Busselton

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Trip Start Jul 07, 2011 Previous
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  Busselton, Western Australia, Australia
Saturday, September 24, 2011

We were all geared up for rain and foul weather as we left Peter and Mary's house. Even though the weather was good, fine and sunny, we’d had a couple of days of rain in Yanchep – and we’d spoken to Leesa and Neil who’d confirmed the weather radar was right as they’d endured the best part of two weeks of soakingly wet and miserable conditions south of Perth.  Oh well, we can always stay in a motel if it gets that awful.

Chris navigated his way through the tangle of freeways that link the northern Perth suburbs to the south while managing to avoid getting knocked off the road by the collection of morons who call themselves WA drivers: Not one indication as traffic merged onto the freeway – it seems it’s every WA driver’s god given right to get onto the highway at the expense of traffic already there!  The clowning glory was from some prat who decided at the very last moment not to merge into the side of us when the road narrowed for road-works. 

Chris also gave three oriental girlies a piece of his mind when they stopped at the same parking bay as we were in to have lunch: After overtaking, Chris had planted the anchors after they’d cut in front of us with about a foot to spare 5km earlier in their not-powerful-enough-to-pull-the-skin-off-custard rental car.  "Ahh, soo, soo sorry.  Not do it again."  You bet they won’t!  Welcome to Australia…

Green, green and more green

Compared to even the north of Perth, the south is green.  Not just a tinge of green grass, but a lush deep verdant green from the paddocks to the hill tops.  Even the road seems to have a green tinge to it!  And there’s water everywhere, pooled and laying in the ditches by the sides of the road and in every dip and dam you can see.  There’s certainly no shortage of food for the cattle that fill the checkerboard fields that line the highway south.  This is beef, cheese and wine country!

We were going to stay in Margaret River, but advice said otherwise and we opted for Busselton, a seaside holiday town about 4 hours south of Perth where the Mandalay Bay caravan park is a stone’s throw from the northern facing beaches of Geographe Bay.  The park itself is a top notch place: rolling lawns, manicured flower beds, spotless amenities (the ladies apparently has a heated floor – we blokes are tougher!) and first class facilities: solar heated covered pool, full kitchen with ovens and whitegoods, laundry with push baskets and irons all ready to go.   They take so much pride in their park that they were out cleaning all (and we mean ALL) the windows on the buildings, and polishing the clear vinyl roller blinds that protected the pool.  The recreation room was just about refitted with a new ceiling the lawns were being mowed and we were personally escorted to our site – right on the edge of the playing field, amenities opposite and pool directly behind.  Best, not a grumpy person in sight!  We’ve now seen both ends of the caravan park spectrum.

And the tourist information folk knew their stuff as well.  If you’ve read any of our other entries, you’ll know that our “Welcome to X” barometer is heavily influenced by the attitude at the TI bureau.  These folk had the gauge rammed hard right, pointing to the fine-and-sunny lable.  Unfortunately, the real weather outside hadn’t got the same message, because the following day was predicted to have thundery showers with a chance of hail.  But that wasn’t going to get in the way so we proceeded to explore.

Busselton has one stand out feature: The jetty.  It’s 1.8km long with an interpretive centre at the shore end (why do they insist on giving poncy names to what is effectively a couple of old photos and a gift shop selling plastic junk from China?), an arcing refurbished boardwalk sporting a tourist train (for those who can’t walk), and an underwater observatory descending to the seabed at the other end.

The kids discovered that they were walking rather than catching the (rather lame) train – which was good, otherwise they wouldn’t have seen the dude fishing who pulled a huge squid out of the ocean.  A load of click-click Japanese tourists crowded round the poor dude to see what he’s caught, and we’d hoped that the squid would ink them (and we’d get the $100,000 funniest home video shot), but instead, it squirted its black juice all over the jetty adding to the range of splodges on the newish concrete deck and the click-clicks survived to click another day.

It didn’t worry us too much to find out that the underwater observatory at the jetty’s end was closed.  We’d had the interactive experience of diving on and snorkelling with the real thing up north where we personally chose where to go and what to look at rather than staring through glass at whatever might decide to float past.  The brief look that Chris had down the stairs to the windows below confirmed why the observatory was shut: the ocean was stirred up and visibility was about as far as the end of your nose.

The town’s clearly gearing up for the approaching holiday season.  We were in (and out) just before the school holidays, and before the range of cafes, parks, attractions and events had started to arc up for the influx of holiday makers that was about to befall it.  We were happy to pass these kinds of attraction by, and spent the next few days exploring the ins and outs of the Margaret river region including some of the sensational wineries that are dotted across the place.

Margaret’s River – of Chocolate

Matthew and Caitlyn demanded that we visit the Margaret River Chocolate Company, and so this turned out to be our first stop ahead of any wine producing facilities.  There are no tours through the place – instead a huge shop with chocolate goodies of every flavour and style you can imagine; the most impressive part being the whole wall behind the sales counter which is made from shelves that display, rack and stack bags of different flavoured chocolate from floor to ceiling.

