What an amazing day! We woke to day 4 of weather perfection! No clouds, no wind, warm temps so we were out and about before I’d fully woken up 🙂 .

Bob and I decided to pick up our coast explore where we left off last Wednesday in the bitter wind from Busselton. We hit the first point south of Canal Rocks and spent absolutely ages there. Wyadup Rocks were incredible with the pounding waves. We watched for ages.

We literally walked around the corner to the Spa Pool and another suite of rock formations being pummelled by the water. It was so so good.

Just a warning… there are too many photos again today. But I’ve culled absolutely heaps, so be happy about that 🙂 . The drone got a workout here as well.

After spending way too long here we moved a few km south to the Quinninup Falls. It was only a 4km return walk from the carpark but the steep and soft sand dunes for the last few hundred metres made the trek less fun. It was definitely worth the effort though.

These falls were literally a couple of hundred metres from the ocean. I’ve never seen falls that close!

After an hour and a half of trekking, photographing and crawling up the worst of the access to the falls we were starving for a late lunch. The Cheeky Monkey Brewery came to the rescue and a very enjoyable lunch was had outside enjoying the scenery (once I’d hastily changed out of sandy hiking gear into respectable winery garb….)

Then it was through to Vasse Felix winery for a tasting. This winery is the first one established in the Margaret River Region. Surprisingly, the first grapes were only planted in 1967, with the first wine made in 1972. After a pleasant half an hour here I came away with a box to enjoy on our trip.

Then we moved through to Gracetown. A little hamlet with a lovely beach and stunning coastline views.

Finally we moved through to Pengelly, where the mouth of the Margaret River is and apparently all the surfers in WA converge for sunset! We enjoyed another stroll along the boardwalk and returned along the beach via the very popular rock pools.

Then it was time to get the picnic rug and some drinks and nibbles out of the car and sit on the grass at the lookout and enjoy the scenery and lack of wind with about 200 other people! We absorbed our last sunset over the water in WA before we head east tomorrow. We were lucky enough to see a breaching display of multiple southern right whales off shore. I know the type of whale because the lady at the wine tasting told me she saw them this morning and that their blows form a v shape rather than the bubble that a humpback has. I googled it and she was right! As well as that we saw a couple of whale blows that were so vertical and high, unlike anything I’ve seen in NSW. I’m convinced they were pygmy blue whales as there was one seen next to Busselton Jetty on the weekend (a day after we were there 🙁 ). Google tells me I’m correct…..however we’ll never know.

We stayed and watched the sun go down and headed back to camp where we found Karen and Kieran after their busy day. They have replaced the starter battery in their car in Margaret River before heading to the inlet of the river and spending an hour or so kayaking up it and enjoying some lunch. They returned and spent time exploring the Pengelly area before finishing the day in the township of Margaret River.

Today was overall one of the most interesting and diverse ones I’ve had on the trip. The right amount of exploring, sampling food and wine, and relaxing at sunset. One I’ll remember for a while.

Tomorrow we move on. Karen and Kieran are planning a bike ride early but I won’t even be awake before they leave. We’ll see them at our camp at Pemberton around lunch time.