Friday, 19 September 2014

19th September: Margaret River

We have just come home from a very nice dinner in an Italian Restaurant to celebrate Murray's 70th birthday. (It's not until Sunday but they are going back to Perth tomorrow and flying home on Sunday.) He is the first one of the group to turn 70 and Glen is next. (Next year.) There is a full-on party happening on a cabin behind us. Half a dozen young people as well as 10 or so visitors are drinking and carrying on loudly just below us. (This park is on the side of the hill in levels and we are up the top with cabins on the level below us.) As well,there is another group in the next cabin along, carousing: drinking and singing rather loudly. It sounds like we are in for a sleepless night!! I just heard something about being ready to leave in half an hour. Let's hope!!! It's 9.00pm and the noise is ridiculous.  This mob are drunk aleady and they are planning to walk to a night club! I think i'll make a lot of noise in the morning!!!



We went wine tasting again today. I was rather miffed because it wasn't discussed. There is much more to do here than wine tasting and by 3.00pm I had had enough! But we did go to a lovely small tin shed winery where the money has been spent on the wine, not the infrastructure. Lovely wines and nice man who chatted about his wines and gave us largish tastings of as many as we wanted! The wineries we visited today were chosen by Gail and Murray because she wanted to taste and buy semillon. I don't think it is a grape much grown here and most of the wine produced is blended with others. We are not big semillon drinkers. The third winery we went to was Xanadu, a very big concern with lots of infrastructure and expensive wines. Murray made the mistake of some of calling them the cheaper range and was corrected: the more affordable range. Glen and I didn't taste: we were over tasting and we didn't want to buy anymore.

There is a berry farm out here which produces jams, chutneys, vinegars etc etc. I tasted lots but we don't eat that type of thing. I did find some beautiful lemon butter like our mothers used to make. I must find the recipe!

We'll stay here another day and I might get to Augusta and Cape Leeuwin which is what I want to do!

2 comments:

  1. Xanadu was where Gav worked before his present position. Because he worked there he had a lot of their wines at one time. I thought they had gone broke. There was some story when Gav was there but I do not remember the detail. Yes the seven o eventually catches all of us. Happy travelling.

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  2. Hi Kris and Glen, we have remembered what it was with Xanadu. The story is that Gav discovered that the chief accountant (Gav at that time was the second string) was robbing the company blind! After much soul searching, and advice from his father (who had his own large accountancy firm before he retired) he blew the whistle and eventually after long investigation the fellow was dismissed. Gav himself resigned eventually....he was never comfortable there, and he didn't enjoy his work there. It was a traumatic time for Gav. B

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