Tag: Australia

5 Reasons to Visit The Margaret River Region

The town of Margaret River is 277km south of Perth in Western Australia and is a good three hour drive. The distance means that it is better to plan to visit the region for a few days rather than just take a day trip from the city and the town of Margaret River makes for a good base. The town has a good variety of cafes, bars, restaurants and shops as well as an excellent Farmers market which is held every Saturday morning.

We rented a very well equipped Airbnb apartment just a short walk from the town centre and we were very pleased with our choice. we very much enjoyed our four day stay in the region and would thoroughly recommend a visit if you are visiting Perth.

The Margaret River wine region. The Margaret River produces less than three percent of the wine made in Australia but twenty percent of the countries premium wines so this is the area to visit if you want to try some of Australias best wines. There are over two hundred wineries in the region and many have cellar doors open for tastings for only a few dollars. Some of our favourite visits were to Vasse Felix, Cullen, McHenry Hohnen and Domaine Naturaliste.

Beaches. The town of Margaret River is only 9Km inland from the Indian Ocean so a visit to a beach while you are in the area is a must. Prevelly is the closest and is a lovely white sand beach and just a short walk away from the mouth of the Margaret River itself which is a good place to rent a kayak if the fancy takes you. As you might expect surfing is a very popular activity in this part of Western Australia and if you don’t fancy having a go yourself there are excellent viewing platforms for you to catch the action at Surfers Point. Gnarabup beach is also pretty close to town. There are ofd course many others in the area if you don’t mind a slightly longer drive.

Cape Naturaliste. The cape is in the north of the Margaret River region just north west of the town of Duinsborough. Its beautiful here with some excellent beaches at Eagle Bay, Meelup and Bunker Bay. There is a nice short walking track around the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse which gives you a good feel sense of the landscape and its vegetation as well as affording some excellent views. Close to Eagle Bay Beach is the Eagle Bay Brewing Company, a small microbrewery, restaurant and vineyard, it ticks all the right boxes in my opinion.


Caves. The limestone caves, located in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste ridge, formed one million years ago and are well worth investigating if you feel like you need a break from beaches and wine tasting. Four caves are open to the public, all are spectacular but do have slightly different viewing options. We only had time to visit one and chose Mammoth Cave as it was relatively close to the town of Margaret River and offered a self guided tour using personal headsets to provide a commentary. Self guided means that you can go at your own pace and enjoy the spectacular rock formations. Close by is Lake Cave, the smallest and deepest cave so it has plenty of stairs to climb. Jewel Cave is the largest and tours are fully guided. Ngilgi Cave is in the north of the region and a visit here can be combined with a trip to Cape Naturaliste. Have a look here for some useful information to help you make the best choice of cave to visit.

Cape to Cape Track. The track is a long distance walking route along the Leeuwin-Naturaliste ridge joint Cape Leeuwin in the south to Cape Naturaliste in the north. It is 123Km in length and includes cliff top, beach, bush and forest walking. It can be walked as a self guided trek or you can join a guided, small group walk. Conversely if you don’t have the time to spare to complete the whole walk you could walk a small section of the track as a day walk. There are many different options available.

Fremantle Prison

A visit to Fremantle Prison comes high on the list of things to do for many visitors to Perth and rightly so. Built originally as a gaol for convicts it was used for general prisoners from 1886 and continued to be so until as recently as 1991. Now a major tourist attraction it has been declared a World heritage site, the only one in Perth.

The quickest and easiest way to get to Fremantle from Perth is by train. Trains depart from Perth’s main railway station every fifteen minutes, more frequently at rush hour, and the journey time is thirty minutes. The cost is 4.90AD. From the railway station ii is a short 15 minute walk to the prison. You can collect a map with directions from the tour guides at the station when you arrive.

A number of tours are available for visitors and you mist book a tour to be allowed inside, all tours are guided and the numbers on each tour is lim tied. Of the four tours available Convict Prison is a good introduction to the prison itself and a general look at what everyday life was like for inmates. If you can only do one tour this should be the one.

The Behind Bars tour is a more detailed examination of the daily life of inmates and True Crimes focuses on some of the prisons more notorious inmates. These tours are all of 75 minute duration. The basic admission price includes one of the there tours and costs 26AD. If you add another tour it becomes 32AD and if you opt for all three tours it becomes 42AD. Concessions are available. It is well worth checking the departure times of tours to avoid unnecessary waiting and maybe even to prebook, especially for busy times such as weekends.

