Tuesday morning Micki, Grace Ann and I decided to undertake a little adventure by running along the Cape Natuarliste Trek from Dunsborough to Bunker Bay. The trek, which actually winds around the cape and down the coast along the Indian Ocean to the Southern Ocean, looked reasonably clear. Follow the ocean. However we reached a couple of spots where we were directed inland. We bumped into a few folks who told us this would happen, and not to worry that the trail would pick back up. However when it happened, we decided to verify with the next couple of people we saw that we were on the right track. These women were adamant that the snakes were far too dangerous to be on the trail. Apparently they are just coming out of hiberation and are particularly aggressive. Enough said. We counted our blessings that we narrowly escaped death by snake bite over the previous 4 miles, and listened carefully to the instructions on how to still get to Bunker Bay, which we estimated to be about 2 miles away.
The instructions went something like this - run along this road for another 10 minutes. When you come to a 'T', make a left - away from the ocean - go up two big hills - at which point the two women discussed amongst themseleves if these two big hills were better than one other longer big hill, before deciding that the two biggies would be best. Then at the top of the hills go right, and travel down that main road for about 45 minutes. Yikes! It was quite hot, there were flies, and poor Micki was suffering from a hamstring injury! So we broke out the emergency bat phone to ask the boys to pick us up on their way to or from our meetup destination of Bunker Bay. The phone went right to vm. S#?!!! Now what. We ventured on.
After awhile, we saw a utility truck in the brush, so approached the man in the car to confirm this strategy - and yes mom, he did look like a nice young man and had no visible weapons. He confirmed the strategy relayed to us by the other two ladies, but said that he didn't think the snakes were that big of a problem. However we were far enough off the trail at this point that we wouldn't go back. We asked if he'd give us a ride to Bunker Bay and he said he couldn't in his company vehicle at the risk of losing his job. We then decided that it was an acceptable situation to hitchhike.
We put our thumb and were delighted that: a) a car actually came by on the relatively desolate road, b) it was a Mercedes and not the Ute or sheep truck we were envisioning, and c) the guy driving the car was really nice and playing great music! We asked if he would take us to Bunker Bay, and he said no, that he was headed to Dunsborough. Not to be put off easily, we asked if he would take us up the two big hills to the main road to increase our odds of coming across our evil husbands who surely left the phone off on purpose to test our mettle! The Mercedes driver agreed to this, and the seats electronically shifted around to enable two of us to climb into the back. Very cool.
As we drove, Ray, the name of our savior, ended up heading out to Bunker Bay saying he really didn't have too much else to do that day anyway. We nearly kissed him. It was a LONG drive. We thanked him up and down, thanked the gorgeous Kit-like car, and mock-jogged up to the Bunker Bay Cafe to put on a good front. Apparently they were all "just starting to worry". Although apparently not enough to actually turn on the phone!?! No matter. Great, great experience. We had a blast in spite of the detour. That's what life is about right? Enjoying it while on a detour :)
We enjoyed coffees, some great beach time, and then piled into cars to head back and clean up for our lunch at the Lawrence Winery that afternoon.
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| Team Ray finishers |
Bunker Bay
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| My future house :) |
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| Enjoying the waves |
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| Riley looking her cute little self |
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| The sting ray who came to swim with us. The close hand in the background is Scott with his Go Pro. |
We had a lunch organized for Lawrance, aka the 'chick on a stick' winery. It was a perfect day/
We mareveled at the decor and enjoyed sampling the wines before selecting a few for lunch.
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| Scott, Alicia, Grace Ann, me, Corey, Micki |
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| Beautiful recycled beems |
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| Me trying to work out how to build this at home instead of getting our usual tree this year :) |
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| Another great decorating tip for storing wine glasses! |
We had a wonderful lunch, and the kids had a ball running around the gardens and playing on the play set.
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| Cheers! |
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| Heaven on earth! |
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| Clayton working on his golf swing |
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| Someone needs a haircut. Fly on out Neema! |
Next stop was a quick visit to Vasse Felix. The kids and I played Duck-Duck-Goose in the art gallery (I know, it seemed like the right thing to do after a few drinks at lunch) while the others sampled and purchased some of our favorite wines.
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| The wine cellar we aspire to |
Next stop was Simo's. We felt it was only fair to give both of the local guys a visit. Simo's had the added value of an 'emu ice cream eater'. He didn't do just small licks either! Great play area too.
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| I like the background shot of the relaxed parents! |
Next stop was back to our house where the kids spent some time in the pool, while the parents got ready for a night out to the outdoor theater at Cape Mentelle. Grace Ann effortlessly got all 9 (yes 9) kids to bed. She's a rock star!
The Cape Mentelle movie was Rush, about the infamous race car drivers Nicky Lauder and James Hunt. It was a really enjoyable film, made even better by the fact that we were outside under a starry sky at a winery in bean bag chairs with great friends. Life doesn't get much better than this!
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