Margaret River Region, WA

 Now we start the last leg of our journey West and head for the Margaret River. It seemed like we drove through 4 hours of thick never ending forest, which was no fun for Saul to drive but it was impressive to see. We had a lunch stop at Pemberton and Kylie climbed the Gloucester Tree, which was used as a fire lookout tree. For lunch we went to the Big Brook Dam, which had some very cheeky birdlife. After much persistence, one of the magpies managed to steal Bridie's sandwich.


We stayed at Gracetown for the week in the most amazing caravan park for kids - it was just disappointing that it rained all week. But between showers the kids enjoyed the jumping pillow, playground, basketball court, tennis court and mini golf. They had never played mini golf before but it was lots of fun for the whole family. The caravan park resident chooks came to visit us a few times as well. They were very confident and obviously knew that the food comes out of the caravan door.


Naturally our first stop was the famous Margaret River Chocolate Factory - where the kids used their pocket money to buy a Chocca Quokka each. We were a bit early to see much actually happening in the kitchen side of things, but it all still smelt delicious.


Our next stop was the caves - with 4 major caves, we picked the one that the most people had recommended and it was AMAZING. The kids are still talking about the day we went under ground. We went to the Ngilgi cage and there was a very cool aboriginal story about 2 spirits the had a fight near the cave and the good spirit banished the bad spirit to the cave. And when the bad spirit broke free, that was how the opening of the cave was made.


At the start there was a little section called "The Tunnel of Terror" and guide said it was for kids and kids at heart. So without knowing what to expect, Saul and I both thought "Why Not" and went in with the kids. It was a tiny slide tunnel down into the cave - it was super cool and Zara and Elsie went down it multiple times.


We went to the Lighthouse and almost got blown away.


By chance we drove past a sign that said "Deer Farm" so of course we turned down that road and went to have a look. We saw some amazing antlers in the shop, and ine set was fully covered in velvet. We bought some vension sausages and salami just to compare it to the ones that Saul, John and Roger have made in the past. 


Driving along the cattle farming country, Elsie has been very excited by seeing the big bulls in the paddocks. We drove past some big bulls one day but Elsie was having a rest, but on this day we saw a great big black bull and he just happened to be right up at the fence next to the road. We stopped and said hello to him through the window. 


We drove south to Augusta one day when the weather was super windy and miserable. We saw a very brave (or crazy) man getting set up to go wind surfing so we parked next to him and watched in amazement as he walked into the scary water and had fun with the wind.


On our way North we stopped at Busselton to see to the famous pirate ship playground, and it was epic, just like Eric's ship in The Little Mermaid!! Everything was side ways and it took lots of effort to just walk around this one. 



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