What a difference a day makes. After a mostly miserable day yesterday, on account of the weather rather than the company we kept, we awoke this morning to find the sun shining again. It was streaming down from between thick swathes of dark clouds, but regardless the sun was visible. It was enough to brighten our moods as well as the day, even if we did endure the occasional shower. At least it wasn’t consistent like it was yesterday.

Not only were our moods enhanced, but it meant that we were able to get out and do a bit of sightseeing. And what a day it was. With the Margaret River wine region literally just around the corner, we were looking forward to a day of delving into the gourmet delights on offer around the area, not to mention tasting some of the well renown wines available straight from the cellar doors. Rain, hail or shine, it promised to be a fantastic day out.

Excited, our first stop.

Our first stop, following a drive through the little town of Dunsborough was at Gabriel Chocolate. What an extravagance this proved to be, with a large selection of chocolate available, all made fresh on site from only the best quality imported cocoa beans. The sweet milk chocolate was mouth wateringly creamy, while the darker blends added a perfectly measured bitter bite to the palate. Four small blocks (85 grams each) made their way into our carry bag, before we hit the little on-site café. As I slugged down a coffee, Bec indulged in a heavenly hot chocolate. Containing nothing more than a healthy dose of melted chocolate and steamed milk, it was like drinking a cup of pure, melted chocolate. We asked later, and found that there is 40grams of chocolate in each warming cup. That’s almost half a block of chocolate!

How’s about a cup of melted chocolate then?

The chocolate factory shares its grounds with House of Cards Wines, so we ambled over to check out what was on offer at their cellar door next. The standout here was a deliciously sweet fortified wine, which would be a perfect match to our recently acquired chocolate morsels. Our carry bag was starting to sag under the weight already.

A family run affair, specialising in all natural olive oil based soaps was next. As well as their large range of soaps and skin care products, the back room was chock a block full of olive oils, vinaigrettes and tapenades. I tried each and every last one, if for no other reason than to try and quell my hunger pains by filling up on the tiny little crumbs of bread that were laid out for dipping into the oils. Maybe I should have made time for breakfast afterall, as I left still feeling hungry. Bec managed to find a bar of soap that excited her sensibilities however, so another purchase was stuffed into our bag.

Moving on, we stopped briefly at a couple of breweries, another couple of wineries and a nougat producer. Tasting was undertaken at most, but nothing stood out from the crowd and we left each one empty handed.

A silkworm farm was next on the itinerary, where we arrived at just the right time to join into a tour that explained the farming process. It takes about 60 days to go from the newly laid egg, through the life stages, before the silken cocoons are ready to be harvested and spun into silk. This final process is carried out in Cambodia, where thousands of individual cocoons are required to make each kilogram of silk. To get the best quality silk, the caterpillars are feed a diet of mulberry leaves, which provides the farm with the interesting byproduct of mulberries. These are used to make relishes, teas and delicious jams, which we sampled spread across a couple of scones and plied with cream for an afternoon snack.

The Margaret River Dairy was our next port of call, where we tested some of the cheeses that they produce, before settling on a port wine infused cheddar to add to our growing collection of gourmet produce. We eventually managed to leave 15 minutes later after we stood talking to one of the workers about ‘The Beast’ and our travels.

The cows of…

…Cowaramup.

The odd township of Cowaramup followed, where the streets are adorned with dozens of full sized cow statues. Lifelike in appearance, you could be forgiven for thinking that the entire town had been taken over by cows. It was worthy of a quick photo stop as we continued on down the road to the Margaret River township.

Even though the entire area between Busselton in the north and Augusta in the south is generally known as ‘Margaret River’, the township is actually a small country town located about midway between the two. Hosting an array of shops along its main street, we stopped only for long enough to allow me to buy another stubby holder to add to my ever growing collection of neoprene can coolers, before we moved on again. There is so much to do in the area, and with only today to experience all it has to offer, we had to keep rushing along.

Travelling just a little way south of Margaret River, we came to Watershed Wines, where we spent more time talking about ‘The Beast’ than the wines, before we turned to head north again.

Woolen wares were on offer at our next stop at the Margaret River Wool Company, although the $600.00 asking price for a small woolen throw was a little steep for our liking. In the adjoining building was Yahava Koffee Works, a coffee roasting business, the smells of which I found to be enticing, while Bec found them to be obnoxious. I couldn’t help but order up another latte, which I found to be singularly exquisite, easily one of the best coffees that I have ever had.

With our time running out, we mad a mad cross country dash to Pukara Estate, which is home to some of the tastiest olive oils and vinaigrettes we have ever tasted. We first tasted them way back in the Hunter Valley towards the start of our journey. Now, here we are nearing the conclusion of our travels and coming across it again. We stocked up with a couple of bottles each of garlic infused olive oil and red wine flavoured balsamic vinegar.

Right next door to Pukara was the cellar door for the highly acclaimed Evans & Tate Winery, so we sauntered in to try a few more hearty reds, adding another two bottles to our assemblage of delights.

We then had just enough time to rush to one final winery. We arrived with barely 10 minutes to spare before they were due to close at 5:00PM, but it still left us enough time to damage the credit card some more. I have found the whole gourmand thing to be expensive, but gee it was fun, leaving us with a haul of goodies to enjoy later on. Some might even make it home, although I highly doubt it.

While our tour of the Margaret River region might have been over, our day was not. Heading back into Busselton, we arrived in enough time to see the record holding Busselton Jetty before the sun set. A thick layer of low lying cloud prevented us from being able to get any spectacular sunset photos as I had hoped for though.

What we hoped to see at the Busselton Jetty.

What we got to see.

Selfie at the jetty.

By the time darkness descended around us, we were exhausted after our huge day of sight seeing, so we ordered a helping of fish and chips for dinner, which we ate while sitting in ‘The Beast’, too hungry to make the fifteen minute drive back to the caravan first.

By the time we finally rolled back into the caravan park, we’d been out and about for near enough to 9 hours, and were ready to relax. If only that was to be the case, as we busied ourselves getting ready to leave tomorrow morning. As well as packing up the van, we also had to plan our itinerary, as we have decided that the cold wet weather is not our thing. Therefore instead of continuing south to Albany, we are turning back towards Perth and going north again. I don’t know where we will be tomorrow night, or if we’ll have access to Internet, but stay tuned to find out where we end up.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.