It was another early start for the group of four. After last night's big dinner I settled for orange juice, toast and marmalade with a cup of tea for breakfast before we rushed off to catch our 7.30am bus. It was 15 minutes late. Today was going to be a big day with about 350km of coach travel and several sightseeing activities.
We managed to get four seats together. I sat with a younger lady called Christine. She told me that she lived in NSW with her son, daughter in law and two grand kids. It was her house but she had decided to take the train trip to escape the family. However her daughter was flying to Perth to join her on an extended holiday. She is a great lively lady and a good person to share a couple of days with. The others are a couple from Adelaide. He is another Brian and she is Elaine. They each maintain their own homes but spent a lot of time, and always travel, together. There is obviously a deep connection between them. Brian is probably a bit older than me and is the joker of the group.
Or first stop was Busselton about two and a half hours south west of Perth. Here we had a comfort stop and an ice cream. Busselton's main attraction is a two kilometre long jetty so we took the obligatory photos.
Then it was of into the Margaret River area of WA. This is now a major wine producing area of WA but our first stop was at a micro brewery for lunch. This was a selection of local products including breads, cold meats including a venison sausage, spreads and dips and a plate of potato chips and tomato sauce. During the meal we were given samples of the cider and beers produced by the brewery. The brewery was beautifully laid out and there were black swans and cygnets nesting there.
Next it was a winery visit. We sampled three red and three whites. They were quite nice did not warrant the excessive price the were asking but I am a cheap drunk! More later.
Next it was onto my highlight of the day, The Mammouth Cave. This is the second largest of six caves, they found a bigger one later. I don't normally do caves as I can't really climb to well. This cave has a walk in entrance and had steep but manageable steps in the cave itself. I was advised that I could turn back if it got too had but I made it all the way. This is a dry cave with a cathedral like main chamber. I really enjoyed the tour.
Our final stop of the day was the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse which is the most westerly place in Australia. It is also where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet and the nearest land south is Antarctica. We all walked out to the headland and took photos.
Then it was on to our hotels. The other three were booked into an hotel in Margaret River while I and two Japanese girls were booked into an hotel a couple of kilometres out of town. We were a bit concerned as our original documents indicated that we had to provide our own dinners. One of the Japanese girls asked where we could get a meal and was told that a full dinner was included as was a full breakfast. This was a pleasant surprise.
I spent the time before dinner updating the previous day's blog.
Dinner was a nice piece of grilled barramundi and veggies followed by ice cream, I had a greater selection if I had wanted.
During dinner I had three glasses of Chardonnay at $10 a glass. Now normally I drink cask wine at $15 a five litre cask so I had just blown a two week wine budget. I said I am normally a cheap drunk.
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