Margaret River Region - from markets and wine tours

7.09 - 11.09

 7.09 - Today we said goodbye to Perth. Our first stop was Bunbury. Before lunch, we strolled through the weekend market, which is a farmer's market featuring food stalls, a dog adoption stand, and decorations including jewelry. Then we visited a city park with mangroves, which was an exciting mix of mangroves and a children's playground. Afterwards, we continued to our campsite in the next town - Busselton. First, we looked for the tourist information center to buy tickets for the Jetty Train. Our next quest was to find a pair of flip-flops for Viviane, as we had lost the right one in Perth. Surprisingly, we didn't find any today, which astonished us since flip-flops are usually available at every gas station. 

 8.09 - We started the day with the Jetty Train, which extends 1.841 km (the longest in the Southern Hemisphere). After that, we went to the next farmer's market. We then continued to Margaret River. We spent the afternoon at various viewpoints, such as Surfers Point (without surfers 🥲), Prevelly Rockpools, and Margaret River Mouth Viewpoint. The only surfers we saw were on information panels. 

 9.09 - We spent the morning with a leisurely walk along the Margaret River. It was both of our first times in a long while to be in a forest with large trees and a flowing stream. According to various sources, you can see stingrays in Hamlin Bay. Unfortunately, we were not fortunate enough to see any, but a short rain shower surprised us during our leisurely lunch on the beach. After a brief exploration of the beach (it didn’t blow us away, but it was nice), we headed to Redgate Beach. Wow, what an impressive beach! Here we were truly blown away - green-covered rocks, turquoise sea, and white sandy beach, what a combination! 

 10.09 - Before heading to Augusta today, we embarked on a culinary tour of the region. First, we visited a coffee roastery and tasted different coffees. Wide awake and a bit jittery, we moved on to the first winery. Brown Hill Estate is a family business. To our surprise, we found at least one fine wine from all varieties, but did not purchase anything. Lunch was at the Berry Farm. A bit hungry, we visited the animals on the farm, and we were impressed by the pony with the foal. Through the impressive Boranup Forest, we headed back to Redgate Beach one more time. When we were about to leave, a tour member spotted dolphins in the distance. Our last stop was at Redgate Wines. This winery did not impress us, as the atmosphere felt a bit stressed. After the tour, we drove the short distance to Augusta, where we enjoyed the sunset on a jetty.

 11.09 - The first stop was the Leeuwin Lighthouse, which is the southwesternmost point of Australia for us. At the lighthouse, the Southern and Indian Oceans meet, not really visible but nonetheless impressive. The trees are starting to grow taller and denser. By chance, we found a beautiful spot for our lunch in the midst of the Greater Beedelup National Park. In the afternoon, we explored the D'Entrecasteaux National Park (a vigorous program). We were very impressed by the natural phenomena here, among them,