Wining and dining our way through
WESTERN AUSTRALIA

On our recent trip to Western Australia, we drove to the north of Perth (having covered Australia’s South West coast the first time around), towards the laidback fishing village of Cervantes. The key draw for heading there was to see The Pinnacles, limestone formations which are found within the Nambung National Park. The raw material for the limestone of the Pinnacles came from seashells in an earlier era that was rich in marine life. These shells were broken down into lime-rich sands that were blown inland to form high mobile dunes. Visiting at dawn or dusk is recommended with the long shadows formed by the rising / setting sun lending a lovely touch. The Pinnacles are very accessible and there is a 4km loop that one can drive through in a normal 2WD car.

While in the area, a visit to Lobster Shack for lunch and a visit to Lake Thetis is worth doing. While the menu at Lobster Shack is limited, the lobsters are extremely fresh and made for a good first meal of our trip. The next morning, we made a stop at Lake Thetis, one of only a few places in the world with living marine stromatolites, or 'living fossils'. The lake's stromatolites that look like rocky lumps have been dated to about 3370 years old. Following that we drove a bit further north to Jurien Bay for breakfast at the Family Affair Café. The eggs benedict and avocado/feta toast were delicious as was the coffee. Following that, we decided to drive back towards Perth on a different route that led straight to Swan Valley, which was going to be our abode for the next two nights. It turned out to be more interesting than the Indian Ocean Drive on the way up. An interesting stop along the way was the Emu Downs Wind Farm which provides electricity to run the Kwinana Desalination Plant which turns water from the Indian Ocean into nearly 152mn litres (40 million gallons) of drinking water per day!

A 3-hour drive down from Jurien Bay brought us to Swan Valley. Little River Winery for lunch was our first stop (of many!) to do some wine-tasting and have a wonderful meal. We then checked into our wonderful B&B, a beautiful 10-acre property. We were lucky to have the entire place to ourselves. Immaculate rooms, scrumptious breakfasts, a lovely owner, adorable dogs and cats made this two days very memorable. When in Swan Valley, the key thing to do is to eat and drink your way through the 32km food and wine trail 😊 Mandoon, Pinelli and Ambrook wineries were our other favourites.

The few hours we spent in the charming town of Guildford was lovely too and we did one of the heritage walks. Our dinners at Padbury’s and Rose and Crown in this town were our favourite meals of the trip as well.

It was then on to Fremantle. The famous Fremantle Prison was our first stop, being Western Australia’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The ‘Doing Time’ tour was very interesting and our guide Laura was excellent. The tour allows you to explore the cells (scarily claustrophobic with the only allowance for fresh air being the little grooves on the floor below the door!), gallows and other parts of the prison.  Fremantle Prison was constructed between 1851 and 1859, using convict labour. It was initially used for convicts transported from Britain, but was transferred to the colonial government in 1886 for use for locally-sentenced prisoners. Other sites worth checking out are the Round House and the WA Shipwreck Galleries. The Round House was the first permanent building built in the Swan River Colony. Opened in 1831, it is the oldest building still standing in Western Australia. The latter is recognised as the foremost maritime archaeology museum in the southern hemisphere. Steeped in history, the galleries house hundreds of relics from ships wrecked along WA’s treacherous coastline, including the original timbers from the Batavia (wrecked in 1629).

Besides sight-seeing, a spot of shopping never hurts and the famous Fremantle Markets lived up to the hype. The variety of stalls and quality of goods on offer made it the perfect place to pick up mementos from the trip. And finally, while in Fremantle, eating seafood and trying the famous breweries is a must. Little Creatures topped the list of breweries and not only was the beer delicious but the food and service was great as well. Another excellent meal we had was at Kailis’ Fish Market Café which came highly recommended and it lived up to expectations.

What better way to end our trip than with a visit to beautiful Cottesloe Beach, where we were fortunate to be able to catch up with old friends over lunch. So before we knew it, we had wined and dined our way through an entire week and it was time to say good-bye. Definitely won’t be our last trip to the country with the Barossa wine region beckoning next 😊 You see a theme here? 😉