10 March 2012

Up early, washing done, housework done, then off touring.
We drove down to Margaret River, parked up and wandered around the town a bit and took a look at the Visitor Information Centre which has displays of most of the wineries in the famous Margaret River Wine District. They sell a poster that shows all the labels from the area and I could not count them all! I did say to Himself that it would be most dangerous trying to do a drive around all the cellar doors, one would end up exceedingly drunk well before completing the task. Of course you can take wine and food tours at great expense where someone else does all the driving, but they also do the choosing of which wineries to visit and their choice may not equal yours..... Other great things are available like cheeses and beads and they also have a leg of the International Surf Calendar called the Margaret River Billabong Pro Surfing Classic. Quite a town is Margaret River.
After lunch we went on down to Augusta and Himself took the tour of the lighthouse. Augusta is the most south western point of WA and officially the windiest too according to the guides. It is where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. The lighthouse has 175 steps to the top but apparently it is well worth the muscle ache for the view from the top.

At the entry gate and throughout the complex there are signs up warning that snakes have been seen. Yep we got the full experience! They have walkways to the left and right of the lighthouse thus allowing you to get closer to the ocean and after we had been on the platform on the left we spotted this bloke half in and half out from under our walkway off the platform. As luck would have it he was more frightened of us then we were of him because we tried to get a better shot of him and he turned back on himself and disappeared into the bushes near where his tail is in this shot. As is the way with snakes he was very very quick when he moved. Himself is guessing around 4-5ft.

We looked all over the complex and then drove back to Augusta passing this water wheel just below the lighthouse compound. It was used to supply water to the original lighthouse settlement in the 1830's but is now calcified by calcium carbonate and is now rock.

From Augusta we came back towards Margaret River along Caves Rd and went on the guided tour of Jewel Cave. You go down 260 steps to the cave floor and of course you have to come back up the same 260 steps to get out again. Steps are not one of the best things for me but it was well worth the effort. The cave(s) is stunning. The size and scale of it is breathtaking and the colours and formations are incredible. Himself used up two camera batteries trying to do it all justice. Everywhere you looked was another photo opportunity and most of the group were silent as they very quickly ran out of words to try to describe how they were feeling.

We got back to base very late and I am exhausted but it was really something special. Tomorrow we are going back out as there are two other caves on the tourist circuit that we want to see and then on the way home we are going to try to stop off at the Margaret River Cheese Factory...yum yum!