Down South

The most magical thing happened last weekend: I had NO WORK OBLIGATIONS! I had both Saturday and Sunday off, so Wiebke and I decided the best thing to do was to rent a car and go on a road trip! We headed out Saturday morning with Margaret River in mind as a possible destination but no clear plan other than: wine tastings, maybe explore a cave, wing it. Y'all, we totally did the plan!

We routed ourselves directly to the first winery, Cape Mentelle, did some tasting, bought an amazing Petit Verdot, and then headed on to grab lunch at Olio Bello. It was billed as an Italian restaurant, but it was more like an olive grove with a tasting room and amazing food. We both had some lovely pastas and were just sitting around chatting when I noticed a guy walk in wearing a Drexel tee shirt. Obviously I asked him if he's from Philly and, duh, he was! Grew up in Kensington, not terribly far from my old apartment, and went to Drexel to help him change careers. I mentioned growing up in Delco and he asked where and, turns out, his mother spent her final years living one block away from my parents in Havertown. ONE BLOCK y'all! I wish I could have seen my own face when he said "well, do you know the old bubblegum factory? Well there's a park just up the street from it..." The world is so small!

At Cape Mentelle

Driftwood Estate winery

After lunch and Philly chats we migrated to two more wineries: Robert Oatley and Driftwood Estate. They were lovely, but the day was getting towards 5pm and we had booked an Airbnb up in Bussleton which was going to be a 45 min drive and we wanted to catch the sunset from the Busselton Jetty. So off we went. Except I was driving and I'm easily distracted so we detoured a few times. Because turns out there's an exceedingly beautiful national park along that stretch of Australia's coast called Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park that has a walking trail called the Cape to Cape trail. We reached a fork in the road and Google maps wanted us to go right so I obviously did not because I don't follow directions very well and we ended up with views like these:

Near Torpedo Rocks

Near Yallingup Beach

Yallingup Beach in the background

Wiebke in her natural habitat

We still had this idea in mind that we might make it to Busselton for sunset, so we decided we'd best carry on. As we continued driving along, though, I spotted a mob of kangaroos (yes, I did just Google what's the appropriate collective noun for kangaroos and I'm SO glad I did because MOB!) and we both freaked because HOW COOL IS THAT and we hopped out of the car to watch them for a while. It was a little reminiscent of Dad's Retirement Road Trip this past summer actually. The roos for sure busted our plan to make it in time for the sunset though, so when we hopped back in the car we were a little unsure of how to proceed. Kept following Google maps and then we saw a sign for a lighthouse! So away we went!

Turns out the lighthouse was down a 13km road (oops) and closed at 4:30 (oops) and we couldn't actually get to the coast from there (oops). BUT there was another kangaroo munching away on the grass! I'm learning that people here think of roos the way we think of deer back home. I like to watch them but plenty of folks think of them as pests. And they're edible. And they're active at dawn and dusk and make lots of traffic accidents happen at night. But still, y'all: KANGAROOS.

So the lighthouse was a little bit of a bust but trust Google in a tight spot, I searched for good places to watch the sunset nearby and it suggested Sugarloaf Rock, so away we went! 9 minutes later and we're checking this out:

The rental car was not technically allowed on the road it was on and those clouds in the photos were starting to spit rain at us so we decided it was best to end on a high note and get the flock outta there. So the day wrapped up with gorgeous views and a commitment to getting to our Airbnb before any roos tried to jump in front of the car. We made a pit stop in Dunsborough for a 6 pack and some kebabs, stayed up too late chatting, and then passed the hell out. It was a good good good day.

Next morning we slept in a little bit, maybe 9ish, and then rolled out to Busselton to have brekkie at The Goose right at the end of Busselton Jetty. [I spend at least 30 minutes a day having a conversation that goes something like this: "You guys have the weirdest slang" "Yep, have you heard *weird word* yet?" "No, there's no way that's a real thing you say here" *polls anyone/everyone nearby* *consensus: it's a real word they use*] There was a craft market going on that I forced Wiebke to walk through and dithered for a while about a hand thrown ceramic travel mug that I really wanted and then decided food was really of the utmost importance. Or coffee for Wiebke.

Jetty views from our couches at The Goose

We had toast for breakfast on their patio and enjoyed the breeze for a while and then decided to walk the 1.8km (that's 1.11 miles) to the end of the jetty. It was LOVELY except for the flies.

On the jetty

Made it to the end!

18,874 km to NYC

Art on the jetty

Art at the end of the jetty

After our stroll we went back for me to buy the travel mug (who didn't see that coming?) and continued our travels, backtracking a bit to Yallingup where we'd explored the Cape to Cape trail the night before. Our destination this time was Ngilgi Cave (first 'g' is silent), an underground cavern with stalactites and stalagmites in spades!

Americans apparently call this cave bacon, everyone else calls them shawls. Much more dignified. 

The Aboriginal story of how the cave formed

Since we were trying to get back north in time for a birthday party for Niki, my coworker Wes' wife, we headed out around 2pm. We were waylaid by a teenager who cracked his head on the cave wall and was bleeding and no one else apparently had any basic first aid experience so 45 minutes later I was the one still holding a bandage to his head and maintaining pressure while we waited for emergency services to arrive. At that point we took the f it route and decided one more side foray wasn't a bad idea at all and went to check out Canal Rocks, another picturesque spot along the coast. Collecting more negative ions from those crashing waves while we could!

Wiebke for scale

Canal Rocks

Wiebke for being a stunner

Our trusty steed for the weekend!

A three hour-ish road journey later (done properly with windows down, radio blasting, us singing at max volume) and we were at Wes and Niki's house with beers and cookout food in hand! It was Wiebke's last weekend in Australia (as of now... her visa still has 6 months on it so I'm whittling away, trying to get her to come back after Christmas), and I think we did pretty darned well at sending her out in style!