Sketchpacker Diaries: Sketchpacking Western Australia 2012: Margaret River

The third leg of our WA journey took us down south to Margaret River and the southwestern tip of the Land Down Under. From this part of the journey on, my sketches became less frequent and delayed. Part of it was due to the fact that our room didn't have a good place to sit and sketch as our previous accommodations. As a result, my sketches became less observational and more illustrative. More photo reference was used, but the sketches after the Margaret River leg featured a lot more drawings from my imagination. Most of them were completed only after returning to Singapore.

But we'll save that for later.

We stayed three nights at Margaret River in a backpacker's inn called Surfpoint at Prevelly, some 15 minutes drive from Margaret River's town centre. It is quite near to the mouth of Margaret River where it meets the sea, which is where our first activity took place the morning after we arrived.

Day 5: Bushtucker Tours!

One of the highlights of our Margaret River leg was the Bushtucker Tours. We opted for the package that took us canoeing down the river and let us eat some native bushtucker (food foraged from the bush). Turned out we weren't very good ad canoeing, and the bushtucker lunch was more like a picnic. It wasn't cheap, but it was a great experience.

Where the river meets the sea


Much of the area was still recovering from a bushfire from the previous year... Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

Saving some bushtucker for later.
I pasted the 2 leaves at the top in my sketchbook. The one at the bottom was too moist to keep.
The one with the small leaves is from the tea tree.
Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

With our tour guide
Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

Sumptuous picnic lunch. We had native fruit, kangaroo, emu, crocodile, and...

Witchetty grub! Yumz!
(actually tasted like paper..)
Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

All dirty after crawling through a tiny cave...

After the tour, we headed back to rest and wash up. We popped by some vineyards on the way to town to check out their tour timings for the next day.

HUGE Australian flag at Voyager Estate
Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

Beautiful Voyager Estate grounds
Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

Margaret River town centre
Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

Ice cream!!
Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

Dinner at Settler's Tavern. (It's a pub, not a board/card game place)
Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

Day 6: Cape Leeuwin, Caves, and Vineyards
Visiting Margaret River wouldn't be complete without a visit to the vineyards and caves. It is, after all, a wine region. We decided to drive down to the southwestern tip where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean at Cape Leeuwin.

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse
Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse lamp
Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

After our tour of the lighthouse, we rushed back to Lake Cave to catch the cave tour. It was around a 45-minute drive away.

Lake Cave entrance
Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

Lake Cave interior
Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

We were really hungry after the cave tour as lunch hour had passed. We went to one of the highly acclaimed vineyards for lunch.

Poussin
Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

Leeuwin Estate centre
Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

Leeuwin Estate grounds
Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

After lunch, Sam and I spent the afternoon in town while Ezra rested at the inn. Just love the colours of spring!


Margaret River town centre Copyright © Favian Ee Sept 2012

And to top it off, we ran into a magnificent sunset while driving back to the inn and stopped to take photos.

And at night, the stars were out. I managed to get my photos of the Milky Way, but my lens was not wide enough at 28mm.

Day 7: Geographe Bay
Our last morning at Margaret River was spent having a sumptuous breakfast, buying some foodstuffs and popping by a historic cottage before rushing to Busselton to catch the jetty tour, which we missed on our way down.