Fremantle to Margaret River

Leaving Fremantle behind after a few interesting and fun days. We took the coastal road through South Fremantle towns such as Rockingham, Mandurah, Australind and Bunbury all the way to Busselton where we stayed the night. 

Since heading south we have come into some cloudy and colder weather. Staying at Kookaburra Caravan Park, is an ideal position as it is right next to the famous Busselton Jetty and a very short bike ride into the town centre. The jetty is the towns major attraction as it is 2kms long, the longest timber-piled jetty in the Southern Hemishere. It was originally built to export timber in the early 1850's.

   The jetty, not at its best due to the overcast day.

After staying the one night in Busselton we headed to the Margaret River Region via the coast rd, Caves Rd, which took us past some beautiful beaches and bays and of course a winery or two. Not far out of Busselton was our first stop and of course it was a winery, not just any winery but one after my own namesake that being Palmer's Winery. 

Took a few pics, however, no sampling the wine as far too early in the day for us. Bought a bottle of wine, from the manager, even though the cellar door wasn't even open, just to take home. Not sure of the quality but what the heck.

Drove through the lovely town of Dunsborough and had a quick look at the beach.

    Unusual art work of a family, not really dressed for enjoying a day at the beach. Pic a bit hard to get clear as even using the backlight setting didn't bring them up too well. Will have to get a few more tips on photography from the experts- Sim will need to pick your brain when we get home.

From Dunsborough we drove up the Cape Naturaliste Peninsula to two beautiful bays that we were told not to miss. 

    Not a lot at Eagle Bay besides a very remote bay, very REMOTE.

    Bunker Bay was even more remote but far more striking with its limestone cliffs and rugged coastline, very beautiful spot and very remote, nothing between it and the top of the peninsula except national parkland.

     Very beautiful water.

    Panoramic view of the area.

From Bunker Bay we drove through some picturesque countryside.

    These beautiful lilies are growing everywhere up here and we were later to find out that in parts of the Margaret River area they are becoming a problem, none the less they looked wonderful.

    Lots of sheep farming up here.

 And onto one of the loveliest beaches that we have seen and that is at a coastal hamlet called Yallingup. All through the Margaret River Region towns have names that end with the suffix 'up'. The reason behind this is that they have been officially allocated the names that the aborigines gave them originally. 'Up' simply means 'place of' and so Yallingup means place of love.

    This is the unreal view of Yallingup as we were approaching the township, just gorgeous you can see why it would be a place of love.

Yallingup is home to a relaxed local community, cool bars and pubs(which we didn't visit) and epic surf breaks and blinding white sands.

   The kids were having a ball hanging out on the water's edge in this really cool playground.

    This is typical of the surf up here nearly every day.

  Just had to show you one more of the many that I took. What about the colour of the water, unreal?

After dragging ourselves away from Yallingup we headed down the coast road, Caves Rd, to the town of Margaret River. Along the way we passed through many wineries, however, left the wine tasting till we go on the organised tour that we have booked - not RAS but RUAWD( responsible use of alcohol while driving)!!!! One that we did stop at just to get the picture of the sculptue out the front was Laurance of Margaret River. 

    The gold statue of a female on a long pole was very controversial when originally placed here, however, the owners and the inspiration behind this sculpture were very honest in their reasoning for it. The plaque near the sculpture reads - ' Free as a Bird. As you gaze at this beautiful sculpture ready to dive into her own new adventure please take a moment to reflect on the freedom and opportunities that this great country of ours gives us all'. It is affectionately named by the locals as the chick on a stick or not so nice mole on a pole. We were told to go in and visit the ladies bathroom here as it totally worth the visit as they are exquisite. Unfortunately this day they were closed for spring cleaning?

Next stop the town of Margaret River and Margaret River Tourist Park, where we were staying for 4 nights. 

All this on a very interesting day arriving at Margaret River about 2 in the afternoon.