I had to clear leave at the end of the year, and decided to plan for a road trip in Western Australia between 20th Dec to 30th Dec. It was excellent. Sunny weather, excellent wine, food and coffee, endless trees, serenity, beautiful sunsets, crystal clear sea, golden beaches, what more can we ask?
20th Dec
Took the red eye flight from Singapore to Perth. Upon clearing customs, the first thing we did was to purchase a prepaid data SIM card. Then it was coffee, some snacks, and proceed to collect our rental car from Hertz.
I had indicated that I wanted to rent a Toyota Yaris, a hatchback, instead Hertz decided to provide some early Christmas cheer by giving me a Volkswagen Golf. In the days that followed, I fell in love with this car. Superb handling, control. excellent pickup, fuel efficiency, the car just feels right. What a car!
We drove south, stopping at Bunbury for a while. The flies were early this year, and it was really irritating, something that bothered us throughout the whole trip.
We then continued south to Busselton, for some sightseeing and lunch. Busselton has one of the longest jetty in the world, and this time I was determined to take the train along the jetty, and visit the underwater viewing at the end of the jetty, something that I could not do during my last 2 visits. The flies were especially bad here.
We finally reached Margaret River in the late afternoon where we will be staying for the next 3 nights.
21st Dec
The next day we had breakfast at the Margaret River Bakery, just opposite our accommodation. The breakfast and coffee were excellent, just as the reviews online for it said. We then proceed to do some caves exploring, going to the Lake Cave, Mammoth Cave and Jewel Cave. Our favourite was definitely the Jewel Cave. We bought the ticket to all the 3 caves, at AUD$55 each, with guided tours provided for both Lake Cave and Jewel Cave.
Then it was off to have a look at the Augusta Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse. It was really windy, and as it was almost closing time, we did not pay for the lighthouse tour.
22nd Dec
We spent the next day exploring the beaches and chilling out. We had a breakfast at the White Elephant Café at the Gnarabup Beach, but due to the huge number of flies, it was not that pleasant. The views, though, were excellent.
We had our lunch at the Xanadu winery, where the food and wine were excellent. We bought a few bottles of wine from them for the subsequent days.
We went back to our place for a nap before heading out to Surfer’s Point for the sunset. There were quite a few people there, all waiting for the golden hour. It was windy and cold, but the sunset display was worth it.
