Last night’s wine and nougat tasting was a fun and pleasant treat for us all. We had a very charming Italian surfer/come vintner demonstrating the wines. That is the theme in this region to which a lot of people have been drawn. The surf and the flexible lifestyle of the vineyards combined with surfing is a great life balance. It has a fairly long agricultural history of orchards and dairy that has morphed into vineyards and quality food production. I find it somewhat reminiscent of the Mornington Peninsula with a warmer twist!
We resumed our walk from Gracetown and walked towards Margaret River our halfway mark. Like the eastern coast 90 mile beach many of the streams only flow into the ocean after the winter season rains. There were a few stories of having to wade chest deep through the water in order to continue on the track at various times. I would need to take a float in that case and swim, being so short!
Gracetown was the scene of a terrible tragedy in 1996 when a cliff collapsed at a surf carnival and several people including children died. We passed a memorial to the tragedy that was very poignant. A cautionary tale too to remember that these cliffs are limestone and seep water making them unstable.
Arriving at Margaret River felt very significant as it is the halfway mark especially for the new hikers. This is where the Margaret River Pro takes place. It is on the international surfing circuit and follows after the Bells Beach Competition. The organisers were in earnest establishing the infrastructure as we passed by.
Note the French names. The French were sent by Napoleon to gather flora and fauna for Josephine and explored and named many parts of this coastline. The Captain Boudin was disliked by his crew and after his death on the trip many of the features named by him were changed to represent more of his executive crew. Cape Mentelle was one of the few left associated with his name.
From here we walked inland towards Ellenbrook an historic homestead. We were thrilled to see the grass trees and their flower stalks graced with black cockatoos. They eat the resin which they access by pulling clumps of the flower stalk apart.
A lunch stop at Elenbrook and then we visited the Indigenous women’s place. A place for birthing and our guide Breezy encouraged us to take a leaf from a bush, giving thanks to the bush and then blow on it with our minds focused on the women in our lives and ultimately our loved ones. We then proceeded down a steep set stairs to a grove of trees and a rather overgrown stream which was the entrance to the sacred women’s place. Men would bring food but didn’t stay and remained at the mouth of the stream where it met the ocean. We all felt a lot of emotion doing this ceremonial walk and I cried all the way down the stairs remembering my mother in particular but all my dearest loved ones and girlfriends. It was powerful.
We continued along the ridge and emerged at the mouth of the creek where we resumed walking on the beach. Sally and I came across an Osprey in its nest. They used to roost at Cape Mantelle for nearly 200 years! Now they have shifted so we were delighted to see the nest. We decided to take a swim as we were ahead of the others. Not a soul on the beach and turquoise waters beckoning was too much to resist so we doffed our walking gear and ran into the sea. What glorious refreshing water and such freedom. We were revived considerably and when the others walked past we waited till they were gone and dried off and redressed.
We were so excited to see the Osprey and came across our friends waiting for us on the rocks with feet up. While standing there two ospreys flew overhead and Breezy captured me and the birds in her camera.
Finally arrived at Redgate Beach for surprise afternoon tea and were greeted by Hot scones, Jam and Cream with REAL coffee. It was like an hallucination and greeted with the greatest appreciation. A great day and back in time for dinner at the Commons (gratefully, a restaurant/bar next door to Surfpoint!). The buzz in the bar was full of energy and lots of fun. We had some bubbles and dinner to celebrate and headed off to bed about 10.00pm.
fleetfootkath 