We started by heading across to Caves Rd again, west of MR. We drove south along here for a while and then turned off onto the unsealed section called the Boranup Drive. This was a very picturesque area of Karri forest. We stopped at one point where Sam remembered a path they had ridden along and wanted to show me how pretty it was – so we went walking along for a while. We also stopped to look at the top of a limestone cave called Bride Cave – one the guide had pointed out to Michael and Sam yesterday. It was only accessible by abseiling down into it. We just stood at the top and looked down into it.
We joined back onto Caves Road again just at the point where there was a place called Boranup Maze. It was a hedge maze made by a private family on part of their property and they had an honesty box for people to pay to go through. The kids had fun going through and finding the middle, while Michael and I sat in the lovely garden and relaxed.
We then drove further south to Hamelin Bay on the coast. This place is renowned for Mantaray swimming in quite close to the shore. We didn’t see any while we were there. We had some lunch and then, because it had warmed up quite a bit today, some of the kid’s had a swim at the beach.
We then drove further south again to Augusta, the most southern town on this part of the mainland. We continued along the road out to Cape Leeuwin, the most south-westerly point of the Australian mainland, and where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean. As expected, there is a lighthouse here. We were planning just to walk out to the lighthouse, but found out you have to pay just to walk out there ($22 for our family). So we decided we would just get a photo from the carpark again.
We drove back to Augusta and stopped at a pretty little park beside the sea to have afternoon tea. Then we drove to the town jetty to do some fishing. A cold wind was coming up by now, so we didn’t stay long at the fishing. The kids were keen to go ‘home’ to the van park, so,that’s what we did. Hannah and Beth had made friends with a family of 4 girls (from age 9 down to 4) so were keen to play with them again.
It had been a lovely stay in the Margaret River region and the Big Valley van park had been a great place to base ourselves. We felt like we were feeling enthused again after our ‘lull’ in Perth.
Tomorrow being Sunday, we wanted to go to church again, so we looked up some churches and times and planned on going to the Rivers Life Centre (another Churches of Christ church) tomorrow at 10am, before driving on to our next location.