We arrived in Perth late afternoon April 25 and drove north to the Pinnacles before returning to Perth for a night. We visited the Perth Mint and an art museum before driving south on the afternoon of April 27. We spent 3 nights in Margaret River, where the key tourist attractions are surfing (discovered in the 1950’s) and premium wines (first planted in late 1960’s). Map of the region:
Our stops are circled in purple.
We drove south to the first Jewel Cave tour at 9:30 on April 28. It was first explored in 1957 and so has little damage to its formations mostly created during times of wetter climate.
The laser line here shows a former water level.
Higher water also contributed to the “popcorn” bulbs at the end of a couple of soda straw stalactites.
This slab broke loose, leaving its stalagmites pointing diagonally.
The unique feature is that the local Karri trees drill taproots to the water table, some of them passing through 40 meters vertical of cave.
Closer view of a taproot:
We drove south to the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse at SW point boundary of Indian and Southern Oceans.
While there was Indian Ocean surf, it was calm in this chronically windy locale, part of the only landfall of the 1974 total eclipse.
Next was our 1:30 lunch at Vasse Felix, oldest Margaret River winery founded 1967 on advice with John Gladstones, with consultation from Dr. Olmo from UC Davis/Larkmead. It’s fall foliage season here.
This was a 5 course tasting menu. We bought the premium Tom Cullity cabernet, which like most Aussie wines has a screw top and was in fine form despite being only 2019 vintage.
On April 29 we got out early, drove to Swan Dive shop Busselton for two dives on the HMAS Swan, sunk in 1997 in 100 feet of water for scuba diving.
It was a half hour boat ride to the dive site.
Visibility was poor on the descent line but adequate on the ship, though not great for photography.
We did some good exploring including the elevator and bridge on the second dive. We were done about 3PM and drove down the coast in continuing best weather day in the southwest.
We stopped at the Injidup natural spa. Waves crash over rocks and flow into a sheltered pool where the water flow above and below the surface works like a massage.
Water was maybe 70F vs. 66F on the dives and Liz took an 11 minute video of me, one minute of that here.
We then drove to Surfer’s Point (blue area below Cape Mentelle on map), arriving about 10 minutes before sunset.
We saw the last two surfers take long rides in about 5 foot surf, about half as big as during the pro competition two days before.
The sun came through the thick clouds to that narrow opening at the horizon and produced an unexpected green flash.
On April 30 we drive to Fremantle and toured the historic prison there. We visited Fremantle’s shipwreck and maritime museums the next day and returned to Perth for dinner and our redeye flight to Melbourne, enjoying James-level luck with empty rows to sleep. Our fortunate 13 hour layover gave us time to explore Melbourne’s street art, Skydeck views, river cruise and finale gourmet dinner at Gimlet on May 2.
Our stops are circled in purple.
We drove south to the first Jewel Cave tour at 9:30 on April 28. It was first explored in 1957 and so has little damage to its formations mostly created during times of wetter climate.
The laser line here shows a former water level.
Higher water also contributed to the “popcorn” bulbs at the end of a couple of soda straw stalactites.
This slab broke loose, leaving its stalagmites pointing diagonally.
The unique feature is that the local Karri trees drill taproots to the water table, some of them passing through 40 meters vertical of cave.
Closer view of a taproot:
We drove south to the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse at SW point boundary of Indian and Southern Oceans.
While there was Indian Ocean surf, it was calm in this chronically windy locale, part of the only landfall of the 1974 total eclipse.
Next was our 1:30 lunch at Vasse Felix, oldest Margaret River winery founded 1967 on advice with John Gladstones, with consultation from Dr. Olmo from UC Davis/Larkmead. It’s fall foliage season here.
This was a 5 course tasting menu. We bought the premium Tom Cullity cabernet, which like most Aussie wines has a screw top and was in fine form despite being only 2019 vintage.
On April 29 we got out early, drove to Swan Dive shop Busselton for two dives on the HMAS Swan, sunk in 1997 in 100 feet of water for scuba diving.
It was a half hour boat ride to the dive site.
Visibility was poor on the descent line but adequate on the ship, though not great for photography.
We did some good exploring including the elevator and bridge on the second dive. We were done about 3PM and drove down the coast in continuing best weather day in the southwest.
We stopped at the Injidup natural spa. Waves crash over rocks and flow into a sheltered pool where the water flow above and below the surface works like a massage.
Water was maybe 70F vs. 66F on the dives and Liz took an 11 minute video of me, one minute of that here.
We then drove to Surfer’s Point (blue area below Cape Mentelle on map), arriving about 10 minutes before sunset.
We saw the last two surfers take long rides in about 5 foot surf, about half as big as during the pro competition two days before.
The sun came through the thick clouds to that narrow opening at the horizon and produced an unexpected green flash.
On April 30 we drive to Fremantle and toured the historic prison there. We visited Fremantle’s shipwreck and maritime museums the next day and returned to Perth for dinner and our redeye flight to Melbourne, enjoying James-level luck with empty rows to sleep. Our fortunate 13 hour layover gave us time to explore Melbourne’s street art, Skydeck views, river cruise and finale gourmet dinner at Gimlet on May 2.
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