Ah, glorious sleep ins with no dogs waking us up in search of breakfast.
Initially we were going to go on a bit of an adventure today to Boranup Forest and Hamelin Bay but the weather was very overcast so instead we decided to visit some attractions closer to town and see what the clouds did. This had the double advantage of me also keeping my poor, sad, day 2 sunburn indoors to start off with.
We started the morning at Margaret River Chocolate Company. You best believe chocolate samples for breakfast was a thing! I do remember coming here both with my primary school camp 20+ years ago and with some friends around 2005ish – the building certainly stands out as distinct. The fresh banana waffles were delicious.
After the chocolate factory, we headed to the Margaret River Dairy Company. I’ve actually never been here before and didn’t know much about it but on arrival, realised we regularly buy their Camembert cheese at our local shops. While there we learnt that they still practice traditional cheese making approaches from back in the 1800s and also bought a cheese sample pack. I had to have my photo taken with the “cow-ntess” of course!
After stocking up on chocolate and cheese, we returned to the holiday apartment. We decided that the clouds looked like they were going away so changed into bathers and drove the 30 mins south to Hamelin Bay which is a gorgeous beach. There were amazing rock formations (geology nerd here) and wild stingrays that came in to the shallows for pats and treats! It was a bit windy so there were not heaps of stingrays but enough I got some photos and had a little touch before I panicked and moved away haha. The stingrays usually only come in if it is calm so they were a bit skittish and hard to photograph.
On the way back from Hamelin Bay we were going to stop at the Boranup Forest lookout but this was completely closed (both viewing stations) due to the recent bushfire. The drive through the area was very sad as we saw all the burnt out areas and closed off roads that went for kilometres.
We stopped at Xanadu Winery on the way back into Margaret River and they were hosting a Sunday session! There was wine tastings, snacks, wine by the glass, live music and outdoor games for people to play. We did a tasting, bought some wine and enjoyed the shade for awhile. I also patted ALL THE DOGS so once again, dogs win over people.
Dinner tonight was only a 2 min walk and was at the highly recommended La Scarpetta Trattoria. Again, I booked ahead using their online booking system since I wasn’t sure how busy this time of year gets down here – while we were there they turned multiple people away so booking ahead was a good call! This is not the cheapest place to eat ($30 a main) but the food was fresh and tasty.
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