On The Blackwood River

Alexandra Bridge campsite, south of Margaret River, is our sixth bush camping site in a row, we are here for 5 nights so a welcoming hot shower at our next site (a caravan park) will be more than appreciated by me, Nick on the other hand is not so impressed at the thought of a caravan park.

The Backson's are here too, so the kids swam together in the river, jumped off branches into the river, rode bikes, played games, went bird hunting at the campsite and enjoyed doing the touristy things together too.

The days were jam packed with activities and some schoolwork thrown in as well. We checked out some of the famous surfing beaches, at Prevally beach the kids were boogy boarding in quite big, but close to shore, waves. Poor Matt mistimed a wave and got completely dumped, banging his nose on the sea floor, resulting in a blood nose and being sore for a day a so. Another beach we explored was Hamelin Bay. Here we were told of stingrays being close to shore. When we arrived (late morning) there were no sting rays to be seen, and although a bit too cool to swim the kids enjoyed playing on the beach, and made the most of a moored catamaran to use as a cubby, while the adults enjoyed reading on relaxing. By about 2pm ish a few fishermen came in and gutted their fish. They said to toss out the fish heads and the stingrays would come in. Sure enough they did, coming right up to shore, sometimes beaching themselves before the next wave took them back out. The kids had an absolute ball enticing these massive (at least a metre in diameter) rays close to shore. At one stage Matt lost his balance and fell on one. The look of fear on his face as he tried to stand up again was hilarious. He was not impressed that I was killing my self laughing when he thought he was about to die from the stinger. Poor Matt, it was funny though.

Margaret Rivers wineries certainly didn't disappoint, our favourite being Moss Brothers followed closely behind by Flying Fish. While wine tasting the kids enjoyed running around outside with the Backson kids, and to ensure that the day wasn't just about us we also visited a cheese factory, fruit and nut factory, fudge factory (where we quickly learnt you could stab 3 pieces of fudge on a toothpick per taste mmmmm), olive and soap factory (where before we had even attempted to taste some sauces the staff member announced "you need to remember this is a tasting NOT a banquet" in a rather posh voice. And probably the favourite and visited twice was the chocolate factory. Here we all enjoyed handfuls of white, milk and dark chocolate leaving feeling quite overdosed.

Due to our balding tyres we thought it was probably best to get replacements now while we were in a town. While they were being fitted we enjoyed a stroll down the main street and "window shopped". We did stop at the glass blowing gallery and were treated to the artist blowing a series of vases based on the Australian Outback. With red, yellow and orange coloured glass we were shown how these were made and Zach and Matt even got a turn to blow the glass. Our viewing ended abruptly when the the heated glass cracked off the metal pole and exploded all over the ground as the artist was reheating it. Oops.

A day trip down to Augusta was fun as we explored Australia's tallest land lighthouse and stood at the point where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet. After a picnic lunch we did a opp shop run (becoming quite a "thing to do" at each town).

Although camping without power we had some wonderful meals with the Backsons including a roast on the spit, over the fire and a choc self saucing pudding, also cooked over the fire, finished off with some Margaret Ricer wine. How decadent.