The green side of Australia (part 1)

When you think about Australia, and especially about Western Australia, most of what comes into your mind is bushland, red sand, rocks and brutal heat.

But...there is an alternative almost nobody in Europe knows of: South-Western Australia. Thanks to a relatively cold climate because of chilly winds form Antarctica, it welcomes you with lush green hills, beautiful rivers and creeks and big forests. The landscape is almost comparable to the hillsides of the Ardennes or the English countryside!

So we decided to visit this beatiful area once again as we did last year and given the fact that the trip was planned around the birthday of Cisela's aunt Gunnel, we were a rather big group of eleven people to go there. We rented a very nice lakeside chalet in Margaret River, a town not far from the sea and wordwide especially known for its delicious wine and surfing. 

Surf is pretty big there due to the roaring 40s, special winds from the Antarctica, that give a great left hand surf and attracts surfers from all over the world. But as nobody of our group is a surfer, we just went for a stroll at the beaches after arrival to enjoy the views and even tip a toe into the icy waters. We even had the opportunity to spot some wales very close to shore! A great experience! Last but definetly not least we had a very good BBQ (including Käsekrainer made by a German butcher in Perth!) in the evening accompained with local wines. That really rounded up a great day!

The following was Gunnel's birthday! It was a rather busy day given the fact that we went to a berry farm (including tasting and buying liqueur and port wine), an 'icecream-farm' ( including some icecream of course), a brewery (including beer tasting), and finally to a winery for wine tasting. After happily getting home to our chalet exausted and tired, we all had dinner completed with icecream topped with hazelnut liqueur (except for Cisela who is allergic to hazelnuts...)! Two really great days came to an end. We really enjoyed them and lucky as we are we continued our trip further down south the next day. Stay tuned as the story continues...

BBQ

Our chalet in Margaret River

Beer cow & me

Watershed Winery, Margaret River