Hello, All!

Had a busy day yesterday, and didn’t get a chance to write, so will catch up today fairly quickly, as we want to walk along the beach and get our steps in!

So! Got up early and headed out and south; wanted to get to the far Cape first, and then work our way back north. Absolutely lovely drive, even though we were caught up in the local morning “rush hour.” First drove through Margaret River, which we found very surprising. As all of the wine country around here is referred to as “Margaret River” we were expecting a fairly large place! But it’s not! It’s very small-town and quiet, but the wineries are EVERYWHERE, many of them with restaurants. It took about an hour or so to make our way to Augusta and Cape Leeuwin lighthouse, where the Southern Ocean and Indian Oceans meet. (Figured that we’d gone to the southern-most point in South Africa, and almost the most southern point in Chile, that we needed to collect this one too!) Unlike the day before when we had climbed the shortest lighthouse in OZ, this was definitely the TALLEST lighthouse, and a beauty it was! LOTS of steps to the top and quite a view!

We had planned that our next stop would be along Caves Road, and be – you guessed it! – a cave! Got to Jewel Cave at 10:35, just missing their guided tour – with the next one not until 11:30! So, decided that instead of waiting, we would head to Mammoth Cave, which was self-guiding. Well, not only was it self-guiding, it was definitely MAMMOTH! The tour was through an MP3 player, which was extremely well done, with lots of information. In AZ we have Kartchner Cavern, which is air-locked and very, very regulated. Here, the cave is open to the air at both ends but still living! Lots of water still flowing into and through the cave. Also LOTS and lots of steps and platforms, and, surprise! – 170 steps UP on the way out! There were very few other people in the cave, and at times we had the place to ourselves! Wow!

From there, we headed back toward Margaret River, intending to lunch there. However, spotted Xanadu Winery first, just a couple of miles from MR, which has a restaurant, so detoured there. Absolutely lovely place; looked brand-new! We wandered into the restaurant and WOW, a very unusual menu! Decided as it was a lunch stop and not a dinner that we would each get a starter and a side salad. R ordered the gnocchi, which came with spinach, currants soaked in Muscat wine, and porcini mushrooms – delicious! I ordered the prawn trio – and WOW, what a presentation! There was a prawn wrapped like a wonton and served in a small shot glass with a hot/sour soup. There was a prawn that was sort of tempura-wrapped, and fried, but rather than using a standard batter, it looked like lots and lots of VERY thin noodles. And finally, my favorite, was a prawn custard with nori on top – incredible presentation, and everything was GREAT! We had plain green salads with balsamic vinegar dressing to follow. Very good meal; just the right amount! (And though I didn’t want a fancy dessert, I did want to find a Magnum Classic…) Drove in to Margaret River (MR) and parked and walked around. Amazingly enough, there wasn’t ONE jewelry shop to look at the windows! R VERY happy; I was very surprised! Imagine a tourist-area town without a jewelry shop?! We did find my Magnum Classic, though – YEA! Town didn’t take too long, and as it was after 2 p.m. we decided to head back to the cottage for naps and computer access.

Lovely afternoon, as it was just cool enough to be able to open all the cottage doors; lovely breeze! Did our computer work after a nice nap. (Fortunately, the folks who run this place are lovely and don’t mind people coming in to use their computer hook-up! R wondering why, with all the amenities they have here, that telephones not available, but apparently when the cottages were built, no phone access at all provided!) I took a walk on the beach (R on the computer…).

Had leftover fajitas for dinner outside on the patio; absolutely beautiful evening. This is really a neighborhood, albeit a transitory one! People outside barbequing; kids riding bikes and playing in their yards; really a truly lovely place, and we will hate to leave it, as any other place will have a really difficult time measuring up!

Today we’re heading to another cave and a few more wineries! So! More later!

Much love,

m

ps – In an earlier blog, I apparently (even though I don’t remember it…must be that stream of (un)consciousness I tend to go on about!) made some comment about the current political party in power here, and of course, managed to muck it up! And we’ve NOW heard from several of our OZ friends correcting me! So, my apologies for miss-identifying things – with the election coming up next Saturday, hopefully I will get the winner right!

m