Day thirty-nine:  Margaret River wine tour.

 

Today started at about 7am.  We packed up our stuff at the apartment and drove down to the caravan park to get an unpowered site and when I say site, I mean a car park.

 

We then went down to the visitors centre and waited for the wine tour bus to pick us up.  While we were waiting we met and had a great chat to Kazza and Owen who were from Swan Hill and were also going on the wine tour.  (They were a great find and were lots of fun all day)

 

We met our tour guide Sylvano who reminded me of Jimmy the runner from Coober Pedy and talked as much.  He took us through the list of the wineries/breweries/factories that we were going to visit for the day and we took off for Bettany winery.

 

The most out-standing thing about the Bettany winery was the over charismatic wine maker who hit on Louisa hard.  My lord, I nearly had to step in towards the end.  I’ve never seen someone single out another person out of about 30 people and apply sleazy pick-up lines in front of a crowd.  Priceless.  Louisa was blushing slightly.

 

 

After that we went to the Margaret River chocolate factory followed by the dairy.  Yum.  I had to stop myself from pocketing all the free chocolate they had on offer.

 

Then we went to Knotting Hill for more wine tasting and lunch.  The wineries we visited were so beautiful.  Most of them had lakes and amazingly green rolling hills.

 

Sylvano prepared a gourmet lunch for us and told us that at the end of lunch two of us would get to try something a little extra.  Knowing that I have a fear of missing out on anything I was immediately intrigued and wanted in.  After lunch Sylvano left for the kitchen to bring out the mystery meal and parade it around the table.  It was a witchetty grub. 

Apparently a gourmet one.

One that comes in a box of 100 and the box costs $500.  He told us that the first two people to raise their hands would be able to share it and so as quickly as I could, I did so and the next thing you know I had some grub in my mouth.  Yum! 

Louisa caught it all on video.

 

After lunch we went to a liquer house type thing to have shots and then followed up on our final stop to a brewery.  Needless to say by this stage most of us were all slightly sloshed and on great terms with one another.  When the bus took off to drop us all home we all just organized to meet for dinner an hour later!

 

Dinner was great fun and I ended up giving Kazza and Owen the address to the pub so they could come and visit when they were next in Melbourne.  After dinner we went to the pub across the road and Louisa and I managed to have a stupid fight in the short time we were there.  We decided to leave and were asleep by about 9pm.

 

Day forty:  Margaret River back to Perth.  Start time: 9:30am  Arrival time: 6pm  Odometer: Forgot again

 

We left our car park shortly after 9am and took off for a few wineries that we’d missed the day before.

 

Our first stop was Howard Park/Mad Fish = 2bottles bought.

Second stop Vasse Felix = Another 2 bottles.

Third stop Natural Olive Oil shop = 2 bars of soap, Macadamia pesto (because we need to eat more) and some passionfruit olive oil.

Fourth stop Capel Vale = lunch and 2 more bottles of wine.

 

= good times.

 

We left for Perth about 3:15pm listening to lots of 80’s tunes, booked into the backpackers in Northbridge, went and had some Vietnamese and retired to our rooms rather quickly for a snooze.

 

Day forty-one to forty-three: Our last few days in Perth.  The end.  Final Odometer reading: 93215 Total km’s: Shitloads

 

Well the time has come when all things must come to an end.  This will be the last blog entry.

 

We left our backpacker cell about 9am and headed out for a coffee before going to meet Louisa’s friend Renee where we would be staying for our last few days.

 

Renee and Terry live in Victoria Park in Perth and have a great home and an even better dog, Maggie.  She’s a Siberian Husky one year old and beautiful.

 

Over the weekend we did a lot of cooking, a bit of relaxing, a little bit of site seeing, some more catching up with other friends and our final clean of the kombi to get it ready for Colin and finally pack our bags.

 

It’s been such a fun trip and I can’t recommend it enough for everyone.  Not once did I feel unsafe out in the middle of nowhere, in fact I would say quite the opposite.  Everyone is friendly, giving, caring and more than willing to help or give advice if you require it. 

 

So here I am at the airport trying to work out how to end this bloody blog.  Do I just write until I stop?  Do I type a small acceptance speech about how nice it’s been to have you read my story – even if there may not be anyone reading it?  It’s all a bit confusing but here we go…

 

Thanks to Veenus and Louisa for making me write this blog.  I know people are reading it but it’s good for me too because I’ve never thought to write anything before and I have a terrible memory.  It’s been very interesting for me to read over it a couple of times and I’ve laughed like I’d only just learnt about it.

 

Thanks to my brain and hands who coordinated this massive effort, I never thought it could be done or that I’d have so many words in my head.

 

Thanks to Louisa who put up with me on the trip in such a small home.  It really takes a lot of patience and tolerance to live like that and she had neither.  Just kidding – we had a lot of fun and I thank her for being such a great travelling companion and putting up with me.

 

Thanks to my sister who waited patiently to be mentioned in the blog and it never happened.  Of course I love you Kate – “I’m your sister”

 

And thanks to everyone who showed an interest in the trip and sent me messages about the blog.  It really has been fun keeping a record and I can’t wait to see you all in Melbourne and not have to tell you anything cause you’ll already know.

 

So until next trip,

Goodnight Austraia..xoxo