Margaret River – weddings and the recovery.

We arrived at Margaret River on the evening of the 31st. We dropped our bags at the apartment (Margaret’s in Town). After doing some basic shopping, we went off to say hello to the family. They were already out here. It was only supposed to be a brief hello, but we ended up staying a couple of hours.  We got back to the apartment and went straight to bed.

Day 6, 1/11 – Exploring

Today, we went exploring the region around Margaret River. Diane had read about the stingrays that live in Hamelin Bay. She also watched videos of them. So, we set off to find them.  We had a paddle in the bay, looked very closely for stingrays, but alas, did not see a single ray. The best we managed was a poster by the jetty, where they are supposed to congregate.

We did see a couple of whales, probably humpbacks, breaching off beyond the reef. Though Diane does not consider that to be “seeing a whale”.

Lunch time beckoned. We had been told that the White Elephant  Café, at Gnarabup beach, was very good, so we headed there. Something we are finding out about West Australia is that everything happens earlier than we expect it to. The White Elephant opens for breakfast at 7:00 a.m., much earlier than I would expect a beach café in the UK to do and closes at 3:00 p.m. We nearly missed lunch.

I did some more paddling while Diane went snorkelling, completely ignoring the signs. Her ability to avoid wildlife continues, fortunately.

Later on, we discovered the delights of Royal Haze, a local beer.

Day 7 – The Wedding

The reason for our trip finally arrived. Rob and Georgia’s wedding.

I spent the morning trying to remove the creases from my suit and shirt. Then, I walked up the street to find something for lunch. We settled on pies from a local bakery. Then, we wandered back to the apartment to get ready.

The wedding was held at 4:30 p.m. at a resort outside Margaret River called Tana Marah. Rob and Georgia arranged a bus to get everyone there.

While waiting for the bus, we met this guy.

Our grandson was quite impressed when we sent him the photo.

The wedding took place in a eucalyptus grove. Quite a romantic setting.  The flowers looked great. They were all native Australian flowers.

The reception went well. Rob had sourced various beers from local breweries, Georgia’s stepfather, who works in the wine industry, sourced the wine. Both did a good job. The venue did excellent food, and the D.Js played good music. What more could we want.

The bus came back to collect us about midnight. A good time was had by all.

Day 8 Recovering

A recovery session was organised for today. At a place called the Beerfarm. It was quite a way out of town. We couldn’t find the WA equivalent of a 131 bus, so we got a taxi.

An old shearing shed has been repurposed as a brewery and bar/ restaurant. The beer was good, as was the food. I would definitely recommend the place if you are in the Margaret River region.

After lunch, we decided to head back to Margaret River.  The taxi back proved useful for Diane’s search for wildlife. 

Being in Australia, one of the things that was on our “must do” list was see a kangaroo. We asked the taxi driver if he knew where we might find some. He basically said they’re everywhere, but if we went down a specific road, we would almost definitely find some. Did we find them? Follow the next exciting episode…..

After all of yesterday’s excitement, we were tired, so we just came back to the apartment and chilled.