No august weather in Augusta!

Send 'er down, Hughie!

It hosed down. It hailed. It poured and pelted. It blustered and buffeted. The thunder rumbled and boomed. The lightning lit up vivid vignettes of nocturnal life.

I didn't notice much of this. I was having my own elemental battle in my innards, lying prostrate on the amenity-block floor. One of those traveller's tales that is funny in the retelling many years later. For others. At the time, I was thinking that being seasick at Franklin Island was not really that bad. I was also thinking of all the germs on the toilet floor which were no doubt rubbing their germy little hands together in glee and swarming all over me and I couldn't do a thing about it.

The storm and I made it to dawn and I spent the first day at Augusta in the tent. I didn't miss much, as the weather was so awful (rain and gale force winds) everyone else spent the day in the caravan or reading in the back of the bus. Games, music, reading and drawing were the order of the day. Ella had a marvellous time with Marcus and her wombat playing Yahtzee. Wombat won "about three times" and Ella recommends "not to verse a wombat in anything - you'll get beaten". Don't say you weren't warned.

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse - slightly
higher than the last one! Must have
been the only patch of blue sky all day!

Monday night was just as bad as the previous one. Ella, Marcus and I slept in the caravan and were amazed - and quietly terrified - at how much it rocked during the vicious wind gusts. Next morning, after another hailstorm, we reasoned that being underground would be the best bet, so we rugged up and headed out to the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse to buy our multi-caves pass. The Lighthouse tours were still running despite the awful weather, so we climbed the 176 steps of Mainland Australia's tallest lighthouse. You could feel the stone wall moving slightly in the 80km winds which greeted us in full force as we struggled out onto the viewing platform. Our faces nearly blew off, but man, we really knew we were alive!

On the viewing deck of the Lighthouse

Marcus leaning into the wind

The cape is the most South-Westerly point and has incredibly rough waters as the Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet there - which is of course why the lighthouse was needed in the first place.

This flowstone replicates the Karri
forests some 80m above

We drove to Jewel Cave to escape the wind and rain, where we marvelled at the astounding underground world. There are some fascinating formations there - Helictites, Flowstones, Moonmilk, Straws and Shawls were added to our speleological vocabulary, along with the more mundane, but equally beautiful, stalactites and stalagmites. Tree roots from the Karri forest above grow 50-60m down to reach the water in the caves. A complete skeleton of a thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) was found in this cave. The last one we "saw" was in Kakadu! Maybe there are still some out there somewhere, like the Wollemi pine!

A little further on Mammoth Cave (aptly named!) and the audio guides provided held our undivided attention for the rest of the afternoon. The kids were very excited to see some more skeletons partially uncovered in the cave walls and a 400 year old possum skeleton! On our way back to Augusta we stopped to see the magnificent Karri forest in the late afternoon light.

Karri forest - they are the third tallest trees in the world

Is this a portkey? Where is Credic
Buggery? Have we won the Tri-Wizard Cup?

Wednesday morning was Dave's turn to feel below par. He slept in the back of the Blunderbuss while we attempted and claimed victory over the hedge maze at Margaret River. Ella, after all her Harry Potter reading, was fairly concerned that the centre of the maze would contain a port key. She took a lot of convincing to touch the centre pole! The colour sequence maze and the Turn Left Maze entertained the kids thoroughly and we had such a great time that Dave ended up joining us for another run through the hedge maze.

Margaret River Chocolate Factory

Margaret River Chocolate Factory was of course included in the day's agenda. We have never seen Lachie get out of the car so fast as he did in the carpark there! Tasting chocolate buds as we perused all the wares was no fun, nor were the Margaret River Cheese Factory tastings!! We took our spoils for lunch at a park in Margaret River. Dave then lay in the van while we went for an hour's walk in the forest admiring the Karri and finding "honky nuts" from the Marri trees. The kids started talking about survival camping and spent the rest of the evening designing shelters and equipment lists (Ella: pocket nife, baked beans, matchs, toylet paper) ready for our return to the farm! Their excitement levels are astounding -  we haven't done much camping lately!

Honky kids with Honky Nuts

The gravity defying suspended table
in Lake Cave

Thursday, our last day in the Margaret River area, started with a tour of Lake Cave, the most active and spectacular of all the caves we saw. It was smaller than the others but jam packed with beautiful features. 

The Berry Farm was our next port of call where the kids had a ball tasting jams (but all agreed that Gran's strawberry jam would beat them at the show!) and Dave and I tried some wine and port. We found the other end of our walking track from yesterday for a secluded lunch in the forest. The kids collected sticks and were disappointed that we didn't load them all up, as they were "perfect" for survival shelters!

We relented and let Ella have her
walking stick!

We completed our tastings in Margaret River with a lolly tasting at a sweet shop. Ella's delight was complete when we stopped to see the Miniature Horse Stud on the way home.

Little Sweeties at the Sweet Shop

Heading nor'east towards the 'up' towns - Nannup, Boyup Brook, Manjimup etc - next.

Stay tuned ...