Today initially intended to have breakfast at the Margaret River Bakery (directly opposite our accomodation) however the line was literally in the car park and I wasn’t waiting that long. We went next door to the very cute Mosaic Cafe which had perfectly good breakfast snacks and coffee….and no line!
The we headed off for a 30 min drive to Canal Rocks. Now, Canal Rocks was not on my original list of things to do as it has been closed for long periods over the last few years due to extensive storm damage. I saw on a travel page late last night some recent photos and it seems open so I thought we could try! Thousands of years of the Indian Ocean surging and crashing against this section of granite coastline has chiselled out a narrow channel between the granite rocks. A short boardwalk has been built to cross on to the rocks and you can climb around on them.
We got there around 10:40am so it was fairly quiet but by the time we climbed back an hour later it was getting busy and passing people on the boardwalk was squishy.
B went full mountain goat and climbed all the way out, I took it a lot slower (and utilised the help of a dad who was getting his 5yo daughter across) but made it most of the way! Well, until literally the last 5 metres back to the boardwalk when I slipped and bashed my knee.
Suggestions for Canal Rocks:
⁃ wear sneakers rather than thongs. You can do it in thongs but once you get to the end you will feel more comfortable on the rocks in sneakers. There is nowhere to swim here (just a little bit of an area to paddle around the rocks) so we left our thongs in the car and bath swapped shoes in the car park
⁃ If you are not willing to climb on the rocks the boardwalk is very short and you’ll end up sort of standing on a small rock, blocking everyone’s way. So be prepared to either climb on then or go back to avoid bottle necks
⁃ Be prepared for sun. So much sun. Haha this is Australia in summer so slip, slop, slap!
⁃ There is a public toilet here and a fairly large car park so lots of space
Canal Rocks is only a 4 min drive past iconic Smith’s Beach so we stopped there for a dip on the way back. It was a very nice looking beach but we both agreed we preferred Hamelin Bay yesterday.
Driving back towards Margaret River along Caves Road there were a few wineries so we stopped in at Vasse Felix (the oldest winery in the region) for a cellar door tasting. B liked the wine so much he bought a whole bunch to take home! It’s a beautiful venue and one day we will have to return to try their award winning restaurant.
We snuck into the Margaret River Bakery before it shut at 2pm for a snack – the bacon toastie was pretty good but we agreed not worth waiting an hour in the crazy line from this morning.
We then got changed and headed off to Passel Estate, a small family owned winery who also dedicate part of their land to western ringtail possum rehabilitation after bushfires. We paid for an experience where we got to your the vineyard, see the possum rehab area, have cheese and wine and recorded a complimentary bottle as well as donating a chunk of the ticket to their possum rehabilitation program. We got a bonus extended tour further into the bush to see some 200+ year old grass trees as well!
Dinner tonight was some chocolate from Margaret river chocolate company and B ate some cheese from the dairy farm. I was full from the delicious cheese platter at Passel Estate!
P.S. The mask mandate is back as of last night and applies to us so we have been wearing those indoors (as required) but they are not required outside.
beer!
hiking – view looks amazing
gorgeous sunsets
a traditional luau
Mel's Travel Blog 