If you recall from
yesterday's post, Ryan and I arrived late for our Busselton Jetty tour and had
to run/speed walk up the jetty to catch up to the group. Amazingly, we made it only 5 minutes late!!!! We were of course sweaty and out of breath,
but we did it!
The tour was really
cool. We descended to different viewing
platforms, ending up 8m below the surface of the water. There had been a great white shark sighting
that morning just down the beach, so we were told that if we saw a large school
of fish to watch out for the shark as well.
I'm not sure if it was unlucky or lucky, but either way we didn't see
one. It was kind of stormy so the water
was pretty murky, but we could still see some neat things.
After the tour was
over a small train picked us up so we didn't have to walk back on the jetty,
which was actually a relief after the stressful day we had. At this point we were very much looking
forward to checking into our hotel and calling it a day, so we were pleasantly
surprised with how awesome the place was.
It was called "Heritage Trail Lodge" and the property was
absolutely beautiful. Set on a small
hill on the main road leading into Margaret River we were surrounded by forest,
flowers and birds, and it had by far the most comfortable bed of the trip. This was the only hotel we booked in advance,
and I'm so glad we did. The owners were
very friendly, there were free movie rentals, and the continental breakfast was
delicious and made from all fresh local supplies. Needless to say, that's when the trip started
to look up. We stayed two nights and
tried to stay a third but unfortunately they were all booked.
That night for
dinner we decided to check out the closest restaurant that had a flyer
advertising "French Vietnamese Fusion" food. We had absolutely no idea what form that
would take, but it had a picture of a delicious spring roll so we thought we'd
give it a go. Turns out it was Italian
Night (go figure) and it was the chef's first day! Despite that the atmosphere was cozy and the
food was delicious so well worth the trip.
The salad dressing (a balsamic vinaigrette) was a special concoction
which we loved and even bought a bottle to take home. Before eating we bought a bottle of wine
since the restaurant was strictly BYO, which we promptly polished off and made
for a fun walk home in the dark.
The next morning
after a great night sleep we took a short walk to the actual river behind our
lodge called "Margaret River."
Along the way we ran into a really fun playground. Ryan and I (mostly Ryan) usually make a point
of playing on them, which led to this great picture (but truth be told I took a
turn too!)
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| Click picture to enlarge and see Ryan's "serious working face" |
Now for some actual
pictures of the walk.
During that
afternoon we went on a wine/gourmet food tour of Margaret River. The area is very famous for wine
(specifically a blend of Semillion Sauvignon Blanc - yum!) but also for how
much food they produce locally. Most
people on the tour had already been to two wineries by the time we joined the
group, but we still managed to hit a brewery, cheese factory, Fermoy Estates
winery, an olive store, chocolate factory, Evans & Tate winery, and a
venison farm. It was a pretty full
afternoon! Our goal was to pick up
enough stuff for dinner (and we had already bought a baguette from the local
bakery), so it gave us an excuse to actually buy things. We out-bought everyone else by far! The group was great to tour with; they loved
that we were Canadian and asked endless questions and made lots of jokes all in
good fun. We got our digs in
"a-boot" the Australian way of life too though, so it wasn't all one
sided! Anyways, when we got back to the
hotel we set up dinner on the patio set outside our room.
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| Unfortunately I broke that delicious jar of tomato jam right after this, but the pesto and cheese did us for another few lunches like this! |
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| And now Ryan's making his "serious eating face" |
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