Margaret River Region 9-12 Oct 15

Margaret River 

Visit in Cowaramup, silk worms and their cocoons

Over the next 3 days we drove around, tasted some preserves & chutneys (okay but not outstanding), fudge (very delicious), nuts & muesli (not so good), cheese and yoghurt (not bad but only low fat version of yoghurt available), and of course some wines (interesting insight into winery business). What we liked a lot was a visited to the first commercial silk farm in Australia (www.margaretriversilkroad.com). The silk worms eat mulberry leaves until they are fully grown. Then they start spinning a cocoon from a single silk thread, in which they transform into a moth within 20 days. The moths only live for a few days during which they mate and the females produce new eggs. Roughly 1000 cocoons are needed for a scarf of 100g silk.

Sarah and the maze

We found a little green maze (Boranup Forest Maze), classed as ‘passive ecotourism’ which basically means there’s just an honesty box for you to pay and this particular one didn’t seem to be maintained too well. But the three of us had a lot of fun running through the rows, trying to find the right way or do a quick 180 degree turn at the ‘dead ends’. Sarah loved it and wanted to do it again and again!

Helmets and torches had to be worn before descending into the dark

Calgardup Cave was a great experience as well. It’s a self-guided tour where you just get a helmet and a torch and off you go. The path leads deep down into a dark cave with beautiful little stalactites and stalagmites and one section is so low that we nearly had to crawl. Turning off the torches was a bit uncomfortable for Sarah, it was really pitch-dark!

the Busselton jetty train, information centre at the beginning of the jetty

The Jetty in Busselton is said to be the longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere. (Another one! I thought we’ve already come across two longest what-so-ever jetties on our journey.) Still, it’s a beautiful foreshore (a bit too constructed and smooth, though), there was a market (where we got a coffee), a playground and a lot of people out and about to enjoy a warm, sunny Sunday morning.

Voyager Estate, winery, restaurant and beautiful gardens

When Sarah fell asleep in the car we stopped at the Voyager Estate to have a look at their gardens. It's a beautiful english style garden with a rose garden and a veggie garden surrounded by white walls and short cut grass.

The lighthouse, the keepers houses, lookout, an old water wheel 

The lighthouse at Cape Naturaliste is one of the last fully operational lighthouses (together with Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse) you can visit. It was built in 1903 and the three lighthouse keepers had to sign up for the job for a lifetime (and actually lived on site until late 1996). They worked 4-hour shifts with 8-hour breaks, day and night, 356 days per year. The lighthouse is one of the shortest ones with only 59 steps but you do have a great view form up there!

Just a little stop at Hamelin Bay where Regine buried Sarah in sand

Castle Rock Beach, walk and climb

Along the drive we stumbled over a sign to Castle Rock. We decided to go for the little walk which led us through bushes with occasional views onto the beach. The flat, straight walk was not for Sarah but we could convince her to walk all the way to the rock where she happily started climbing. Only the way back was challenging again :-)