Holidays – day 2

Due to various dietary needs and restrictions, we’d had to plan ahead a little with eating out.  We’d booked ourselves into Hay Shed Hill winery for breakfast and for a late lunch in Settlers Tavern in Margaret River and then planned out a sort of route between feeds to take in the must see sights.

It was a half hour drive to Hay Shed Hill Winery (which of course prompted cries of ‘it tooooo far, I’m hungry, are we nearly there’ etc from the kids) but it’s beautiful countryside, wineries on both sides, large gum trees lining winding and mostly empty roads and the vines showing signs of Autumn colour.  If I’d had the chance, it would have been photography heaven.  Another time maybe.

Breakfast was interesting if a little quirky – I’m not sure we read the menu correctly doing our research, but we all did ok in the end and the scenery was fantastic

As luck would have it (ok, there’s no luck here, this was meticulously planned), the Margaret River Chocolate Company was just down the road, so we headed there for some hedonistic choc indulgence and free tasting.  Oh yes.

Yes, its a wall of chocolate.  Its delicious stuff and we spent a king’s ransom in there.  Ah well, it’s worth it. Nom mom. Plus, we had happy children!

Moving on, we went to visit to the Candy Cow in Cowaramup.  It’s a little boutique sweet shop where they make all their own stuff.  Awesome!  We managed to restrict ourselves to one bag of goodies, not too hard as we had full bellies from breakfast and chocolate!

We went to Margaret River town for a poke about before meeting my parents for lunch in the Setlers.  Its a pretty place but man it was busy and there was nowhere to park. Still, we got in eventually and had a wander.

We chilled out in a park after ice creams and before we could even entertain lunch

After lunch we drove the short distance to Prevelly, a coastal town that had been badly hit by bushfires late last year.  A Department of the Environment and Conservation prescribed burn got out of control and ripped through thousands of hectares of forest.  Still, life is resilient and houses will be rebuilt, trees will regrow (they are somewhat adapted to this) and in time it will be like nothing happened, except in the memories of those who lost precious belongings.  I didn’t take any pictures cos it was all a bit sad and not something that really needed attention from a gawping tourist.

Anyway – twas a good day.

Next up – a maze, canal rocks and wine wine wine.