The one concession they give to folk who want to see things being made is a large set of windows at the end of the shop into one of the rooms where three Willy Wonka size vats of liquid chocolate (dark, milk and white) were being churned by rotating wheels to deliver streams of chocolate into moulds.  There was only one Umpa Lumpa working with her back to the window, so the kids had to return to browsing the goodies.

We were disappointed that there were no samples until we realised that we’d completely missed the three even bigger Willy Wonka stainless steel buckets of chocolate buttons (again dark, milk and white).  The only reason that the kids missed the sample bowls was that they were up higher and looked like they were part of a mix-your-own bar.  Once they discovered the spoons to help themselves, there was no stopping them and their ability to consume chocolate became boundless.  We’re pretty certain that the exorbitant prices charged for their chocolate are to offset the cost of supplying endless buttons to marauding and hungry children.

The marauding and hungry adults also had a few scoops to test out the quality, consistency and taste: For purely research and reporting purposes of course.

Nougat – er, no get

We compromised at the next stop (Bettenay’s) which produced nougat and wine from a strange angular building in the middle of a muddy paddock.  The $25/bottle straight Cabernet was sensational.  The nougat was not, and was also over priced (which is probably where they got their money to build their strange angular building).

At this point we realised our wine tasting dilemma.  No space to take any away with us – so we oped for the taste, remember, mail-order approach – either that or we’ll look for the ones we like at Dan Murphy’s and grab them when they come on special!

Some folk that we met at Coral Bay recommended Cullens (and another winery that we couldn’t remember) so we stopped in there next and had a taste of the reds.  Wishy washy and bland – perhaps their 'all organic’ production method needed a boost.  Cullen’s wines were vastly overpriced and they made the $25 Cab from Bettenay’s look like a steal.

Two down and two strikes – we were doing well.  In a bid to increase our success rate, we went into Vasse Felix – the oldest of the Margaret River wineries, first planted in the 1960’s.  (Old is a relative term as folk from the Barossa will tell you: Their first grapes were planted in the 1850’s – over a hundred years before any of the convicts in WA could spell, let alone make, wine!).

The drive into their cellar door has to be the longest and most beautiful driveway into a winey that we’ve ever seen.  No tatty bits of machinery and rusty (rustic?) sheds; rather a sweeping road through the vines, past reservoirs and onto a rolling green lawn with modern sculptures stretching up to an impressive two storey building housing the cellar door.  The restaurant upstairs, which unfortunately we didn’t have time to visit, overlooks the grounds.  Simple and impressive.

As were the wines.  So impressive, that they even got Chris (against his religion) to try a Chardonnay.  It was actually OK – considering it was a chardy.  Heresy!

The 2009 Cab Sav (again at $25/bottle) was the most impressive (to us) and we took just one so that we had something decent to drink

Margaret River

We’re glad that we didn’t actually stay in Margaret River – other than the geographic centre of the region, there’s not a lot else that seemed to be happening there.  The main street is a main street and it didn’t strike us that the caravan park offered a lot for the kids.

We grabbed a bite for lunch at the strangest bakery imaginable complete with dozens of antique lampshades jostling for ceiling space, hotchpotch lounges if different fabrics crammed into the rooms and the veranda, and service that was about as ad hoc as the décor. 

Given our stranger-than-life experience we decided that we should give the kids an opportunity to do something normal and use the excellent facilities at the Mandalay Bay so they had the rest of the afternoon on the bouncy pillow.

Ngilgi Caves

One of the natural attractions of the region is the Ngilgi caves (pronounced Nilgi – the first G is silent) about 20km from Busselton.  There are a range of tours that you can do including several adventure tours, but since these don’t take children under 10, one of us would have had to stay with Caitlyn which would have meant either missing out or not seeing the same things, so we opted for the simple guided tour.

After the cave’s discovery at the turn of the (19^th) century, well heeled folk from Perth took tours through the caves as an adventure.  News of the spectacle must have been a real draw card for them to warrant the journey: 3 days on the train followed, a day on horse and carriage to get there, then 8 hours to clamber through the caverns wearing their suits and formal dresses carrying handbags, top hats and lanterns.  Then another 4 days to get home again!

Our tour (while not an adventure, and not taking 8 hours) was nevertheless as spectacular as those folk a century ago must have experienced.  Whatever the weather outside (and on the day we visited it was darn cold and threatening to hail!), the temperature of the caves is a humid 20C with a high concentration of CO₂.  There are two sides to the cave: The main amphitheatre is a high cavernous dome sporting hundreds if not thousands of stalactites dripping from the ceiling.  Many are 5+ metres long and can only truly be appreciated by descending to the floor of the cavern and laying down to stare up at the precipitous spears above.  Luckily, we got 10 minutes without another soul in the amphitheatre to enjoy the sight.

The other side of the caves descend into a series of increasingly impressive caverns – each with their unique names (that we can’t remember!) and each with more and more impressive calcite structures: shawls, flowstone, stalactites, stalagmites, helictites, pendulums, straw, columns and pillars – one of which (a huge flowstone in the deepest chamber) has been dated at 318,000 years old.

