Went to Margaret River, took the little lady down..her first time in west aus. Lovely..superb..nice and green down there..whereas its all..brown and dead out this way. Harvest in full swing, so they don’t like too much..sky wine was how one maitre d put it…Thunderstorms and such happening..sigh..well, doesn’t affect me so much, but you have to feel for the farmers around..trouble is, too much wet stuff, and the grain starts germinating while its still ..in the ear, on its own bit of stalk in the paddock, unharvested like. The moisture goes too high for the grain lot to accept..well, with all their tests and suchlike, they might..I don’t know, but if they did it would be at a really low price..and the risk is, too damp, and it would germinate in the stack, or go mouldy, that sort of thing. Dry conditions is the go. Yes, Margret River..went on a tour..looong day that one. First winery filled us up with lunch and ..er..a wine or three..2nd winery, all their much touted wines tasted the same..sigh, so we gave up the wine side of it. Oh, red and the sparkling white were obviously different, but the whites…nuh! Found the chocolate bit an eye opener..wot a huge shed! er..chokkers full of chockies. Shooters next..pretend crocs in the pond, and um..scary koala in the tree..the busdrivergirl warned us about the two behind the bar there…thoroughly good time had by them..and ourselves I hasten to add. Next day found a berry farm that wasn’t..we..and a few others..thought we might score a something with berries in it..was another winery….but their gardens were superb..old english/tassie style. Emu behind a fence..was interested in anyone looked as though they might have a something suitable for a bush chook to munch on..then a motorcycle went past..well, off after it it went..lucky there was a fence twixt it and him…we figured that maybe a quad bike was used to feed it…or not..certainly was intent/fixated, and wasn’t hanging around either. Darn things can go..I clocked one around 60 kays out this way..thought it may have been 80kph..but it was a while ago..
Few alpaccas, kangawallafup on his ownsome in a paddock..town full of cows..that was delightful. Nougat factory, silk factory..brewery..looked like it should have been fronting onto a racetrack..its idea of sampling different beers..well, after the wine debacle, they offered a ..paddle, 5 different beers on it, pint all up. Yaaas..two..young things attempted one each..one got through two, the other two and a half..we had ciders…and the comment was..come to a place where they make beer, and what happens? we drink imported cider.. Ice creamery..yummmmo..lost my mobile phone there, but one of the ladies there found it for me..hoo boy! full of passwords and..suchlike. yaaas. Old style one..no slippy slidey screen on it.
So, just in case we got a Margaret River resident amongst our lot, thinking of getting uppity..they’ll know all about it..and it was a great weekend..lovely spot..got looked after royally. Stayed out of town a kay or three. We allowed..heaps of time to get back to the airport..but..all good on the way in, all signposted..we even went off the beaten track here and there on the way back, and didn’t get lost once. Gee! Going down to the Margaret, however..god. An hour it took to get onto the right road..you’d have thought they’d have a sign..Billis, turn here,..or..Margaret river this way. Tonkin was the go..didn’t see a sign saying that either. bl’ hell. half way across an intersection, I spotted a sign down the cross roads a ways, saying..Kwinana I think it was. Now you lot know why I don’t spend time in the big smoke hey. One of those gps thingos would be the only way I would survive down there. Did hear of a guy with a new range rover with one of these doohickeys installed..it got him lost in his own paddocks. He threw it out the window after ripping it out…then all the doors locked, only way to get out was by smashing a few windows..things got rather heated back at the caryard..