PERTH – MARGARET RIVER (FOR THE WINEOS!)
Friday
Conor gave us his car for the weekend, so we could drive down south to Margaret River. The girl we met yesterday Fiona came with us, she was meeting up with friends down there. We stopped off in Bunbury town on our way down, small little hippy town where we stopped for lunch. Not much happening here but it was good to stretch the legs. We arrived at Geraldine and Julian summer house in Margaret River just after lunch time. We had a quick stop and went straight into the town to meet up with Fi’s friends. Sam and Will worked for a winery like all local people in Margaret River. If you live here your either in wine or in wine!! So it looks like I’ll (Rob) have to become more mature, and have a taste of a few wines!!
Luckily enough Sam brought us on a tour of his winery he worked at “Xanadu”. When arriving, the size of the gates said it all. The winery was huge and well exported. So we got a V.I.P tour of the winery, plus Sam drove so we could have as much wine as we pleased!! 
Even though two of us don’t like wine, we really got stuck in. Glass after glass no wonder we were half shot coming out, but I think I’ll (Rob) stick to the whites if I had a choice! 
And onto the next winery it was, Will brought us to his winery, Voyager was the name of this one and it was a bit more swavy!! It had 8 grounds men and that’s just for the flowers! Plus I though was very funny, that the owner doesn’t drink wine!! This place was so proud of there Aussie brand it had a 16meter by 8 meter flag at the entrance (no joke) it was the size of Ireland (that’s a joke)!!! It was great to get a personal trip of the grounds and of course to taste the wine too. It was a Friday night and there was a band playing in town, so we decided to get ready, and head to Sam’s for a few pre drinks before we hit the town. 
We came across the coolest thing yet in Aussie land, a drive through bottle shop (off Licence) you don’t even have to get out of your car, it’s basically like a drive through Maccers!!! What has the world come to, sooo lazy!! 
Turns out the band were great, sorta indie, jazz, hip hopish like!!! Very different but this whole town is. It sorta gets under your skin in a nice way. Very cool trendy place to live, especially if your into wine!Day 115- 28/11/09
MARGARET RIVER (SURFER DUDE)
Saturday
We rested today, for most of the morning actually. But when we finally arose we headed to town and strolled around, it is such a nice town with such a hippy vibe! Something I think Australia has pockets of all over the place!
We headed to the beach for a late picnic and drove around all the lookout points along the beach until we came to Surfer’s Point. The place was so crowded with all sorts watching the sun set and the evening surfers trying to catch the perfect wave! It was a really nice setting - families, tourists and local surfers all chilling out! 
Day 116- 28/11/09
MARGARET RIVER (YUM…A DAY OF TASTING)
Sunday
Today we were taking in the best of Margaret River’s produce! It was a super day filled with food and wine! Best day of tasting ever!!
We started with a tour of the Melting Pot Glass Studio, it was lovely to see all the glass works but unfortunately we missed the workshop tour, that’s only on a Tuesday.
Next was Jah Roc Galleries (beautiful stuff…), we were in our element, spending all our imaginary money! Then it was off to Olio Bello – chutneys and olive oil (best ones were Tomato Jam and Red Pesto.) It was a great start to our foodie day, got my taste buds going! And it makes me (Danielle) want to cook! One day maybe it will come back to me!!!
We headed on to Moss Brothers Winery (my favourite wine by far – Moses Rock Rosé) I’m converted, I’m serious, I really like wine here! Well still only sweet whites and rosés! We headed on to a brewery for Rob - Bootleg Brewery. It was packed, bus loads of people there having boozy lunches and sampling the beer. As Rob was driving and as they weren’t giving out small samples for free we headed on to our next stop - Woody Nook. A nice winery with a cute café tucked to the back. I love all the country style foodie stuff – everything it organic and made locally! And the setting is perfect, not too posh or classical like the French wineries but a bit more modern and cool – well I guess wineries have only been around here for the last 35 years! Rob kinda insulted the woman by saying that all the logos here were very modern and cartoon-y… Ha ha! She turned around and said ‘Well in fact our stamp is a print of the old farm house; it is probably one of the most classic stamps of Margaret River….’ Eek! Oh well, it looked like a cartoon to us!
