The Travelling Life of Silvan Colani
February 2011 - Margaret River, Perth, Australia
I haven’t written a trip review in over a year, but here’s one worth mentioning – a trip to the Margaret River area, some three hours drive south of Perth. What a great place – especially for the family that we are now! Here’s why:
Perth is a 7 ½ hrs flight from Hong Kong. That’s not too bad, especially if you get upgraded to business class (yeah, baby!). But most importantly, there’s no time change, hence no jet lag, hence fewer sleepless nights!
In Perth you pick up a rental car. This being Australia, they only rent you big ugly automatic cars. Ours was particularly ugly – a big green lump of metal with the handling ability of a block of cheese. But even the ‘green hornet’ grew on us over the week, with its massive 3.6 liter engine delivering us swiftly from vineyard to vineyard.
And there are of course literally hundreds of wineries in Margaret River. I think if you visited one per day, you wouldn’t be done in a year. That might be an exaggeration, but anyway, the region thus combines these great two passions of mine – drinking and driving! Preferably at the same time (of course not!).
We were on a family holiday, of course, and thus we circled all the wineries that have restaurants and playgrounds. And even that refined search left us with more choices than we could handle in a week.
The weather was glorious – as you will see from the pictures – with balmy days and cooler nights, thanks to a constant breeze coming off the ocean. Speaking of the ocean, Margaret River also featured something I wasn’t previously aware: some of the very best beaches IN THE WORLD! I’ve been to many a beach in Thailand and the Philippines, but just look at the sand and water quality on these pictures! And barely any people! And you can drive right up to the beach with your ugly big car – cheese, olives and Semillon Sauvignon Blanc in the boot! What the pictures don’t show, of course, is the TEMPERATURE of the water. That’s where Thailand and the Philippines clearly have the edge…
Then there’s the accommodation. We rented a cottage at Wildwood Valley Guesthouse. Great place! Not the cheapest choice, but worth every cent. Not only was the cottage beautifully done, with a gorgeous porch for sea view breakfasts and sunset dinners. But best of all, it was really well appointed – by that I mean it had everything you’d want or need in your own home, including all the cooking utensils and the like for making great dinners (call me picky, but I just hate the kind of rental apartments where you get a selection of different forks, glasses, no knives or whatever else was lost, stolen or forgotten over the years).
And then there is all the other family stuff to do, to keep Leo busy. Mostly farms to feed and touch animals that he so far only knew from books – from guinea pigs, to big smelly pigs and kangaroos to weird-looking alpacas!
And finally – to dispel the other two myths: Firstly, there were no more creepy crawlies than you would find in any other rural area, no monster spiders or massive centipedes or the like! And secondly, Australians (in Australia at least) are very nice people – we did not meet one unfriendly soul
So there you have it – a great week full of sunshine, beaches, wine and guinea pigs – although not for lunch!
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