FRIDAY 15TH NOVEMBER -
We left Perth for our next destination Collie
River, 2 ½ hours south. We
drove through some beautiful green countryside with tall trees on either side
of the roads and arrived at Collie River
Valley Tourist Park at 11.30. We
caught up with our friends Alan and Sandra and The Busselton Caravan Group who
were spending three nights at Collie River.
We had met a few of the people in the caravan group when we visited
Sandra and Alan in Busselton in May this year. There were 12 caravans at the
rally. We settled in and had soon met all the people in the group, who were
very friendly and welcoming.
Collie is 200 kilometres south of Perth and 60 kilometres
inland from Bunbury and has 9,000 residents. It has a rich mining and timber heritage. Coal was discovered there in 1883 and is the
main source of income for the town to this day.
Dr. Alexander Collie discovered
the Collie River in 1829 and the township was declared in 1896. There was an abundance of timber from the
surrounding hardwood forest and a thriving agriculture.
We had a group casserole night under the camp kitchen and
were entertained by Dave on the guitar, who was very talented and kept us all
laughing non-stop with his endless supply of jokes. It was a great evening and we were all so
full up with everyone’s delicious food and desserts. A great start to our weekend.
SATURDAY 16TH NOVEMBER -
The Collie Show was held at the Showground with the usual fair attractions - rides,
dodgem cars, fairy floss, wood chopping
and equestrian dressage events.
The whole town was out for the event, which was like a mini Sydney Easter
Show and was very well organised. All
the kids were loaded up with show bags.
It was a very hot day. We were
fascinated with the poultry shed, the cages were filled with an assortment of
chickens, cocks and birds of all sizes.
Some of the Champions were magnificently coloured, black and golds and
white with scarlet red cockscombs falling over their eyes and faces and so big
they could barely fit in the cages.
There was an almighty noisy racket with them all cock-a-doodle-dooing at
the same time and making star performances digging the hay in their cages up
and tossing it about. We watched their
antics for ages.
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| THE IRISH POTATO VAN AT THE SHOW - ONE OF THE SPECIALTIES ON OFFER |
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| THE IRISH POTATO VAN |
We met in the camp kitchen at 5pm for happy hour and were
entertained by a 4 person bush band. They were also very talented and entertaining. The caravan group have got some very talented
musicians and singers amongst them. We
heard some Irish jigs and songs accompanied by the penny whistle and some good
old sea shanties. We went to the local
pub for tea which was average food but great company. During the meal, we saw the fireworks from
the show and we all went outside to see them better. They were magnificent and lasted for over
half an hour . After the meal, we all
sat outside Dave and Rae’s van for coffee and cake (like we needed any more
food) afterwards.
SUNDAY 17TH NOVEMBER -
After coffee and more cake, we said goodbye to everyone in the caravan
group as they were heading back to Busselton.
The park was very quiet and empty when they left. We went for a drive to Harris
Dam and walked across the Dam wall.
There was a picnic area to sit by at the bottom of the river and the
Bibbulmun Track, a popular walking track that followed the pathway up to the
top of the Dam overlooking the reservoir
We then went to Glen Mervyn Dam,
a very popular area for camping and waterskiing and jet skis. We had a picnic lunch watching the boats
zooming up and down the water, some with kids in doughnuts or skiers being
towed behind the boats.
We drove through beautiful pastoral land and saw lots of cows
and sheep grazing in the lush green paddocks.
The landscape was full of big old trees and we drove along Kingtree Road
lined on both sides with towering pine trees, to the boardwalk and viewing
platform to see one of the area’s largest jarrah trees.
Further along the road we came upon a popular tourist spot
“Gnomesville” - home to literally
thousands of gnomes from all over the world.
Honestly, seeing was believing.
There were gnomes scattered all over the paths and bushes, stretching
further than your eye could see. The
place was crowded with tourists and there was barely a spot to park the
car. It was a fun, tacky attraction that
was compulsive in its quirkiness. We
saw the “mobile gnome”, “there’s no place like gnome” and many, many more. The gnomes had names and dates written on
them or on placards placed in front of them, some put there by families,
organisations and companies of varying colours
and sizes. Quite amazing!!
We enjoyed our stay at Collie. It was a place we probably would have missed
if we hadn’t been meeting Alan and Sandra.
The grounds of the caravan park were a bit overgrown and yellow from
lack of watering. The facilities were
clean but basic. It was council
run. We felt the place would have been
more attractive if they’d taken the time to at least mow the area and neaten up
the garden beds. It was $25 a night to
stay there as we got a $5 discount being with the caravan group. Nevertheless, the company and fun we had
together certainly made up for the unkempt appearance of the park.
