21 September 2005 (Day 16)

By 7.30am we were on the road and heading South for Margaret River and wine country. As we turned onto the Kwinana Freeway we saw that the traffic heading North into Perth was at a standstill – a city of only 1.5 million people but they still get traffic jams! Our attention soon turned back to our own side of the road as we hit roadworks and first an 80 then a 60kph zone. Past the roadworks the speedzone returned to 100kph, but we were just getting up speed in the little Corolla when the roadwork signs were out again and we dropped to 80, 60, 40kph… we yo-yo’d up and down like this for another 30 frustrating minutes before we were finally clear of stretches of roadworks and able to settle down to a steady 100kph. A little while later the Kwinana Fwy ended and we were following signs down the coast with Helen trying to figure out our route against the assortment of free tourist maps we had collected. We did not have a single map which showed the entire route, and there were gaps in the coverage between the various maps.
Soon we were on the Bunbury-Perth Highway and settling down to make some miles. We passed through several new housing developments, many built around a local estuary and as we passed over a bridge Daniel glimpsed a dolphin loping through the water below. Unfortunately he didn’t also glimpse the police officer and his radar gun further down the highway and he received his first ever speeding ticket. The officer was apologetic but had to issue the fine. He told us we were about an hour and a half away from Margaret River – if we stuck to the speed limit of course!
We eventually reached Busselton where we had planned to have a break. We headed first for the Visitor Information Centre which we saw as we were driving towards the city centre and picked up a map of the wine regions of WA. The Busselton Visitor Information Centre is located on a corner. When we headed out we aimed for a KFC drive-through to pick up a quick snack before continuing on to the city centre. We were a bit surprised that it was taking us so long to get to the city centre until we noticed the road we were on was guiding us to the next town on Geographe Bay, Dunsborough – we had taken the wrong street coming out of the Visitor Information Centre.
Once we had tuned ourselves around we made our way to the shore and to Busselton jetty. This is 1.8km long and is the longest wooden pier in the Southern hemisphere. We’re not too sure why it was built this long, the shoreline has retreated 200m in the last 100yrs but even allowing for this it is still a lot of jetty! Ben, who had taken us on so many dives at Exmouth, was from Busselton and had told us that there was pretty good diving at the end of the pier (8m depth), so we had wanted to have a look. We even bought a postcard of the jetty to send him!
We decided to go out on the jetty. There is a train, but it wasn’t running today due to the weather. There is also an underwater observatory at the very end of the jetty but this too was closed today due to poor conditions and inclement weather. So we walked. The first part of the jetty so narrow that there are additional platforms built along it at intervals so that pedestrians can get out of the way of the train (when it is running). About half way along the jetty widens and curves gently to the right, and in this section there are a number of plaques commemorating locals who have died – they looked a lot like the normal plaques found at a crematorium or on a gravestone, so maybe they were cremated and their ashes thrown to the wind and waves off the jetty, or maybe they just loved the jetty so much their family wanted to put a plaque on the jetty for them. On the other side of the jetty we also saw a plaque commemorating a wedding which had taken place on the jetty.
We finally got to as far along the jetty as we could get, as the very end was closed for maintenance. There wasn’t anything to see, not even a fish as the water was just green and murky on this overcast day, so we just turned around and looked at how far we now had to walk back. Pity the train wasn’t working.
An hour after we found the jetty we were on the road again. That is a long jetty to walk! Helen took over behind the wheel to drive us around the wineries and back to Freo at the end of the day and Daniel sorted out navigating us to Margaret River. We made it to Margaret River township around 12noon but didn’t stop – we had a lot of wineries to get to!
As some of you may be aware, Daniel saw the Langton’s Auction House Wine List poster at the Brokenwood cellar door last year and decided to see if we could work our way through the list of wines. Even if we weren’t able to get the same vintage as the auction list we could hope to visit some good wineries and try their signature wines. There were 8 wineries in the Margaret River region which had wines on the Langton’s list, so we already had the wineries we wanted to visit mapped out
Our first stop was Leeuwin Estate. Whilst we knew which wine we wanted to buy, we also of course took the opportunity to taste their range before we picked up their Art Series Cabernet. Next stop Xanadu, where we bought their Cabernet Reserve and a cheap Semillion Sauvignon Blanc which we hoped to be able to drink over a seafood platter on our last night in Fremantle.
Then it was on to Cape Mentelle (mmmmmm, this was Helen’s favourite). There are two Cape Mentelle wines on the Langton’s List, the Cabernet and Chardonnay. When we said that we weren’t really fans of Chardonnay the winemaker said he liked a challenge and invited us to try his. We did, and boy it was good. We also picked up a Cabernet Merlot for drinking now.
We had originally intended to have lunch at one of the winery restaurants, but as it was now 2.30 and we’d only got to 3 wineries we headed back to Margaret River township for a late lunch, Daniel a quarter chicken and chips, Helen a chicken and veg pie.
We headed back up the Bussel Highway to find the Margaret River Cheese Factory as Helen had the mad idea that we could buy a tasting platter or something similar to take back to our apartment and eat before we flew out (of course most of the cheeses had to fly with us in the end!).
After racing through the cheese factory – we hadn’t intended to taste but couldn’t resist – it was back to the wineries. We headed for Cullens, as they closed at 4pm, and picked up the Cabernet Merlot. Back to Vasse Felix, for the Cabernet Reserve, then on to Howard Park for the Cabernet Merlot. We made it to the last winery on our list, Pierro Vineyards, just before closing. This was probably the least impressive of the wineries we had visited but as they had stayed open for us we bought a Shiraz. So, in one afternoon we had made it to seven wineries and the cheese factory, a very nice day despite the speeding fine!
Just as well the cellar doors were closing as Daniel had had enough of wine tasting, so he navigated us to the coast to have a look at the beach and hopefully a sunset. The coast we found was a rocky promontory and we climbed up the short way to the top to look out over the rocks and beach. We both did what we love, Daniel took photos whilst Helen scrambled up and down rocks, lay backwards over one to see the sea from upside down (freaky to see the sea heaving around on the “ceiling”) and gazed out over the sea. We waited around for the sunset but the clouds were too heavy to see much.
We packed up the camera and got back into the car for the long drive home. We made a brief stop at a dingy take-away somewhere along the way, mainly because Helen wanted to have a break and a coffee, before finally making it back to Fremantle at around 9.45 where we devoured the pepper cheese before falling into bed. What a day!