Margaret River...

My posts on our recent holiday on Western Australia got a bit sidetracked. But because my blog is like my journal I will backtrack every now and then and write more about our travels, even though it all happened early last month! 

We spent 2 nights in the town of Margaret River; an area known for its wineries and food production...especially cheeses, chocolate and olives' products. 

Our accomodation featured lowset villas, set in lovely gardens. And each villa was named after a type of wine; ours was Cabernet Franc. ( I'd never heard of it and had to look it up; a black grape variety that is used in blends) 

Again the accomodation was spacious.

Margaret River town centre is quite compact and we enjoyed walking around the streets. While DH got brochures etc from the Information Centre, I 'played' with some of the stuffed toys in their big display. 

On the footpath adjacent to the Information centre, I was intrigued by this vending machine. I'd never seen one of these before.

On our full day in the area, we set off early to explore...

Another stop was at a chocolate factory....Temper Temper Fine Chocolates.  We bought 2 sugar free chocolate bars which were surprising nice and 2 single chocolates, rum and raisin flavour which were absolutely divine! ☺️

The lovely Vasse Virgin shop with lots of products made with locally made olive oil.

There are sooooo many wineries in this district, but we only visited a few. We stopped at one called the Cheeky Monkey at lunchtime. The grounds behind the main building are filled with lovely gardens, a playground and lots of undercover seating area...just so inviting for the visitors to the winery. 

It looked to be very popular with families, so we thought that probably indicated that the food in the cafe was good...and it was!!

My salad was huge...and delicious with a few slices of DH's pizza! 

Even though we don't usually add salt to our food, I was impressed by the salt containers on the table...salt from my dad's homeland. 

After lunch we found the Woody Nook Winery as my brother had asked us to buy him some of their port.

A lovely woodland type garden near their car park...

On our second night we went to an Italian restaurant in the town...the ravioli was delicious! 

Before we headed off from Margaret River, we visited their markets on the Sunday morning...

Lots of beautiful fresh food, including an Italian bakery stall. And that dog was getting lots of attention of market goers. 

And then we were back on the road again; this time we were headed for Albany. 

Home...

Yesterday morning  DH and I repacked our suitcases and with much rearranging of the contents, fitted in our holiday purchases. For once, I did NOT buy any yarn or fabric...nope not a bit! But there will be more about that in a future post. 🙄. 

Then it was time to leave our latest accomodation, a lovely B&B in Como a suburb of Perth, and head for the airport. 

Perth airport has 4 Terminals, spread over 2 separate areas of land...and despite being warned about this by my brother, we first went to the wrong airport. But we had given ourselves lots of time, so got to the correct place in plenty of time. 

So today was all about unpacking and also a few loads of washing. But the nicest task was sorting out those purchases.

Several packs of Western Australian chocolates for family...

A calendar from the wildflower farm for my neighbour...

Books for Anthea...

Some clothes for Anthea...

Some lovely soaps and a mustard from Vasse Virgin...( which is famous for all their products made with their high quality olive oil) 

Some stuffed toys that I will 'mind' for a while until Anthea is older! 😉😉😉

WA is famous for its vineyards; there are just so many. We visited a couple, including Woodynook, where we had an order for some port, from my brother. We ended up with 6 bottles of wine, including the 2 for Harry, and we sent them home by Toll Couriers from Albany. The box arrived today...all intact so my brother will be pleased. 

And I bought some potpourri from the wildflower farm. 

It smells delightful! So all in all, a very modest amount to carry home, but that's how I wanted it. 

And DH only bought 2 souvenir Teeshirts and one polo...very restrained! Lol.

And just like other members of K4BN, I also 'gather' items when I travel. DH and I carried our own soap so we could gather up the motel soaps. And of course any of the little bottles of shampoo and conditioner provided by motels, that we didn't use, we 'gathered'. 

And why are we such 'bowerbirds'? These items will end up being included in the hygienie pack  that K4BN  hands out to needy recipients. So these will come in handy helping people. 

I still have some 'travelogue posts' to do but the next post will be a FNSI.