We left Monkey Mia around 9am and headed for the Ocean Park Aquarium in Denham. I had booked the visit here on the theory we would get into the shark tour with a booking but they don’t actually allocate booking times so lesson learned…no point booking ahead for this place. Instead we arrived at 8:30am and had a great breakfast before their first tour at 9:20am. The breakfast views were next level.
The aquarium tour was amazing! Probably one of the best aquariums we have been to and I saw a tiger shark for the first time ever! His name was Boof. Best shark name.
We then drove the 4.5hrs to Geraldton with a short roadhouse stop at Billabong Roadhouse again. Our accomodation in Geraldton was at the Ocean Centre Hotel as I picked something easy, quiet and with an attached restaurant. We arrived in Geraldton around 3pm to an easy check in at a lovely ocean front room.
The attached restaurant was actually shut due to easter so I booked dinner at Skeeta’s which was a 5 min walk from the hotel and had amazing tapas and cocktails with a view of the marina at sunset. They were busy though so you definitely need to book.
We had breakfast at Dome on the beach and then left Geraldton around 9am for the 4.5hr trip to Perth on the inland road. Apparently the coastal road is nicer but for us inland was a slightly shorter trip – about 25 mins saved. We stopped at Badgingarra as the halfway point to stretch our legs (great pies, gross toilets) before being reunited with the fur babies!
We started the day very early! Lots of people had said feeding the dolphins at Monkey Mia is super crowded and adults rarely get picked (especially in school holidays) so it would suck. Instead, we were advised to head to the jetty well before the first 7:45am feeding time and enjoy the dolphins swimming in peace. Then when everyone crowds in for the feeding….go to breakfast! This turned out to be excellent advice as due to covid they actually aren’t allowing guests to feed them, which they didn’t mention at all until just before feed time.
After our dolphin visit we went to brekkie at the local boughshed restaurant and then prepared for our marine reserve catamaran cruise on “Aristocat 2”. This is the only your vessel around here that is legally allowed to enter the conservation zone twice a day. After researching online, it was highly recommended that the morning tour be taken over the afternoon one as you are more likely to see wildlife – although as with all animal cruises they can’t guarantee anything. I was pretty disappointed with this experience to be honest. They obviously can’t control the wildlife but watching the skipper talk to customers for most of the time and not look for any wildlife to point out to us was….disheartening. Letting people ride in the boom net was also a 45 min waste of time that could have been better spent hanging out with some animals! In the end we saw 4 dolphins and 2 dugongs. Photos are terrible.
Dugong mum and calf
After returning, we did some napping/souvenir shopping/people watching/dolphin spotting before having dinner at the Boughshed. i had to book ahead for dinner as they fill up pretty quickly apparently.
Tomorrow: 4.5hrs to Geraldton for a one night stop then another 4hrs home!
We left Kalbarri with the intention of stopping at Hamelin Pool to walk the boardwalk. Unfortunately this has still not been repaired since the cyclone smashed it apart in 2021 and without the access to the walkway you can’t see much of anything – instead we stopped at Billabong Roadhouse for a delicious toastie and leg stretching.
Then we travelled through to Shell Beach. There is only one other beach in the world made up of billions of tiny shells instead of sand! The shells all come from one specific animal and the beach is close to 100km long. That’s a lot of Dead tiny animals.
From Shell Beach we drove another 20 mins into Denham (to stop at the IGA for supplies) before continuing on to the Monkey Mia RAC resort. We had booked an ocean view cabin when the option came up to stay here. We can see the beach and ocean from our balcony so could watch dolphins frolic on the shore and emus roam around.
I had booked a scenic flight (flight option 2) with shark bay aviation, paying the extra for a private flight. It did not occur to me that this meant we would be in a tiny 4 seater plane!! Eeek. The views were amazing though.
We made it back to Monkey Mia with about 5 mins before sunset and then enjoyed a gorgeous hour long sky changing colour while drinking moet on the balcony. We also watched a pod of 4 dolphins swim back and forth in front of our room!
Okay so forewarning I’ve been drinking a lot of expensive Margaret River wine before writing this!
We checked out of our accomodation (air bnb escape hatch in Margaret river – would stay again) before we 10am and headed to the chocolate factory for delicious fresh waffles for breakfast. There are lots of in town options if you prefer! Brumby’s, the town bakery, the other town bakery, the mosaic cafe to name a few!
We then drove another 25ish kms to Ngilgi (pronounced Ni-lgi) cave. This came up in my research as a hidden gem – not as big as the main show caves but lots of hidden pathways and you can go the whole way to the bottom! We pre-booked. B says “pretty cool, I was impressed”. I say that I was not expecting to be able to do the 370 steps up and back but I managed it due to the number of rest points!
After Ngilgi Cave we headed to Cape Naturaliste with a stop off at Sugarloaf Rock sightseeing point (best at sunset apparently). It was still cool to look at in the day time and less busy.
After visiting the rock we paid $15 each to do the lighthouse tour. This was prebooked which turned out to be lucky as it filled up. We were able to learn the history of the area and climb up to the viewing platform (approx (59 very narrow and steep steps). Everyone went very slow up the stairs so it was not obvious I was limping at this point!
