G'day All,

We are off to the wine growing region of Margaret river today but we are only going to see one winery as the rest is taken up with other things this is another long day probably about 950-1000kilometres again, I seem to have this thing for picking long trips on a holiday so it is more of a trip rather than a holiday but we will survive, we were picked up again at 7am and we went to the meeting point when we got there we discovered we had Mike as our driver again so at least we knew we were in good hands .

As mike explained we had a lot of territory to cover so he asked that every one be punctual in our stops and that he would take us to the places and back in time as we would not be getting back to Perth till at least 9,30 -10 pm that night, he asked us to tell every one where they were from and we had some Chinese, Germans, and Aussies on board so a good mix. He then explained we would be not stopping at the usual stop but a much prettier spot as well as having a better selection of cafes, as we motored down the freeway he pointed out the spot and all it was was a service station with a cafe so not much good.

The Morning tea stop turned out to be Busselton which has one of Australia's longest piers, now this is one place i think i could live the ocean was turquoise and the breeze was great the day was cloudless what more could you want, I went for a walk and saw the train that takes tourists out to the end of the jetty and back, and then had a look at some skin divers learning how to dive, Nancy caught up with me and we went to get a drink but when in the cafe we spotted the ice creams we could not resist she ordered her Rum and Raisins and i nearly died when i saw Liquorice ice cream so i had a large one of those, we then had to run to get the bus and once on board we had to wait for a couple of the Chinese and then away we went.

The next port of call was a Lavender farm where they grew Lavender plants of all varieties and made all sorts of things like wine jams(jelly) soaps heat packs, Nancy tried the wine and shuddered as she said it was sour not to her liking, so after a brief stop we were back on the road again this time heading into Margaret River township for a bit of a sticky beak, lovely little town not much of it but still nice to look at the Curio's and stores, we were back on the bus and heading to a winery called the Red Gate winery, We stopped here for a bit sampling some of the wines well Nancy did i am not a wine drinker so she had my share .

After a few wines and a look around the Germans had bought 3 bottles we headed to our lunch destination a place called Lake Cave and it had a cafe there that we were able to put up the buffet and every one helped themselves Mike said that we were not allowed to drink any of the wine we had bought but this seemed to be a different rule to the Germans as they cracked (opened) a bottle and then had the hide to ask the cafe owner for three wine glasses he said sorry you can drink it here it is against the law so he asked for 3 glasses and a bottle of water took them outside and then proceeded to drink it any way.

After lunch we headed off to another Cave system called Mammoth Caves where we could have a quick tour of these caves with a tour guide, they were great the lime stone cavern was full of stalactites and stalagmites well how ever you spell them :) the up and down things :).

Back on the Bus again we headed to Augusta and then up to the final view point of the day Cape Leeuwin where the light house is and the convergence of the two oceans, it was blowing a gale when we arrived and had enough time to go up to the lighthouse and have a look around take some photo;s then back to the bus and head off to our dinner date . We arrived at the resort and we lined up to pay for the meals we had pre ordered and then had drinks as we waited for our meals there were four of us on the table and we were waiting when out came the fish and chips Nancy had ordered her soup so we expected the soup first but no out came the mains then the soup my garlic bread eventually arrived sheesh talk about a shamozzle they had no idea when asked where the soup entrée was they said its coming, eventually the meals were all served and we were on our way back to Perth thankfully we will be the first off the bus as by now the Germans were in full voice having consumed their 3 bottles of plonk (wine) and then more at dinner.

We arrived back at the hotel about 9.30 went straight to the room and settled in for a night of sleep and tomorrow we are doing nothing so yeahhhh a sleep in, so on that note i shall leave you in peace and tell you all about tomorrow tomorrow.

Hoo Roo

Stewart and Nancy


Hello All,

It is me the Raconteur reporter Cedric, I am one bushed squirrel believe me this bloke has got Nancy and i running our little legs off, we have not stopped running since we arrived in this city so I put my foot down and said no more cease stop you are wearing my pads out if i get any shorter i will be a midget so tomorrow we relax smell the roses and sniff the air, he looked at me like i was crazy and then said ok tomorrow we go to Kings park and have a look around, I nearly fainted Nancy looked at him and put her hand on his forehead and said no you are not running a fever but i will hold you to that .

But today we are off to a place called Margaret River and some caves and winery so all should be a good trip till i find out that is is going to be another long day and more kilometres under our belt, the day started out well we were in the front of the bus when more people got on and suddenly there was this high pitched squeal from behind I can tell u i nearly spat my coffee out all over Stewart's backpack, i looked over the back and there to my horror was two little Chinese girls with a damn ipod and were playing a game and having fun well I poked stew in the ribs and suggested we vacate before our ear drums get shattered and Nancy was already up and out of her seat moving so he had no choice but to follow.