One further tour is available and that is of the tunnels built by prisoners 20m below the prison itself. This is a very popular tour and numbers are limited, its books up very quickly so prebooking is essential. The price is 65AD per adult and includes the loan of overalls and hard hat. Participants need to meet certain fitness criteria so it is well worth checking prison website before booking.

We only had time for one tour so took the Convict Prison option. Our guide was excellent, well informed as you might imagine and interesting to listen to. The tour was conducted at a gentle pace with sufficient time for having a comprehensive look around the basic prison buildings. It is worth bearing in mind that the prison itself has no air conditioning so if you visit on a hot day it is going to be hot inside. One can only imagine what conditions must have been like for inmates.

There is a cafe on site if you require refreshments before or after your tour and gallery displaying the artwork of inmates of prisons in Western Australia is well worth visiting if you have the time

Rottnest Island

If you take only one day trip/tour while visiting Perth or Fremantle in Western Australia make sure its this one as it has a little bit of everything. Rottnest is a small island in the Indian Ocean just 18Km west of Fremantle at the mouth of the Swan River. Measuring only nineteen square kilometres it is small enough to explore in a day, add the fact that it has 63 beaches you will be spoilt for choice and may well have many of them to yourself.

The best way to get to Rottnest is by ferry. We chose Rottnest Express’s sailing from the Barrack Street jetty at Elizabeth Quay in Perth. The cost is dependent on which particular package you go for, we included bike hire and this is by far the most popular option. The first part of the journey is a very pleasant and relaxing cruise along the Swan River to Fremantle. A very informative commentary plays as you sail past the local landmarks and refreshments are available if you need them. A brief stop in Fremantle to pick up the remaining passengers and then its off to Rottnest. In all the journey time from Perth is ninety minutes.

Collect your bike as you disembark at the terminal on Rottnest and with the map of the island provided choose your route. There are three rides shown on the map. The blue tour is the shortest at 1.5Km and stays close to the terminal, the green route is 10km is takes you past the beaches closest to the ferry terminal. This is very popular and as a consequence the beaches get very busy. The longest ride follows the orange route and is 22km. making a circuit of the island. Once you have completed the first section which is common with the green route it becomes much quieter and you may find yourselves riding on empty roads for some sections. The roads are very well surfaced and the riding is relatively easy with no real hills but gently rolling in places. The only vehicles on the island are service vehicles and the occasional bus so you won’t have to deal with very much traffic. If cycling is not your thing there is a hop on hop off bus that operates, stopping at 18 key locations it is an alternative, air condidtioned way to see the best of the island.

It is best to ride both the green and orange routes in a clockwise direction around the island so ensuring that you have the prevailing wind at your back most of the way.Dont worry about how busy it is around the ferry terminal and for the first few kilometres The crowds will rapidly thin out after you pass the first few beach stops. You need to carry food and a t least two litres of water with you, especially in the hot summer months. When we did the trip in late February there was a small refreshment van at the west end of the island overlooking Fish Hook Bay but I don’t know opening times and it may well be closed at certain times of the year.

There are a number of good snorkelling spots on the southern side of the island most notably at Porpoise Bay, Parker Point and Little Salmon Bay. It is a very popular activity and these beach areas can get particularly busy. Rottnest Island is particularly well known for its population of Quokkas, a marsupial about the same size as a domestic cat. We saw then at the side of the road near to Salmon Bay but they were also to be seen around the cafés and shops at Thomson Bay. They have a very limitied range and can only be found at a few locations in Western Australia.

The West End of the island is particularly dramatic. A boardwalk has been constructed to help protect the delicate habitats here and it allows you to see some of the wildlife. It is a perfect location for whale and bird watching. Migrating Humpback and Southern Right whales can be seen here in April and again between September and December. Ospreys have nested at Fish Hook Bay for over seventy years though sightings are not always possible. The coastal scenery here is equally dramatic with the powerful ocean crashing through arches and fissures in the cliffs.

Close by are Cathedral Rocks where a viewing platform gives some fantastic views of New Zealand Fur Seals as they bask and swim. They have a habit of resting with their tails sticking out perpendicular to the surface of there water, quite curious.

As you travel back towards the ferry terminal at Thomson Bay there are some particularly nice beaches on the northern side of the island at Little Armstrong Bay and Parakeet Bay. From here the ride back to the ferry terminal is relatively straightforward but make sure you have enough time to catch you allocated sailing back to the city. Refreshments are available at Thompson Bay and there’s nothing ;like an ice cold drink at the end of your mammoth cycle ride.

We booked return sailing at 5pm so we were back in Perth at 6.30, just in time for pre dinner drinks. A great way to end a wonderful day out.