Since the town center is pretty small and the weather wasn't too nice, we ended up playing card games a lot and just sitting around and talking in our cottage that we rented.
Our first full day we went on a wine tour that's rumored to be the best in all of Margaret River (there are 8 competing companies).
This was our first stop. The winery owner here is one of the top in Australia and was really funny. He had a lot of inappropriate jokes that the family would've enjoyed, ha. I tried again to like red wine, but failed miserably. I just love the ultra sweet late picked white wine. My friend Jess bought me a bottle of my favorite at this winery called "Sweet Dreams" as a birthday present. I'm waiting until I get home to pop it open! Greg, the winery owner, signed the bottle:
"Fond memories of our short but intense time together"
Brad Pitt
Our next winery was called Notting Hill (like the Julia Roberts movie) and my favorite of all the wines I had that day was here. Two of my friends felt the same so we all bought a bottle. Sweet and white again.
By this time it was midday and we were served a genuine gormet lunch. We had kangaroo, roast beef, sundried tomato bread, bush limes that Aboriginals use for cleaning teeth, improving breath and tooth health, this berry that tasted kind of foul but has 19% vitamin C, fresh salad with red peppers, fresh french bread, pesto spread, and so much more!
This was "dessert." It's a Witchery Grub, Australian grown and a delicacy. They cut the grub in half and asked for only two lucky volunteers who would get to eat it. Of course two of my guy friends are adventurous and wanted to be the ones, and they were the only one's interested.
This is while they were eating it. They said it was surprising and tasted like a kind of nutty vegetable and that it was good, they'd definitely eat it again. I couldn't imagine chewing on the head or tail of a grub, but I guess I'd do it since they weren't appalled.
Our next stop was The Grove, which is most popular for its liqueurs. We were made a series of drinks that tasted either like dessert or candy. Milk chocolate liqueur, strawberry liqueur, almond and chocolate liqueur. MMmmmm. They had every flavor it seemed like and the combinations they made were delicious. Most of them the owner said you could put on top of ice cream, and everyone ooh-ed and ahh-ed at that idea.
This is the group of us. I was the youngest on the whole tour, just having turned 20. One of the women on the bus came up to me and was telling me how her son is 20 and doesn't drink and that she was weirded out that I was on the same wine tour as her. Proof that Australians are forthright and direct about what they feel and mean. I've never had to apologize for my age before.
I forget his name because it was so different, but this was our wine tour guide and chauffeur for the day-he was really great.
Evans & Tate was our last winery of the day. I liked a rose wine best here and one of the women who I'd been talking with only likes red wine. She was telling me how I'll start moving towards rose's and then after a while I'll grow to like red wine. It seems like a goal. Like, if you're mature, you like red wine. I'm not sure if I'll ever reach that "level of maturity" though. We'll see...
That was it: Classic Pink Moscato. Ah!
And off we went to the cheese and chocolate factories! I must have been too busy eating to take any pictures, but that's because everything was sooo delicious. The chocolate factory was the same as the first wine tour I went on, but this was the original location for the Margaret River Chocolate Company. The cheese factory was amazing, but I knew I'd spend too much money if I started buying cheese. So good!
Our last stop was the Deutchland Brewery. We bought a platter and shared it-I didn't like any of their beers though.
Outside was a beautiful courtyard that we explored. It was a really nice place for a brewery-it seems like a good place for a wedding or something. There was this archway with green glass and each piece was dedicated to an ancient culture's drinking images and gods. It was pretty cool.
And so the wine tour came to an end, with group sing-a-longs on the bus. The rest of the bus was trying to quiz me on an old song from the 50s "Its Amore" I think it was called, by an Italian guy, something Martino. Anyway, I knew the song but not the name so the woman I was talking to about the red wine whispered me the name and in an Italian accent I said, "Dino Martino!" and everyone laughed, and felt less old I guess since I knew the song?
When everyone got dropped off from the bus it was like we'd all known each other for a long time, saying bye family! and waving as the bus drove away. It was fun.
After relaxing for a bit we decided to go down to the beach for sunset.
This is where Margaret River meets the ocean.
The Margaret River area is also known for having some pretty amazing caves.
This was our first stop, called Lakes Cave.
There were tons and tons of little spider webs all alon the wall just outside the cave opening. The tour guide said that warm air rushed up out of the cave along iwth a bunch of bugs. That way the spiders never had to work for their food, it just flew up to them.
This was called the floating column and was a bunch of stalactites that formed into this column, that was 'floating' in the air above the lake below.
Supposedly the lake will recede in about two years and there won't be a lake there anymore.
Our next cave was self-guided and they just gave us helmets and flashlights to get down there.
The ceiling got really low and we had to crawl.
This is a tree root that made it all the way underneath into the cave.
Margaret River was a great trip and we were all really happy we got the chance to squeeze in another adventure before we all headed home. The weather wasn't the greatest but that gave us a chance to spend time playing cards and just talking. The wine tour was really great and the caves were really cool to see.
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