Blonde on a Road Trip

Woke up this morning to the squawking of birds. For all their vibrant and interesting markings, Australian birds seem to have largely missed out on the gift of song…

But there are worse things to be woken up by and we have an active day ahead anyway, so it all worked out in the end. Michael cooked up a nice breakfast of eggs, bacon and mushrooms to set us up for the day and before long we’d set off to the gym, where we parted ways and I went jogging while Michael pumped iron at the Body Club.

My jog took me down the Margaret River high street, full of amazing shops and cafes and a lovely Friday morning atmosphere. Then I swung a left into Wooditjup National Park and followed a loop trail along part of the Wadandi Trail down to Wallcliffe Road where we’re staying.

Once back at the ranch, time to shower and freshen up before we head out to rent bikes and head to Prevelly Beach and possibly stop off at a wine estate on the way back…

While I waited for Michael to SS&S, I was joined in the garden by a southern brown bandicoot and a massive black lizard (a King’s Skink), so I promptly shut the back door so he wouldn’t be joining us overnight.

Note to self: don’t leave back door or any doors open for long… stuff can crawl in.

A short while later we headed out again to rent some bikes from Life Cycle Bike Hire in Margaret River, a 15-min walk from the villa. Amazing service and lovely bikes. One e-bike for Michael and one normal town/hybrid bike for me. In hindsight, given some of the hills, Michael was maybe onto something with the e-bike, but to be honest I was grateful for the exercise after my back keeping me out of action for the week before flying in to Aus!

We grabbed some picnic provisions from Woolworths in MR consisting of a baguette, some Brie and cured meats and crisps, and then swung by the villa to grab some extra bits, then we headed on down Wallcliffe Road towards Prevelly Beach – a famed surfing spot.

The route there was easy to cycle and lined with interesting trees (possibly many eucalyptus), guinea fowl, some creatures scuttling in the undergrowth, and many a bird to cheer us along our way.

We then approached the coast and my oh my, what a stunning coastline! We reached Prevelly Beach and headed left, with Lucy slightly out in front. It was all going swimmingly until she noticed a lizard crossing the cycle path, slammed on the brakes, only to realise too late that Michael obviously wasn’t party to the reptile crossing drama and wasn’t able to brake in time with the sand underneath, and went clattering to the ground suffering a nasty scrape to the hand.

The good news is, the lizard lived, and Michael still has his index finger… just about.

Once Michael had dusted himself off, we headed back along the coast towards the Margaret River estuary mouth, where the real water sports action was happening.

Turquoise water, loud waves, surfers, windsurfers and kite surfers all putting on an impressive show. Some seemingly going out as far as a mile off shore!

We enjoyed watching them as we sat on a picnic bench under shelter with a lovely viewpoint just by the aptly named Surfer’s Point. Many a surfer dude was standing by the edge of the headland, watching as their (reckless) peers braved the ferocious waves in often shark-infested waters. There are shark alarms along the coast at points where people are likely to be in the water, just in case Jaws decides to come and give them a little love bite.

We stopped at the point where Margaret River meets the sea at high tide. We stood and watched the beautiful sea and the insane kite surfers going further and further out to sea, with some skill, we might add. But it takes a certain kind of insane to go out as far as they did in a place where there are sharks about. Michael and I surmised that if you grow up in a country where almost anything can kill you, you must develop some sort of morbid tolerance of the possibility of dying early.

Anyway, we would’ve walked further along the beach but the water was coming in fast and we would’ve been stranded for hours if the tide had come in behind us, so we thought it better to get back on our bikes and start making our way back to Margaret River.

As it happens, a vineyard called Cape Mentelle was on the road we were cycling along… so we stopped off to sample some of the local viticulture produce and test our noses and palates. Some very interesting and expensive wines here. We combined a regional tasting ($15) and a heritage tasting ($25) which included six wines each, so in total we got to try 12. The heritage wines were always more complex wines, but the regional ones were still way above the usual £6 range, so it was quite fun to try and guess what was going on in each one.

Once we’d finished swilling booze and playing the flavour guessing game, we cycled back to Margaret River and returned our bikes.

After flopping back at the villa for short while to recharge our empty batteries, we headed out to catch happy hour at Rhum Burgundy, which has a happy hour every evening and a different special drink offer on each day. £7 for two drinks! So we had two rounds of aperol spritz for Michael and dark and stormies for Lucy. Yum!

We then headed up the street towards Pizzica for some… you guessed it… pizza! We had some portobello mushrooms and a spicy Diavola pizza to share. Delicious and just what we needed after a day of moving about.

Back to the villa via the River Resort bar, which is incredibly well stocked with spirits…! So, one more dark and stormy before bed and then it was officially time to hit the hay after a very long but amazingly fun day.