And it is a deep chamber, Chris can’t remember how deep, but he was puffing by the time he got to the top.  Megan didn’t have a problem.  Conclusion: Either CO₂ affects different people in different ways, or Chris needs to get back into the lap pool!

We decided not to do the combined Cave & Lighthouse double-tour and had a look down the coast.  It’s ruggedly beautiful with granite cliffs descending into the crashing Indian Ocean.  Canal Rocks looked especially inviting, so amidst storm clouds that added to the look of the dramatic coastline we went out on the boardwalk.

The one thing with distances at sea is that they’re very difficult to estimate.  Rain showers doubly so.  So when Megan said, “That rain shower looks very close”, Chris said “Run, it’s going to hit us”.  And before we got 20 yards, the rain – and the hail – hit us.  Hell it stung!  Driven by the strong westerly, it soaked us completely on one side.  Chris made it back to the car and drove it back to where Megan was sheltering the kids and getting wetter by the second.  Everyone piled in and the hail continued to belt down on the car for another 10 minutes while we steamed up the windows.  Then the sun came out.  What hail?

By this time we were soaked through. We had a quick tour up to the lighthouse, but decided that were too cold and still too wet to do the walk round, so we decided to go to somewhere warm and have an ice-cream!

Simmo’s is a bit of an institution in Dunsborough and the region that includes Busselton, so when in Rome… go to Simmo’s.   Please don’t ask about the logic of going to eat ice-cream when you’re cold and wet.  If there’s any logic, it’s Irish logic, which ironically is actually consistent, since Simmo’s ice-cream is actually based on an old Irish recipe.   Confused?  So were we, so we just went there – the place was on the way home.

No choice is bad; a few choices is good; too many choices and you’re back to bad again.  Simmo’s is bad – 40 choices bad.  We had White Choc Malteaser, Coffee Crunch, Caramel Malteaser and Christmas Pudding flavours.  The latter was a mistake, but the other three were good.

After having gotten ourselves colder we cuffed back to the caravan park and a nice warm shower.

Luckily, the park had avoided any hail, and the van was intact (and dry), so we opened that bottle of Vasse Felix Cab Sav and enjoyed a night in!

Demonstrations every day – except today.

As if we’d not had enough sugar fix through chocolate, nougat and multi-flavoured ice-cream, another store in Cowaramup boasts a honey crunch pour at 11 every day.  The kids had been begging to go from the moment we arrived and they’d picked up the brochure in the tourist information bureau days before, so we hopped in the car to get to the Candy Cow well before they started to pour and to ensure that we got a good view.  We needn’t have bothered.  Due to lack of popular demand (read not enough suckers to buy the stuff), the honeycomb pour was only being done during school and public holidays (when there we enough suckers), and since this was neither – bzzzt, not happening, sod off!

The girl behind the counter might have well have said that, because that’s the way her lame excuse came out.  Great, we said, good job that we came all the way from Busselton to see this.  You could have updated your web site.  Interestingly, there is a waiver saying that demonstrations may vary during winter – but this is spring.  Clearly the cows in Candyland don’t know one season from another.

We tasted a few different types of fudge – the chili chocolate variety was interesting as well as hot, the mint fudge was, well minty – but in the end we decided that neither of us needed it!  Both children felt compelled to part with some of their pocket money and splurged on a range of (overpriced) sugary concoctions.   As we paid, we checked that they hadn’t rescheduled to honey crunch pour to 11:30, just after we’d left, but, the same lame excuse was repeated – this time though we were offered a bag of honey crunch as a placatory consolation prize.  We left – and we still haven’t eaten it.  (Apparently second prize was two bags).

After having no joy at the Candy Cow, we followed a sign to the Cowaramup Brewing Company and ended up at a sensational little place in beautiful rolling countryside with resident geese that don’t know how to walk out of the way of traffic.  (We didn’t check the menu to see what type of foul was on, but the kitchen smelled great – shame it didn’t serve lunch for another hour).  A huge room with one wall made of glass opposite the bar provides an excellent vantage point to look across that same rolling countryside and enjoy some of their produce.  (A playground just outside means that it’s kid friendly as well).  We enjoyed the 4 beers that they had for tasting, but decided that any more and we’d be staying for the afternoon, so we moved on to…

The Margaret River Nut Company is another specialty affair in the region and we hopped in there and hoed through their samples.  The muesli was great and they’d done some interesting culinary things to almonds (hot Thai chili), but the rest was a standard fare of coat nut type X with sauce Y.

As a finale we dropped into Howling Wolf wines – not for any other reason than we’d seen some different wild flowers on the side of the road and the winery was right opposite.  Their white shiraz was best of the crop.  Matthew joined the tasting with some grape juice (unfermented) and (ironically for a place named Howling Wolf) Caitlyn bought herself a fluffy toy sheep.  We eventually called him Minty after Caitlyn drew a line through us calling it Chop!

5 days in Busselton was great, but time to pack up and move further south tomorrow – on to Walpole via Pemberton.

Oh, in case you’re wondering, the white chocolate buttons from the Margaret River Chocolate Factory were the best!

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