Second Weekend: Second Great Southern Roadtrip

Sometimes after a laboriously long and physically tiring week of work, you just want to stay at home, relax, and not do anything (and if anything, it might include laundry). Other times, you realize where you are and feel as though you should take advantage of the day off and do something a bit more productive than just laundry. Saturday was my lazy-I-can't-be-bothered-to-do-anything day. Not even laundry. (Ok, but we were having water issues so I couldn't - I didn't even shower. Dam water: don't drink; Rain water: it's as clear as the isolated, unpolluted night's sky of flickering stars and twinkling galaxies that's as clean as the frogs that are ribbiting on top of the hose filling the tank aka drink up. But I did finish a book, have time to write, went for a walk, and video chatted with Dad in the morning, so not completely unproductive). It was a day completely to myself and despite it's apparent nothingness, I thoroughly enjoyed it and the warm March sun that kept me company. Sunday, though, was the day to do something, to take advantage of the roomie and I both having a day off and to counter the previous day's unproductiveness.

We debated between two options: the Porojunup Wine Festival featuring tastings from local wineries around Porojunup and grape stomping, or a trip to the beach. I thought it'd be cool to witness an annual regional event, but ultimately I couldn't really be bothered (leftover from yesterday's self-inflicted laziness?) so we decided it was so hot out that we'd probably be drunk or faint after one glass of wine. 

So decided: it was off to the coast! 

 Right before the turn off Muir Highway (cough, "highway") towards Denmark is West Cape Howe winery so we decided to check it out and had our own little wine festival by tasting some of their wines. The vines on the property are some of the oldest vines in the Western Australian state, although the winery recently moved to this location a few years ago. They also source some of their grapes from some of the oldest wines in Swan Valley by Perth. Older vines generally mean the grapes are reliably of more consistent quality. It was a nice tasting experience and along with their award winning Cabernet Sauvignon and Riesling, they had wines made from Tempranillo, Nebbiolo, and Sangiovese which aren't common around here.

As recommended by the guy at WCH, we eventually made it to MadFish Bay in Williams Bay National Park, and you could tell why the fish would go mad in this bay as two currents from opposing directions meet in the middle causing quite a strong pull. By the time we sat in the seriously soft sand, the warm weather had comfortably cooled and we were perfectly pleased with the over-an-hour outing*: our books, a picnic of snacks, cold Little Creatures Pilsner, the company, and beautiful photo opps.

*Alliteration is Amusing.

picnic in an esky

panarammmmma

madfish = currents converging

clear waters.

right state of mind: staring off into the ocean can soothe the soul. 

 The sun started to set behind us so we moved to Greens Pool, another more-popular beach we had heard about so that we could get a better view of the sunset.

Green's Pool

 We sat there with our books and staring off at the crashing waves until the bugs started to pester about.

For the second weekend in a row, for our second trip away, even just for the day, we commented on the car ride back that it was again nice to come back to our little, quiet and remote home in Frankland River. It's nice to participate in some bit of civilization and unwillingly fork-over a bit of the week's unused money. It's nice to have a day off to yourself, and it's sometimes even nicer to take advantage of that time to do something (Laundry, I'll get to you this week). It's hard to leave such panoramic, peaceful sights and think about the workload in the upcoming week, but we appreciate that time we get to experience them, as far away or as short lived as they may be. And yet, for the second week, we're still happy to go back to our isolated vineyard life: labor intensive, physical aches and pains, hearty meals, reclusiveness, spiders, mice and all.