We are sitting in the evening sun looking over the winery on the other side of the water reservoir. Beside wine vines, you see in the distance sheep and cattle grazing in the setting sunlight.

To celebrate Rudy’s birthday, we first made a stop at a Chocolate factory (for cake and coffee). Then we went for a lovely walk along the Margaret river through an old forest. Mighty large and high Karri trees with their pealed bark are rising above many juvenile trees. The forest floor is littered with fallen family members, providing nutrients for the youth. There are mighty Marri and Jarra trees too. The river had several weirs to make sure there is enough water. In town we bought a takeaway meal for tonight’s dinner. In this way Rudy did not have to drive, after the wine tasting since the winery also provides a campsite.

It is colder at night and in the morning. This stimulates staying longer in bed. We left before 10:00, driving south on the cave road searching for a nice path through the forest. That was more difficult to find than expected. A road down to the beach is very corrugated and actually leads out of the forest. After 2 other attempts we found a road leading to some cottages in the forest. A severe forest fire 5 years ago scared many trees but they kept on growing. One of the cottage owners explained that their homes managed to survive due to efforts of the firefighters.

After the walk we drove on to Jewel Cave. This really is a highlight. A boardwalk with many steps runs up and down though 3 connected large chambers. The wall, ceiling and floor decoration with many forms of calciet is well light out. The very informative guided tour took 1 hour. We continued the road to the lighthouse, Cape Leeuwin in Augusta. Here the Indian and the Southern Ocean meet up. No whales to be spotted. We decided to camp in one of the simple national park campsite but it was full this weekend. In the end we settled for a more upmarket one near Augusta