Margaret River Tasting

Tranquil Aussie bush

Miss Google Maps woke with a sore head and took the morning off.  She showed up for work at lunchtime and was back on sick leave for the rest of the day.  The paper maps, a couple of brains and a little planning saved the day.  Merv and Mel are both in good spirits and I know there is not much walking in our plans today.  We leave the wheelchair in the unit.  There were many gravel areas but we managed to keep Merv on his feet and prevent any accidents.



Enjoying morning tea in the bushland setting

Margaret River is the tasting territory of the South West and we began our adventure at the Nuts and Cereal Factory.  It was much smaller than I expected.  The young man took no notice of us and barely grunted when I purchased chocolate coffee beans.  Along the same road is the renowned Chocolate Factory and Provodore Store.  At 10am my morning caffeine fix beckons me and we sit and enjoy hot drinks and share a large slice of apple pie with Merv, who has the cream and the best part of the pie to himself.  The setting amongst the natural bush is serenely calming.  We sit and enjoy its pleasure before tasting and buying chocolate and then we drive through to Provodore.  We are the only customers so early in the morning.  The place has taste tasting for every conceivable jam, pickle, olive and oil you can imagine.  I stock up with an array of different flavoured olives.  It is a short drive to the Silk Factory.  They tell us they are the only silk factory in Australia which makes their own silk.  They send their silk overseas to workers with disabilities.  The products are returned and are sold in the store alongside other products from silk producers and retailers.  I buy a beautiful teal silk scarf.  We try mulberry leaf herbal tea.  It is delightful and we wont leave until we purchase some.  We are soon back on the highway speeding legally at 110kph.  We pull into the Margaret River Dairy Factory and sample the cheese.  We buy camembert, herbal, marinated feta and cheddar. It is impossible to leave without buying an array of choice cheese.  I am glad I remembered the esky,  Next stop is Millers Ice Cream.  We travel what seems forever before finally seeing the sign.  We sit inside because it is hot but there is a delightful patio and garden area.  I enjoy Rum and Raisin, Merv has the chocolate and Mel the Mascarpone and Fig.    We are close to Olio Bello and choose to venture out to their store.  It is too hot to stop for lunch in their outdoor café and choose to purchase more olives, oil and feta.  We are almost on the doorstep of Margaret River township and I know Settlers Inn is the perfect lunch stop in the main street.  It is cool in the rustic looking inn.  The meals are huge and we are unable to finish everything but we leave well fed.  The staff  helped us locate the Berry Farm and they take time out to chat with us.  Last year I stayed in Margaret River twice and visited this pub twice.  Every time has been a pleasure.  We take our time and eventually we are on our way.  The scenery is picturesque and the driving pleasant.  It has been a very long time since we last visited the Berry Farm and it doesn't seem to be the same.  I am not impressed with any of their wines but buy a white wine anyway.  There are raspberries on sale and I do not need any encouragement to buy. I scoop them up and pay for them straight away.  How I love raspberries!  We return via Caves Road and suddenly the Venison Store is approaching.  We stop and buy venison sausages and have a poke around the store.  We return to Busselton at 4:30pm,  it has been a long eight hour day but a most enjoyable one.