Seaweed, Degustation and Alpacas

Wandering the foreshores in Flinders Bay near Cape Leeuwin is great for pondering, as well as walking the Jack Russell. Take the humble seaweed. Seaweed and other sea plants are a vital resource for oxygenating the planet – up to 50% of the air we breathe comes from them – and in some countries, a popular and wonderfully nutritious source of food for humans.  Yet we, in Australia, with over 1,000 varieties, all edible, do almost nothing about harvesting this natural wonder – all the seaweed in my larder comes from Chinatown!

Food for thought (pardon the pun) High mounds of seaweed left on Flinders Bay beaches – not raked off for the sunbathers.

Travelling north, a first sight of pure Indian Ocean is worth careening down a sandhill to get a photo.

 We visit the last of the manually operated lighthouses in Australia, at Cape Naturaliste, not as spectacular as Cape Leeuwin, but a sight just the same. It was converted to automatic in 1978, but the last lighthouse keeper stayed until 1996

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Now we’re on our way through country wild with Blackboys to the Margaret River region for a few days. (Blackboy?  Isn’t that politically incorrect these days? – although the alternative, Xanthorrhoea, does sound more like a disease than the ebullient grass-trees they are)

The country gradually grows audaciously, recklessly rich and clinically beautiful, seen with eyes still used to the frugality of the Nullarbor and the rough beauty of the great Tindle and Karri forests.   The well-kept green grass and spreading grape and olive groves, the well-behaved Angus cattle and the very neatness of the signs, seemingly around every corner, pointing to the hundreds of wineries, are almost decadent.   

For camping, we find a wedding venue – which is not allowed to have weddings (local councils from one side of Oz to the other seem the same) – blissful camping is this, at Spring Waters Estate. We’re not on a wine tour, but we’ll hang around for a few days, maybe take in a Degustation meal or two.

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Perth is a necessary stop – our Sprinter van is up to its sixth – yes sixth – recall since purchase in November 2019. There’s also a better attachment for the bikes I want, and Ted wants airbags above the back axle.   But there’s an escape from all this urbanisation – we find a home on a sheep property/apple orchard and cidery, in a place called Carmel – no not California, in the Perth Hills.

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What a delight in store – Julian n Joan, our buddy Sprinter owners/commiserators, old sailing friends and now Dungog residents, turn up unexpectedly at the Carmel Cidery and we sojourn in the nearby Kalamunda Pub.

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Next, we’re turning east to Kalgoorlie…