At 2:15pm we left Cape Naturliste and headed to Injidup Spa and Resort about 25 mins back towards Yallingup. This is an ADULT ONLY resort (they take that seriously) with 10 private villas that all have ocean view decks and plunge pools. Ummm it’s a bit amazing! We are so far very impressed. You are near other villas (shared walls) but you can’t really tell.
We checked in at 3pm, had a massage from 3:30-5pm then had a grazing platter and complimentary bottle of wine while watching the sunset in our private pool and deck.
Today we started the day by attempting to visit Gnarabup Beach. That was an epic fail as both the car park and over flow car park were totally full and people were illegally parking everywhere. Apparently 35C heat + a mask mandate means everyone goes to the beach! We gave up and went to Cheeky Monkey Brewing Company for lunch. Our review was basically visit for the beer, not the food. We had a quesadilla and fried chicken and both were below average.
After the brewery we visited the Margaret River Chocolate Company again to try out truffles. Then we also visited their attached cellar door and and the well known Providore shop where we sampled some delicious wine and chocolate liquer as well as purchasing some tasty looking meat rubs and candied nuts.
After a nap, we headed off to Arc of Iris for dinner which comes highly recommended on all the food review sites. I was glad we booked as even though they weren’t very busy, only bookings got to sit inside. Even with the aircon on (2 split systems) the number of people and the open kitchen meant it was very warm in the restaurant. We ended up skipping dessert and another drink as it was so hot. B had the ribs and I had the steak, both were very good.
Tomorrow we check out of our air bnb and then have a day off sightseeing before we check into the next accomodation. I have booked Ngilgi Cave and Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse but may not be able to do either with how bruised and swollen my knee is from my tumble the other day. Either way, B can tourist for both of us!
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.
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.
I have been lobbying B to stay here since it first opened in 2014 but he’s always said no because the cost is….to be blunt….totally insane. He finally agreed given we have had to cancel all our other travel this year and I have had some extra unexpected income recently which paid for half of it.
Jamala Wildlife Lodge is based at Canberra Zoo. They have a variety of accomodation but I’ve always wanted to stay in a “jungle bungalow” which is approx $2000 a night. I told you….the pricing is totally bonkers! Their website says “The Jungle Bungalows are luxurious individual suites adjoining a variety of enclosures throughout the property. A glass wall is all that will separate you from a pride of lions, cheetahs, tiger or a Malayan sun bear! Regardless of whether you are relaxing in your lounge area, resting in bed or taking a leisurely bath, you will only be a heartbeat away from these amazing creatures. All rooms feature king beds, bath robes, indulgent bath tubs, optional climate control, complimentary wireless internet, music system with MP3 input, television with complimentary Foxtel and premium TV.”
So, we booked in for a night during the September school holidays. They sent us a lot of information beforehand and were very responsive to queries. The schedules they use at the moment are slightly adjusted due to covid 19 but this was our pre-prepared schedule! We also added two extra experiences to this – giraffe encounter and white lion feeding – which were booked in on day 1.
We arrived at 1pm to check in and were provided with afternoon tea at the Ushaka Lodge which was delicious. The lodge has a beautiful view over the local land and there were also some lemurs just….hanging out. Jamala provide a self guided tour for the afternoon session but we headed off on our own tour as there was giraffe feeding to be done! We fed Shabu the male giraffe and also got to meet his lady friend and 1 year old calf.
After the giraffe feeding, we met the zoo staff at one of the gazebos and collected our bungalow keys. For most people this meant from 3-7pm they hang out in their bungalow with their animals. We took a brief detour on the way back to the bungalow to feed Jake the white lion, and meet his sister Mishka.
After feeding Jake the very hungry (and demanding!) white lion with his keeper Ryan – the zoo owners son – we headed to Jungle Bungalow 5 with Mya and Melita the toddler tiger twins! I was a teeny, tiny bit excited when we walked in to this….hi there 2 year old 120kg tiger friend!!
When we were in the bath they mostly laid here and watched us….or wrestled each other!
We settled in with a bubble bath, watching tigers wrestle/nap and some champagne to tide us over until dinner. Just before 7pm we were collected and taken to the rainforest cave for dinner alongside the white lions and hyenas. The dinner and drinks were all included and the food was mostly very good – B got unlucky with a not so great steak but mine was delicious – and the paired drink options were all good quality. I haven’t been so full in ages!
This collage shows some of the afternoon tea snacks on day 1, dinner canapés + main + dessert and our breakfast choices the next day!
After dinner, they drive you back to hang out and watch your animal friends some more before you tuck in for bed next to them!
Our morning tiger view
We then woke up to sleepy tigers quite early (6:30am!) and some small pastries before heading off on an animal tour and feeding experience. We got to see dingos howl, monkeys use tools, lemurs wrestle for snacks and learn about how they are combating the rhino horn trade.
After the tour, we had breakfast (more delicious food in the rainbow cave) followed by another 90 mins of hanging out with our tiger friends and people watching because this time…we could see all the people looking into the enclosure from the viewing spots! they had privacy barriers up from 3pm the day before but they do warn you they take them down in the morning.
