Margaret River

Perth seems to sprawl south. For quite a while driving south there were lots of signs for new land releases and developments. Once I got out of the city the landscape was green and lush. I got to Margaret River around lunch time, and it was very windy and cold. I went to the tourist office to get some information and maps and then set out to the river mouth to see the famous surf. The wind made it very uncomfortable to even take pictures and the water was very choppy. There weren't any surfers, but plenty of kite-boarders were ripping through the waves at high speed. The coast line is pretty spectacular with a variety of beaches and cliffs. I spent some time on Surfers Point watching the kite-boarding action before heading further south for a little walk along the cliffs.

A kite boarder at Surfers Point

The heather along the coastal walk was spectacular

The town of Margaret River did not at all look as I expected. For some reason I imagined a flat landscape full of vineyards. In reality the town's surrounds are undulating and very leafy. There are large forests around town. The next morning I went for a walk along the Margaret River to a picnic site called Ten Mile Brook. The walk followed the trails that were taken by railway lines in the early 20th century to transport logged trees out of the forest. These days the forest is mainly regrowth of Jarrah, Marri and Blackbutt trees, all of which are used in furniture making. There is a furniture shop in town that sells very artistic pieces made from the local wood. The walk itself was nothing too spectacular; it lead through the forest all the way, but at least different types of forest, dry, swampy, logged etc. I took all the different loop options along the way and, according to my pedometer, I covered just over 20 kilometres. After five days in Perth it was just good to be out in the fresh air without any other people around.

The Margaret River above the town weir

Various types of forest along the way, including a fording of the river

My trusty Redback boots kept my feet dry through the fording

There were still some spring flowers around

Of course, Margaret River calls for a tour of some of the many wineries. At the tourist office I collected a whole lot of different brochures, but in the end I just couldn't face up to spending a day on a coach tour, so I elected to go on a cycling tour with a mountain bike company called Dirty Detours. We set out at 9.30 in the morning and got to the first winery, Cape Mentelle, just after ten and had our first tasting of 4 whites and 3 reds. We also were allowed into their Cabernet Sauvignon barrel room, where they age about 2 million dollars worth of red. After our tasting we left the winery by a back gate, where it abuts the next place we wanted to go to and we could get from one tasting to the next without having to ride on any public roads. We were quite a large group with fifteen participants, but it was a great bunch of people and I enjoyed the day very much. Aside from Cape Mentelle we also tasted the wines at Xanadu, Whatershed and Stella Bella. I won't go into the different varietals that we tasted, but I do want to mention that there are huge differences between wines of the same grape between the different wineries. They all influence the taste with different lengths of barrel ageing, different percentages of blended grapes and different times of harvest. The result is that you simply can't say "I like Margaret River <insert grape name>"; you really need to taste before you buy.

Cabernet Sauvignon ageing at Cape Mentelle

Leaving Cape Mentelle through the back gate to get to Xanadu on a lovely flower lined path

The view from Watershed's tasting room

Stella Bella, where we finished with a lovely late lunch

We didn't got to any breweries, cheese or chocolate factories or other culinary producers, but there is no shortage of any of them in the region. It is a foody's paradise and there are plenty of good restaurants in town as well. Next weekend is a culinary weekend with some of the world's greatest chefs like Heston Blumenthal and Rick Stein in attendance. I would have liked to stick around for that, but it would have blown my budget sky high. I headed off further south towards Albany.