Margaret River

On Saturday, the sun and the warm weather returned to Margaret River. In fact, a sign in a local establishment said "Hooray! The sun is shining at last!" We started our day by walking up and down the main street/shopping area of the town of Margaret River. This being Saturday, the sidewalks were teeming with shoppers wandering in and out of gift shops, clothing stores, coffee shops, cafes, etc. There were good sales on winter clothing; this being spring here heading into summer, they're unloading the winter inventory. Joe found a nice genuine Australian merino wool sweater, and I bought a pair of merino wool gloves that are tremendously warm and will be great for the cold Pittsburgh winters.

Next we headed to the nearby beaches that are famous for international surfing competitions held here annually. The beach we stopped at, Surfer's Point, was an amazing coastal smorgasbord.

So much was going on here: waves breaking furiously, waves crashing on rocks, waves lapping onto the sandy beaches, surfers riding the waves, kite surfers riding the wind. But the most impressive sight was watching the activity of the waves offshore.

It appeared as though the various currents were vying for control of the wave. The waves had to work hard to overcome the regressive rip currents on their way to the shore. They came in full force and vigorously slapped whatever coastal feature stood in their way: rock, sand, grass, tree, tourist (Yikes!). Because of the shape of the coastline, the waves were oriented in 3 or 4 different directions, and you could view the whole scenario from one single viewpoint. We could have spent the whole day just watching and listening to this most phenomenal display of nature.

Realizing that we couldn't spend the rest of our Australian vacation staring at the wave action, we reluctantly left the spectacular beaches and headed to the Leeuwin Estate Winery. Along the winding driveway leading up to the estate, we saw vast changes of scenery: first, rows and rows of vineyards, then dense tree-filled forests, and then open finely-manicured lawns with a few tall trees. It was a beautiful estate.

Once inside, we walked around the gallery, saw the barrels of wine aging in the cool cellar, and visited the ubiquitous gift shop. Next we traveled north, and went through the town of Cowaramup. The word "cow" being in the name of this town is no coincidence. There is a prominent cow theme here and there are many life-size statues of cows in various poses all along the main drag. We also saw a cow-herding in progress. On the left side of the highway, cows were being herded into a narrow stall; to the right side of the highway, the cows emerged, still in narrow stalls. In between, they disappeared, as they apparently were being funnelled - shoulder-to-shoulder - through a tunnel underneath the highway.

Our next stop was at the Margaret River Chocolate Factory, and all I can say is "WOW!" When we first walked in there were free samples of white chocolate, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate, all small flat chips. As we walked around the shop, we saw chocolate lip balm, chocolate bath salts, and chocolate soap. I'm not sure if you eat the chocolate soap, or if you bathe with it. There were chocolate koalas and chocolate kangaroos,

and there was a plaque of chocolate in the shape of Australia - my favorite view of Australia to date!

There was also a "Chocolate Window" where you could view the candy making process where large vats of chocolate were being turned into various candy shapes. The biggest problem with our visit to the chocolate factory is that we were not able to bring back any souvenirs from here, or we'd end up with one big melted chocolate mess. Not necessarily a bad thing. We finished traveling back to Perth, going through many "shires" along the way, finally arriving at our hotel for the night. Blogger note: Tomorrow (Sunday) we board the Indian Pacific Train and will be "riding the rails" until we arrive in Adelaide Tuesday morning. There is no internet service on the train, so there will be no blogs before Tuesday evening at the earliest, possibly later depending on internet availability.