Verdict
A few people on Facebook asked me “was it worth the money?”. I think the answer to this has a few parts. First of all, there are not many (f any) places with this level of experience and accomodation in Australia. So choices are limited. It’s also in very high demand, usually getting in during school holidays is pretty dang hard to do! There is also the aspect here of this particular facility being wholly privately owned and funded and the work they do is amazing….we feel it’s worth paying the premium to support such a dedicated organisation and staff.
Secondly, it’s definitely not an every day thing. We had 2 overseas trips planned this year and haven’t gone on either which is how I was able to convince B to even consider this amount for one night lol. So when asking was it worth it, B said he felt it was a fantastic one-off experience that was worth doing but not something we would repeat.
Finally, we chose to go top tier with the experience on advice from others. There are rooms at the lodge for approximately $1200 a night and the giraffe treehouse is $1500 a night. The advice we had from people who had stayed in these rooms was if you’re only doing it once….go all out. Geez, I am glad we listened!
This morning I got up with B and caught the shuttle bus from Hanazono to Hirafu with a mission in mind! First – onsen time. I went back to Hirafu-tei and once again had the onsen to myself just before it closed for the lunch break. I then made my way back to the Hirafu welcome centre, purchased a delicious baileys hot chocolate and began a concentrated look out mission for the local bus. There are no labeled bus stops at the welcome centre – it’s a bloody bus/van free for all – and my plan tomorrow is to catch the local bus to the local train station and then catch that train to Otaru for a day trip….but I need to know where the local bus stops first! It was scheduled to arrive at 11:07am and I furtively noted its arrival and departure spot (relatively punctual because this is japan) from my coffee shop location. I also got pretty photos of Mt Yotei which was finally not fogged in.
After playing bus spotto, I wandered down the road to Tozanken ramen and grabbed a number. I was first in line! Woohoo. Their pork ramen is really good although only one slice of pork in the standard dish whereas Nakama (the place we ate last night) had 5 slices in their standard one and it was cheaper. I had the “set” this time which had really good gyoza and was ¥1100. I swear the ramen was better this time than the other day but I was really hungry….
When B got back from the snow we used the private hot bath at the accomodation again so he could relax his muscles and I could float around like a garden fairy while drinking vending machine hot chocolate….coz that’s what hot baths are for right? I also secretly love they are calling him B Smith as his name since I booked all the accomodation this time under my surname haha.
For dinner, we went to Izakaya Nidaime Samurai which was once again recommended by our accomodation. It was kinda like Japanese tapas! Bs friend who was also here skiing from Australia joined us. They had a lot of drink options here and apparently match really well to what dishes you order, we mostly stuck with beer and umeshu though. This place was super reasonably priced – we had 6 shared dishes and 9 drinks for ¥11000 between us all.
The food was excellent – sashimi, pork, chicken, salmon, Japanese omelette and sablefish were all delicious. There was nothing we tried we didn’t like! Except for me who tried sashimi for the first time haha….you can see below for how that went!
Today B went out to ski and I continued my non-skiing adventures. We actually had decent snow fall overnight and today so he has had a great time skiing around Hanazono and Hirafu:
I am currently spending my days at local onsens and also trying out different food places in Hirafu Village! Hirafu-tei onsen has been my default onsen as its right near the shuttle bus stop and when I go in the morning I usually have it all to myself. I did try to access The Vale onsen today but despite what their advertising claims, they are not open to local visitors. Hirafu-Tei in the mornings is pretty quiet though, so I really enjoy sitting out in the hot bath and looking at Mt Yotei on my own. I have now worked out not to sit to close to the right side of the outdoor bath though as it’s next to a bloody chairlift! Don’t want to blind any poor kids.
I had lunch at Tozanken Ramen on the Hirafu Main Street. They open at 11am and I was there at 10:45am and joined an already long line! When you eat here you collect a ticket to help them seat you in order.
Considering they are based in the main village where everything is very expensive, their prices are reasonable (¥750 for my bowl of soy pork ramen) and it was good ramen. Not the best I’ve ever had but so far above the crap I ate at a ski cafeteria yesterday!
When B got back to the hotel after his day in the snow we had reserved the hot bath downstairs for ourselves for an hour. This is not a proper onsen (the water is not piped up from a geothermal source) but it is still styled like a traditional bath – you get naked, wash beforehand, sit in the hot bath. The difference here is you can make a private booking so we could actually go together rather than be gender separated. Unfortunately….it was broken *insert sad face here* so instead we went for a very quick soak at the Mt Yotei Hotel one before dinner.
For dinner tonight, our accomodation booked us into a Japanese bbq place that comes highly recommended called Orench. They said we needed a decent booking time there (it’s not a quick eat and run place) so allocated two hours to us between drop off and pick up.
You basically order small plates of different meats and then cook it yourself on a personalised bbq at your table. Awesome! The wagyu special rib was a highlight for us but we also tried beef tongue and chicken necks which were yum. Below is the sequence of me trying the beef tongue.
After we finished, we wandered next door to Sasa sake bar. They didn’t speak English but through pointing and lots of nodding we were able to try a bunch of different sake liquor flavours including:
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