Perth and Margaret River

After a night stopover in Melbourne we were ready to go west. We boarded our Tigerair flight to Perth just to leave the aircraft again about 20 minutes later - technical breakdown. We were lucky to get a spare aircraft within an hour and arrived in Perth in the late afternoon. There we had the next bad surprise of the day: the booking of our rental car (ok we admit we did it only last minute 48h before) had not gone through and thus we did not have a car ready. Renting a vehicle at one of the companies at the airport was just way too expensive so we had to switch plans last minute and took the bus to go downtown. We were staying at Regan's apartment very close to the center of Perth. Regan used to be Alex' housemate during his time in London, they stayed in contact and it was a great opportunity to meet him again. He offered us a room in his spacious flat for the coming days and we spent some funny evenings together.

So at the end we decided to rent a car only towards the end of our stay in Perth as we were so close to the center and public transport within the CBD was free of charge. On our first evening we had dinner and wine together with Regan and of course a lot of chatting as it's been almost 10 years since the boys have seen each other. The next two days we explored Perth and its surroundings during the day and enjoyed the warm weather. We strolled through the tiny, yet very cute center of Perth, enjoyed the best Banh-Mi outside Vietnam (at Le Vietnam, the owner was really cool and funky, he used to be a globe trotter DJ), crossed the harbour and walked up to Kings Park, a huge recreation area with good views of downtown Perth and a big war memorial. The next day we felt like being lazy and headed out to one of the two city beaches: Scarborough beach. Hardly any people, perfect weather, a long stretch of white sand and the refreshing ocean - what more do you need? In the evening we cooked for Regan to thank him for hosting us and ended up drinking one or two more bottles than expected.

The next morning we picked up our rental car at 9:00am and after a good breakfast we headed out to Freemantle, a town with a picturesque old center and a historic prison. As it was weekend we benefited from the Freemantle weekend market and had some detox juice (much needed) and some yummy bites here and delicious snacks there. Then we did an informative and interesting tour through the prison (also Perth started off with lots of convicts from Europe) and for our first beautiful and romantic sunset in Western Australia we drove to Cottesloe beach. Afterwards we met another friend of Alex' from his London times, lovely Bex. We had dinner and a nice evening together at the Little Creatures Brewery in Freemantle. Thank you Bex for taking your time to see us, it was a great pleasure to meet you and we hope to see you again someday in Europe.

And then it was already time for us to go south and indulge in one of our favourite activities: wine tasting :). To save money for wine, we went back to our good old camping habits and pitched our tent for a couple of days in a massive forest about 25km south of Margaret River. As the wine region is huge with countless wineries around, we made quite a plan to optimize our tasting circuits. In the coming three days we took turns in driving while the other one could drink. Among some of the most memorable wineries was Brown Hill Estate (excellent range of red wines served by a seemingly grumpy old man who turned out to be really sweet and full of good advice for the area), Woodlands (amazing red wine), Pierro's (oh wow, that Chardonnay!), Lenton Brae (delicious white wine, but it is not a good idea to put grandma in charge of the tasting room as she had literally no clue about "all that stuff" :D), Knee Deep (a Sauvignon Blanc to die for) and Edwards (less for the wine than their story of the owner who flew himself from London to Perth with a small Tiger Moth aircraft for charity reasons). For Alex we also did a stop at the Eagle Bay Brewery to get a sample of locally brewed craft beer.

During the 4 days we spent around Margaret River we were partly very unlucky with the weather and had really heavy rainfall and strong wind during the day. For us it was fine as we spent our time inside the cellar doors or our car, we were only worried for our good old tent back in the forest, but as it is an expedition tent it could easily withstand the strong winds and pouring rain of West Australia ;). On some days, when we had sunshine and warm weather, we also visited other sites around Margaret River like beautiful Hamelin Bay where you can easily spot rays in the shallow water when the sea is not rough. One morning we went to visit one of the spectacular caves around: Lake Cave with its needle thin stalactites hanging from the ceiling and one massive stalactite reflecting perfectly in the calm shallow underground lake, therefore it was also called "the suspended table". And the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse at the northern end of the region where we met two snakes on the walking trail within 10 minutes and thus decided to turn around. And one afternoon we went to Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse at the southern end of the area where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean. In terms of food we were also tempted by lots of good fresh produce around like wood fired bread, fresh cheeses, chocolate factories, seafood restaurants, meat etc. For the sake of our budget we only tried a few selected ones and bought a monster steak for the barbecue at our last campground (for one day we afforded one with shower, kitchen and other facilities).

And then it was again time to head back to Perth as the next adventure was waiting for us. We had rented a 4WD campervan for 4 weeks to travel up to Darwin, hoping to go on some 4WD tracks through the wild Kimberley region. We spent another night at Regan's place in Perth and met his sweet girlfriend Monika (yes, exactly like Moni - with a "K"). We had lasagne and good wine and ended up having again one or two bottles too many :). At this point we would like to sincerely thank Regan for his hospitality and giving us unlimited access to his flat and facilities. It was great to see you again (Alex) and to meet you (Moni) and it was a real pleasure for both of us to meet your Monika as well. We do hope that we will be able to return the favour and host you in Europe one day - both in Austria and France we have great wines too.

And for those who wondered about the headline of this article: we will always remember the chilled attitude and funny expressions we experienced in Down Under, especially in laid-back Western Australia. First of all, everything was "beauuuuutiful" and everybody was everybody's "buddy", but what made us giggle the most was the expression "too easy, man!" which was pretty much a reply for everything: How are you doing? Too easy! - Would you have change for me? Too easy! - Could you cut this piece of wood for me please? Too easy, man! Even though we got used to it quite quickly, we always had to laugh when we heard our favourite phrase and loved it so much that we used it as a password for our Australian mobile phone account ;).

Well, the big adventure on the West Coast is just about to start. If you want to read more about our first part of the big 7000km journey, please wait for the next article. Promised, we have some great stories and amazing pictures from Australia and its pristine marine life.

Thanks for your patience and enjoy a nice summer day.

Cheers,

Moni & Alex