Margaret River region

This morning, after Solana fed the ducks the remains of her toast from our balcony (ordering them to "sit and stay" before throwing it to them!), we set off to explore the Margaret River wine region. The weather was nicer than forecast (20C, sunny and still) but is expected to become wet & windy from tomorrow, so we tried to make the most of the nice day. We started off at Hamelin Bay, where we walked along the long sandy beach and watched people fishing. We saw some rays swimming in the clear sea there - they were quite big and came in very close to the shore, so we all waded in to get a closer encounter; they were amazing, great to see so close. We couldn't be in this area without visiting a winery (or several!) each day, so we called into one (Hamelin Bay wines) for a cheeky tasting before lunch; they had a nice food menu so we ended up staying for lunch, sat outside with great views across the vineyard - lovely. They even let us open the bottle of wine we bought, to drink a glass with lunch - a big thank you to Laura for being the "skipper" (designated driver) today. Afterwards we went down to Cape Leeuwin, in the South-West corner of Australia, and saw the lighthouse and old water wheel there. Later we visited olive oil and chocolate shops (more tastings there!), then another winery (where we learned that the rubbish GBP exchange rates at the moment mean that wine exports to the UK have taken a nosedive, hitting the Australian wine industry quite hard).... We like this area so much that we plan to spend another day and night here tomorrow.Read more