MONDAY 18TH NOVEMBER -
We left Collie River for our next destination Margaret
River, 155 kilometres and a 2 hour drive further south. It was a lovely drive through picturesque
countryside. We arrived at Big Valley Campsite, a farm stay ten
minutes south-east of Margaret River. It
was a working sheep farm set behind State Forest. The owners and their family were really
helpful and we often saw them riding around on their motorbikes, with Tess the
sheepdog sat in a plastic cube on the back seat. She’d hop out to round up the sheep and move
them to a different paddock then, once her work was done, she’d hop straight
back into her box on the bike. The vans
overlooked roaming paddocks with sheep, goats and chickens. It was a very peaceful place, apart from the
constant bleeting of the sheep – I don’t think they ever slept as they kept up
a constant droning baaaa all through the
night.
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| ONE OF THE PADDOCKS AT BIG VALLEY FARM STAY |
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| VIEW OVER THE PADDOCK FROM OUR CARAVAN |
TUESDAY 19TH NOVEMBER -
We went on the “Cheers” bus trip around Margaret River. The cost was discounted from $90 to $72 each
as we were staying at the caravan park. We were picked up at 10.30 by Hilary
the tour operator. She was a very
friendly and knowledgeable tour guide. We picked up others joining the tour
along the way to our first winery Watershed which first began operating in
2002. The winery was set in stunning
grounds overlooking a dam and also had a restaurant that can be hired out for
weddings and conferences. It used to be
a dairy farm until the present owners converted it to a winery. We had lunch in the restaurant (inclusive
with the tour price) and headed out to our second winery Evans and Tate, which
is one of my favourites (as Richard commented “They’re all your favourites” –
can’t argue with that). They were one of
the founding wineries in Margaret River 40 years ago and won 7 trophies at the
Qantas Wine Show of WA last year. I was
very excited to discover they have just released a sparkling pinot chardonnay
and that was the first wine we tasted.
It was gorgeous and only $12.80 per bottle for orders of 12 and over,
including free freight to Perth. I
couldn’t contain myself and ordered a case to be sent to Daniel’s for
Christmas. Hopefully, there might be
some left when we get back there or else Daniel is in BIG trouble!!! We moved
to another room to sample, dukkas and flavoured olive oils and sauces, all
divine. My favourites were a fig infused
dipping oil and a lime flavour. The
Venison Farm was our next stop and we sampled salamis, chorizos and pate. I was a bit sceptical, but they tasted
delicious and didn’t have any of the fat or offal that are added to the
products we buy in the supermarkets. We
bought a chilli chorizo which we were told will last for up to 2 years in the
fridge – impossible - it
will never get the chance to stay there for that length of time. Our next stop was The Margaret River
Chocolate Company with lots of free samples that were impossible to
refuse. The Cheese Factory was the next
port of call and we bought a chilli cheese and vintage cheddar. Our third winery was Knotting Hill one of the
smaller wineries in the area. Our last
stop was the colonial Brewery where Richard purchased a paddle of 5 beers for
$10 and he enjoyed every one of them. We
were dropped back to the caravan at 6pm after a thoroughly enjoyable day
out. We had a good crowd to chat to and
have fun. Sally was taken care of by one
of the owner’s daughters who let her out of the van and took her for a walk in
the afternoon.
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| AT THE WATERSHED WINERY |
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| Add caption |
WEDNESDAY 20TH NOVEMBER -
We drove to Redgate Beach which was
a stunning bay with clear turquoise
water. We had a quick walk on the beach
as we were headed to Mammoth Cave for a
self-guided tour inside. It was $22 each
for the tour. The cave was massive
inside and a bit darker than we’d thought.
There was a very narrow boardwalk with a railing to walk on whilst we
were inside. Our MP3 player also had a
small torch attached to it, but it didn’t throw out much light once inside the
cave. Mammoth cave is in the Leeuwin
National Park surrounded by Karri and Marri forest. It was discovered by Marmaduke Terry in 1900
who found around 10,000 bone specimens after extensive excavations. Many of the bones were from huge Australian animals
(megafauna) that became extinct around 46,000 years ago. The cave is a massive limestone cave 500
metres long and 30 metres deep. Inside
the cave we saw lots of stalactites, stalagmites and columns of varying shapes
and sizes that were really amazing. It
took us about 40 minutes to walk around inside. On the way out, we walked up
162 steps through a sunken forest before we came back to ground level.
NEXT WEEK:
We’re heading to Augusta for a few days and then further south to
Denmark, Walpole and Busselton before heading back to Perth at the beginning of
December.
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