Margaret River - OH how I love you.

WELL, the holiday is OVER.   Monday night has rolled around, which may as well be Sunday as tomorrow I am back at work.  BLEUGH.  Work, who needs it? 

NOT ME.  Someone can just give me money instead.

Right.

Following on from my last post:

Let’s go back. Back in time, rewind the clock to exact one week ago.  So, we had just left Perth.  Had a ball; swimming, shopping, wedding etc – just fab.  And, the holiday was only starting.. we still had an entire week in one of the most beautiful coastal regions in Australia – Margaret River.  We were pumped.

Three hours and several nondescript towns later – we had arrived.  I had poured over the brochures and info and pictures for the last OH six months… and finally my dream was about to come true.  I was only going to be out of the water for essential activities such as eating and sleeping; the rest of the time would be spent lounging in the turquoise depths of the west coast.  We rounded the corner to the beach that was opposite our tiny coastal ‘home for the next week’ town of Prevally, and then….. oh no.  What is this?

Instead of this (totally what I was expecting):

We were faced with this:

Yep – that is right.  Closed.  Thank you 4-5 metre swell – so glad to see you.  OH and I see you have brought your friends storm cloud, gale force wind and RAIN along with you? How considerate.  So pleased to meet you all.  F A B.  Here are some more picture-perfect beach shots:

So that was it.  For the next five days, we were beachless.  Not only was the weather ‘very unseasonably CRAP’ (our landlady’s more than accurate words), but any chance of attempting a freezing swim was further dispelled by the other super handy sign found at most beaches:

Bang.  Could this possibly get any worse?  Even if you wanted to brave the cold (and honestly coming from Ballarat where you need an electric blanket in February it really wasn’t that cold) you then had to risk being eaten by a great white.  To swim or not to swim? Tough decision.

Needless to say – the water was off limits.  So – what else could we do?

This:

Lighthouse at Point Augusta – where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean

Met some friends at Sunflowers Animal Farm – CUTE. You get to hand feed them out of a bucket.. they love it

Down in the depths of the Lake Cave – amazing

UH at the Laundromat? BF is not a great long term packer

Saracen Winery and Duckstein Brewery

BF’s fave beverage – it comes in a VIBRANT green carton and tastes like a toothpaste milkshake

Our home away from home - House of the Sea

Overall – despite the weather it was a gorgeous break.  We did eating a plenty (I became addicted to the MOST AMAZING vegan Asian salad from Peko Peko in Dunsborough and had a fab parma at the Margaret River pub), explored the region in our rented Holden Epica (the license plate was 1DOG - much to the bf's delight), visited all the all-weather must-see tourist attractions and basically just chilled out. Fab.

And then, on our last day down south – the weather turned.  The sun appeared, and we finally got to see the beaches in all their crystal clear, aquamarine, wind free and minus rain glory. AHmazing.  Here are some obligatory perfect beach shots:

And then, it was time to go.

We headed back up the loooooong freeway, back to the bustling hub of Fremantle for the night.  For our lucky last night in Perth, we had booked into an amazing Victorian bed and breakfast in a two-storey limestone house – Fothergills of Fremantle.  We had the English room; complete with a four-poster bed, separate massive bathroom, a private balcony with views to the bay and the entire top floor to ourselves.  Woop.

Our last day slash night was spent totally touristing around: doing a super spooky prison tour (built by the convicts when the first settled here – absolutely huge and overwhelming), eating a fab lunch in the Freo markets from the Raw Food café (after all the parmas/icecreams/Margaret River chocolate factory I felt like healthy was the only way to go), watching the street performers in the Freo Arts festival (sadly missed the Rubberband boy – he holds the world record for most rubberbands stretched over face), getting burnt in the (long overdue) hot sun (finally some sort of tan), and all topped off with an amazing dinner at Monk brewery on the hub that is South Terrace (best seafood pizza ever.  EVER).

Here:

And then, that was it. Holiday - over and out.

Had an amazing time – in Perth, Margaret River and then Freo.  I love life over in the west; it is relaxed, outdoorsy and beach-friendly, with fabulous shopping and amazing weather (not sarcasm I promise!).  I love the quirky limestone houses, the frangipani bushes used as hedges and the way it feels like a big country town.  I could get used to morning beachside runs, riding my bike to work and whizzing around on a scooter on the weekend…

One final hurrah was the entire Melbourne Football club shared our plane on the way home.  Uh - hello boys.   Pity you lost by over a hundred points.

Got home at 3am Sunday morning…. Happy Easter!  The pooch was pleased to see us.. he slept in the middle of the bed under the blankets for the remainder of the night.  Needless to say only one of us got any sleep.

Things are now back to normal.  Outfit post in the morning, and fashion finds to come.  Sorry to all you lovelies who are waiting on a find… they are on their way I promise!

Back in action.

FFIFY xxx 
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