Our favourite stop - The Grove (liquors and spirits), we weren’t expecting this one at all, we got to try some really nice liquors like strawberry, lemon, white chocolate and butterscotch – and butterscotch and chocolate mixed!! So good! Then we got a choice of a pre mixed cocktail, I had a yummy Shokalot – strawberry and chocolate with cream and Rob had an orange and chocolate ginger ale shot. Then being more of a vodka connoisseur I sampled their premium grape vodka… nice but it’s no Absolut!!
We popped into Yahava Koffee Works (coffee tasting) after that, we (well I) certainly needed a wake up after an early day of tasting alcohol!! We took a little breather and stopped to have lunch, not that we needed it with all the food tasting coming up!
After lunch we went to Cape Lavender (Lavender wines…all the same really but with a hint of lavender…Mom you would like it, I know you like your lavender!) then we heading on to the beautiful Margaret River Chocolate Company… mmmmm! It was stocked full of chocolate slabs and chocolate sauce!! They had a corner with various icecreams and cookies and cakes, but we were very good we only sampled their 3 types of chocolate – dark, milk and white…. But that’s because that’s all that was free!! Ha Ha!
Next door to that was Margaret River Providore (chutneys and jams, spices and cereals) This place was great they handed out loads of free recipes so I took a load of them… you never know I might get back to cooking while I’m here!! Then I was sampling the chutneys with the little plastic spoons when a big woman’s voice bellowed “Change Spoooons!”… I was morto!! I had forgotten to take a fresh spoon and had been dipping the same one back in to the next pot!!! Oops!! Rob just laughed saying she was just annoyed because she was going around with 20 spoons in her hand! After that embarrassing ordeal we came across Margaret River Nuts and Cereals (muesli, spices nuts, dried fruit) this place was lovely, you could make your own muesli here with all sorts of dried fruits and various cereals!! But we were not here to spend we were here to do free tastings... so once we had accomplished our mission we headed on to the next spot!! Next, Margaret River Dairy Company (cheeses – my favourite was smoked cheddar) this went down really well with my last wine tasting at Palandri Winery, no Rosé though!! Poo!We finished the day with a wander through the town, listening to the live music streaming out of the bars!! We love Margaret River!
Day 117- 29/11/09
DENMARK AND ALBANY (FAR AND NOTHING BETWEEN)
Monday
Our next stop was Denmark, (No not the country, a place in Aus) looking a the map we thought, ah 2 hours should do it, 6 hours later we pulled into Denmark after moving a millimetre on the map, just shows you how big this country is.
On our way we stopped off at the Valley of the Giants Tree Top walk. It’s a raised platform 40 meters above the ground viewing some of the highest tress in Aus, it was a pretty spectacular sight, plus the walkway swung side to side to make you feel like you were in the tree tops, well that’s what the brochure said!!!
The 20 min walk took us 5 minutes as we rushed by Americans taking close up photos of the bark; time wasn’t on our side to make the Honey Shop, Toffee Factory and more wine stops before they closed!! 
Our next stop was the Toffee Factory, looking through the glass window at them cutting the toffee was enough for us to buy a cheap left over bit, which they sell for half price!! It was a funny sight the two of us leaving, chewing on this huge piece of toffee. Danielle said we have to save some for later but it was gone before we got the next stop, Honey!! 
We were still picking the toffee from our teeth, walking into the Honey Shop (Bartholomew’s Meadery). I know it is a honey shop, but they had everything you could think of all made from honey- soap, wine, ice cream, shampoo, sweets…. The list went on and on!! So we got stuck into the Meadery Honey Wine, far too sweet for me but of coarse sweet tooth Danielle loved it. The lady in the shop was basically telling us her whole life story about her Irish background; she was the scariest women I’ve come across, big bubble eyes and a very loud laugh, we got out of there because all I could think of was Wolf Creek!!
We arrived in Denmark, thinking it was going to be quite a big town, but we came across a small street with a supermarket and a few shops, so we decided to continue on to Albany, our last stop. Albany was much bigger and catching the sunset just as we arrived was a bonus. Plus it was back to camping, sleeping in a car for the night!
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