Beautiful Margaret River

From Cape Leeuwin we proceeded to head north to the lovely city of Margaret River. To reach the city we took the scenic route along Caves Road near the coast. This is a must do drive in southwest Australia. The forest and scenery along this road is stunning:

The thick vegetation dominated by these spectacular gum trees is really something to see:

From Cave Road there is a turn off that we followed to take us to our ultimate destination of Margaret River. Margaret River is a small town of about 10,000 people, but is one of Western Australia’s biggest tourism centers. When we arrived there it was quite evident that this was a major tourism center. We arrived at the caravan park in town at about 4PM and we were lucky to get a spot because they were nearly filled. When we went downtown to get something to eat, downtown too was flooded with people. One of the good things about Margaret River is that it has a variety of good restaurants, but be prepared to spend some money because the place is a bit expensive:

The next morning we got up early and headed downtown to further check things out:

I recommend that the first place to go is the visitor’s center in the middle of town. They have loads of great maps and information, including tours to visit the 300 some odd wineries around the city, information about surfing schools on the coast, and outdoor activities like kayaking on the Margaret River. The shopping in Margaret River was also quite good. My wife had an absolutely great time visiting all the stores while I served as her porter carrying all her bags.

After dropping off the bags into our campervan we decided to walk down to the river that gives this area it’s name:

The Margaret River is a slow flowing river filled with lily pads as it runs through town:

and flowers:

All in all Margaret River is a must see location in southwest Australia for anyone that likes the outdoors or finer things in life like shopping, eating at fine restaurants, and wine tasting. Unfortunately we don’t have a bunch of money to do a whole lot of the finer things, but by doing outdoor activities in the area, we definitely felt we got our money’s worth from Margaret River.

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