We stopped at a ubeaut ( good) place called Busselton and the day was magic i was looking at the Jetty there and thinking wow it would take me weeks to walk out to the end when i spotted a train, I was admiring the view of the ocean as well it looked so calm and flat and blue when this bloke came up and asked what i was doing and I said I am waiting for the train to take me out to the front of the Jetty he then asked for my ticket and i looked at him like i was dumb and said what ticket he said the one you need to ride the train this has been booked out for over 3 months now so unless you have a ticket then you can't ride it . so i sulked and went an hid back in Stewart's back pack and watched the ride from the hole i had cut in his bag.

We were soon on the road again and this time we found a lavender farm where Nancy tried some Lavender wine well it is just as well they had one of those spittoon things as no sooner then it hit her lips she spat it out saying oh to sour for me, there was some nice stuff but alas I was told no shopping this trip only light stuff, after some photo's we were back on the bus and headed into Margaret river to have a sticky beak (look around). This little town was nice nothing spectacular but according to one shop owner it was in for a fight with a coal mining company as they wanted to mine for coal right near the towns water source, a lot of Western Australia uses underground water as their main source of water as the rivers are usually dry and as a result a lot of towns don't have storm water drains as such as this allows the rain water to seep back into the underground water table .

Our next stop was a winery that had a dubious past as a bootlegger winery in the old days if u wanted some wine u would go to the Red Gate and they would slip you some wine, this is how the winery got its name the Gate is still red but now it makes their money legally. Nancy had some and said it was not bad but nothing that she wanted to buy I think the only people that bought the wine was the Germans i saw them slipping back on the bus with a wine case with 3 bottles in it.

We left the winery behind us and we headed to our lunch date an a place called Lake Cave cafe, where Mike explained that he would like a hand carrying the lunch stuff into the cafe and he would set up the smorgasbord and we could help ourselves but bear in mind that there are others and if you want seconds you can come back for them, and also if you bought wine at the winery, sorry but you can't drink it as this is not a licensed cafe for either sale or BYO (bring Your Own) . Now talk about a lunch spread wow there was chicken ham salami tabbouleh pasta salad all sorts of goodies, so we were all lined up taking our turns when i barged the Teutonic giant push aside the poor Chinese and just started to help himself and then went back out side and i then spotted the bottle being pulled out of his wine caddy and he came in asked for 3 wine glasses was told sorry but we don't serve wine so he asked for three glasses and a bottle of water then went out and proceeded to to drink the wine even though it was not allowed, typical arrogant Male, so after lunch it was back on the bus and i noticed he had accidentally forgotten to return the Glass to the cafe and he got on with it in his hand and went and sat down soon we were off to another Cave system called Mammoth Caves and we had a quick tour inside the cave, some of the tites and mites were awesome to look at we went back the same way we came in and back on the bus and off to the next sight to see.

We drove towards the coast and came to the ocean and headed towards a lighthouse and this was the place where the Indian and the great Southern Oceans met if u looked north u were looking at Darwin if you looked south you were looking at the Antarctic and it felt like it as well the wind was pretty strong a couple of gusts nearly blew some people off their feet, it was time to hope back on the bus this was easy as the wind was virtually blowing us straight back down the hill so we nearly had to run back to the bus .

On the road again on the road again hey that sounds like a good title for a song what do u all reckon, we are now heading back north towards our dinner date with a really good looking resort Mike showed us it on the way down so soon it will be dinner time, the scenery was stunning on the way back and as evening approached we pulled up at the resort and filed into the resorts restaurant where they all paid for the meals they had ordered and also any drinks they wanted, we were told to only sit a table set up with water bottles an I spotted one and said go there go there so as we went to sit down another couple asked if they could join us and so we sat down at a table on our own the Germans decided that they did not want to sit with the rest of us so sat in another area alone till Mike went up and said sorry u have to sit at the tables over there there are 3 seats left on that table, aw i felt sorry for them they looked so upset at having to be part of the tour I found out earlier that they apparently thought this was going to be a wine tour and they could get themselves blind drunk and felt ripped off that we only had one winery stop . Dinner was a complete joke they came out with some entrees and some mains then back out with more mains Nancy main arrived we asked where was the entrée and they said they were trying to serve every one, remind me to not eat here was like a scene out of Faulty Towers with poor Manuel running around with Polly struggling to keep order, after the debacle we all went out side and a last Toilet break before heading home back onto the bus and away we went off into the sunset well it was on our left but hey it was a stunner soon the night moved in and the Germans who had been drinking all afternoon were getting giggliy laughing at their own shadows i think, eventually we arrived back at the Hotel and up to the room and into bed but not before i reminded Stew that we had a date with a tree tomorrow, so sleep well all and we will see you all in the morning.

Cheers Cedric