We are heading down to Yallingup (south west WA) for Bs 40th birthday. We left perth on Easter Sunday and drove just under 3hrs to Vasse Felix winery for lunch as our first stop. The 5 course degustation was delicious! Lovely venue with amazing food and wine in a beautiful location.

From Vasse Felix, we stopped in at the chocolate factory (I needed fruffles – freckled truffles) then drove 20 mins back up towards Yallingup to check into our “luxury private villa” at Empire Spa Retreat. The accomodation is surrounded by bush and there are only 11 guest rooms on the adults only premises.

We checked in around 4:30pm and enjoyed some champagne on the deck surrounded by the lovely sounds of the bush while the sun set.

Day 2 commenced with the included continental breakfast at Empire Spa Retreat before we were collected for our winery tour by Esquire Classic Charters. This is a small, family run business that delivers bespoke tours. I let them know we were keen for a variety of wineries, preferably small owner operated ones and to not visit ones we have been to before. Maureen came up with the itinerary below and I enjoyed patting all the winery doggos I could find! We will definitely use this company again.

• Canal Rocks 10.10-10:25
• Marri Wood Park 10.30 – 11.15
• House of Cards Winery 11.20 – 12.00
• Gabriel Chocolates 12.05 – 12.20
• Woody Nook (lunch & tasting) 12.30 – 13.55
• Fermoy Wines 14.00 – 14.50
• Windance Wines 15.00 – 15.50
• Cape Naturaliste Wines 16.00 – 16.50

We started the day by driving 15 mins up the road from our accomodation to visit the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree. This Karri tree is 75 m tall and was pegged for climbing to celebrate Australia’s bicentenary in 1988. You reach the top by climbing 165 metal spikes with a few platforms in between.

It became a tourist attraction after the original Gloucester Tree (a fire look out for many years with pegs for climbing which then became a tourist attraction) was damaged due to people walking over its shallow root system. You can still visit the Gloucester tree though, just no climbing. We had been planning a tree visit yesterday but it was 35C which is quite warm for the southwest region so instead we stayed around Augusta and did extra touristy things there. When we arrived today, it was only 20C which was perfect climbing weather but in the end, we took some nice photos and neither of us climbed it. Too high!

After leaving the tree, we drove to The Cascades and did the 1.2km walking trail. There were some steep inclines and descents so even though this is short, it was challenging in some parts.

After The Cascades, we drove to the Lavender and Berry Farm on the other side of Pemberton where B reckons he ate the best berry pancakes he’s ever had. The scone was also delicious!

From there, we drove to Big Brook Dam and then our to Mountford Winery & Tangletoe Cidery. Their tasting was really good with choices, paddles and little snacks to help you with the process. Plus a very well behaved cellar door dog who wanted all the pats.

We arrived back at our accomodation around 2:30pm and enjoyed a spa, some of the wine from Mountford and the view from our deck.

Home tomorrow! It’s a 4hr drive from here as we are heading back towards Karridale to collect the rest of our holiday group before heading up to Perth.

We checked out of the Hamelin Bay Beach Park today and headed 20 mins down the road to Augusta. We had booked a Leeuwin Lighthouse Tour (book ahead, they do sell out in peak periods) and all enjoyed learning about the history and climbing to the top. Well, some of us enjoyed climbing more than others…pretty sure the 9yo and I would have happily stayed at the bottom!

I had to get my photo taken at the well known sign showing where the two different oceans meet!

We then looked at some other local attractions including the Water Wheel, the local scenic tourist drive, Skippy Rock as well as having a (very delicious) lunch at the bakery.

Around lunchtime we dropped Jess and the kids to visit for a few days with her Dad and then headed to our accomodation at Silkwood Chalets near Pemberton. On the way, we stopped in at the Southern Forest Chocolate Factory which is small but impressive! We collected some chocolates before heading to our accomodation at Silkwood Chalets approx 15 mins outside of Pemberton town centre.

We are in the “Cabernet chalet” which is one of 5 chalets facing on to a beautiful lake with Karri trees towering over it. As we arrived, a family of baby ducks came to say hi and got very close!

After spending some time with our new duckling friends, we then relaxed (adults only accomodation means no children anywhere nearby haha) in the huge spa bath with a view before enjoying dinner on the deck.

We started the day with a BBQ breakfast and then a wander along the boardwalk up to the lookout on the beach. We then sat on the beach while the youngest among us swam around pretending to be a whale for a happy 45 mins.

Lunch today was a 15 min drive away at Hamelin Bay Winery. The other adults were able to do wine tasting and the kids and I took advantage of having phone reception so I could check some emails and they could play Roblox/chat to their friends. The winery was gorgeous and we left with 4 bottles and lots of positive comments about the food.

After some early afternoon quiet time (and a replacement bath mat because holy crap do kids bring a lot of sand inside haha) we wandered back to the beach, this time with the esky and my beach tent ready for its first use. The beach tent was an epic fail but the kids had a great time making sand castles and swimming for hours and my niece (who is 12) basically asserted herself as the “stingray whisperer” and all the stingrays were following her up and down the beach. She named them all…. stingy, stingy junior, Ray-Ray, stingarette….and so on.

Dinner tonight was sausages (on the BBQ again) and the game of choice was “game of life” with B winning.

We headed off today for our first “family vacation” with my bestie and her two kids in tow. We all drove from Perth together in her 4WD.

We left Perth at 9:30am and stopped in at the Old Coast Road Brewery in Myalup as stop 1 after about 90mins of driving. This was a good stop for us as we did our food shopping the day before so didn’t need to go into any major tourist towns to get anything on the way and it gave the kids lots of space to run around if they wanted to. The brewery had some great beer options (including a few low % ones for drivers and stein sized takeaways) and we were lucky enough to organise our lunch stop to be at the same time as some friends of mine from Canberra who were coming the opposite way!

Stop 2 was at “Amaze’n Margaret River” which was another 90 mins away and has a hedge maze and mini golf on site. They also have a little cafe for those looking for a coffee spot and some scones. It was $26 per adult ($18 per child) to access the maze and that was without the mini golf. As we arrived around 3pm they did say we might struggle to get nigh activities done before closing at 5pm so we just did the maze. We found our way to the centre lookout quite easily but did have to use a little bit of google maps assistance to get out haha.

We then drove our final distance of 30 mins (with a short stop for fresh bread) to arrive at the Hamelin Bay Holiday Park where we had a 6 person ocean view cabin booked. Now, booking this was a pain in the butt! They open Dec/Jan bookings by phone on May 1st and I rang over 200 times (across 2.5hrs) before I finally got through and the only 2 nights were left in January one these dates. So we took what we could get. This cabin is fantastic though – right on the beach, sleeps 6 (1 queen bed, 2 single beds, 1 trundle bed, 1 rollaway bed) and is fully equipped including a Weber BBQ with gas bottle. There is no phone reception or wifi here which is sort of awesome and sort of a challenge. They also run off bore water which is good to know before you arrive as you need to bring your own drinking water.

As well as the amazing stingrays (see photos further down) we also saw plenty of very chonky kookaburras.

We walked on the beach, paddled with some friendly stingrays and watched the sunset before a few games of “hand to hand wombat” and bed.