was not easy. They had a fantastic time.

After the cave we headed to the Bush Shack Brewery where some sampling and purchasing was done before having lunch and moving onto our first visit to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory. My sister-in-law had advised me that we had to try their hot chocolates (which the kids did) and they were fantastic. They put their choc buttons in the bottom of the glass and pour over hot milk, the decision to be made is do you eat the melted chocolate or mix it in! The advice we were given was to get some samples and do both! Fantastic! I also found out they make their mochas the same way and they are divine! A normal mocha will never do anymore.

We also found a providore, venison farm, cheese factory, coffee, fudge, lollies and a great bakery. We finished our stay going to Cape Leeuwin lighthouse. This lighthouse is about 140m high and you can see where the Southern Ocean and Indian Ocean meet. By the time we left Margaret River we had crossed most of the things off our list except the wineries! The kids loved where we stayed as there were animals there that they got to feed every night and play with throughout the day.

Join us next time as we head from Margaret River to Esperance!

Till Next Time

The Ross’