Perth, Western Australia Itinerary August 2016 – Day 5 Ngilgi Caves, Canal Rocks and Laurence Wines (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Posted in Holidays, Perth, Travel with Kids, Uncategorized by jahbella

Ask any little boy if he would like to visit a cave and his answer would probably be yes. However I wasn’t too sure if a cave visit would live up to the expectations that Jah had about what a cave really is like. So given that Margaret River has several caves to offer, I really had to research and think it through quite a bit before we finally decided that we would give Ngilgi Caves a shot.

Joel and I had visited a cave in Margaret River once and I remember that it was a long long walk down and back up. We had joined a Caves Tour and that meant that we had to keep up and move at a certain pace. Totally not ideal for the kids. We decided to go with Ngilgi Caves because its tour was a semi-guided tour.

There were tour slots available every half-hourly so we decided to go for the 1030am slot which allowed us to make a breakfast pit stop at Margaret River Chocolate Factory enroute to the caves. Yes who has chocolate for breakfast right? Well we do! :p

We got to the Cave about 10 minutes before the tour slot started. We were advised to bring the kids to the toilet first as we would probably spend about 45 minutes or so in the cave. We met our guide at a pre-designated spot (above ground) where we read about the story of the cave. The kids loved the story about good versus evil and it was a really good start to their ‘cave adventure’.

Our guide brought us underground into the cave and explained the direction that we should walk in and some ground rules. We essentially went down some steep stairs to get underground but the kids were ok with that. We were told that we would have to walk 500 steps down and then 500 steps to get back up. I started to get abit worried but was comforted by the fact that we brought our toddler carriers around in case the kids needed to be carried mid-way. Thankfully we didn’t need it because our 2 troopers were more than happy and excited to finish the 500 steps up and down. Jah was so busy counting stairs but yes eventually lost count!

Most of the steps were well-built and paved except for certain low hanging areas or some areas where proper in-built steps were not possible and the steps had to be carved out from the rocks/ walls. So I would advise for 1 able-bodied adult to handle 1 child and make sure they don’t lose their footing or lean to one side (as the stairs can be very narrow). Give very specific instruction to your kiddos and if they can’t follow the instructions that you might need to carry them. Recommended in a carrier because you also need your hands free to hold railings while climbing or find your balance. We finished our walk in an hour and the kids were absolutely elated and pleased with themselves. Excuse our really dark photos. 🙂

Because we had finished at 1130am and still had abit of time to spare before lunch (we did have a really filling breakfast at 930am), we decided to pitstop at Canal Rocks which is a 5 minutes drive away. I’m so glad that we took that stop because the view at Canal Rocks was absolutely wonderful! I have this thing for the oceans and magnificent crashing waves as you may have noticed by now. So this place was an absolute gem! We were wondering why we had never been here in all our years of visiting Margaret River. We could have stood there in awe all morning. Videos can be found on our Instagram account.

We headed to Laurence Wines for lunch after that breath of fresh air. Honestly I don’t quite remember much about the food or wines there but the reason I am mentioning it, is because there is a pretty decent playground right next to the outdoor tables. Decent enough for the kids to play and expend their energy while you do your wine tasting at your own table. Yes, Laurence Wines allows you to purchase a tasting paddle and you can taste 6 different wines at your table. So no need to stand at the cellar door while worrying what the kids are up to. That being said, I would advise you to keep a look out for the kids as the playground is not enclosed and they might run in the direction of the open lake which is about 500m away.

We truly had a very relaxing Day 5 (our final day at Margaret River on this trip) and everyone was really happy! 🙂

Now for our 4 hour drive back to Perth and the second half of our adventure!

Click here to read more about our red eye flight into Perth 🙂

Day 1 – Day 1 Rockingham, Busselton Jetty (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 2 – Wonky Windmill Farm and Orchard Picking (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 3 Margaret River Farmer’s Market and Yallingup Maze (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 4 Whale Watching Cruise and Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse (Margaret River Roadtrip)
JahBella’s Mummy

20Sep2016

Perth, Western Australia Itinerary August 2016 – Day 3 Margaret River Farmer’s Market and Yallingup Maze (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Posted in Perth, Travel Planning, Travel with Kids, Uncategorized by jahbella

We have been to a few weekend markets/ farmer’s market in Singapore and overseas, over the years. However I can tell you that there has been nothing like the Margaret River Farmer’s Market. While MR is a tourist town, the weekend farmer’s market was anything but touristy. In fact it felt like one of those small town weekend markets that you see on your US TV series. There were stalls selling coffee, baked goods, vegetables, meat, crepes, soup, noodles and burgers etc and we were really spoilt for choice.

The market is held on school grounds so there are some tables and benches around as well as empty grass patches where you could set your picnic mats on. Most of the patrons were locals who were picking up fresh produce and a quick coffee. There were also many families having a quick breakfast bite. It was truly a breath of fresh air for us and so much fun! We only left because the rain cut short our breakfast but thank goodness we were almost done. Perhaps it was just as well that it rained so that we could move on to our next activity at the Yallingup Maze before it got too late.

We got to Yallingup Maze at about 1030am and it was bright and sunny. I honestly wasn’t expecting much from the maze since we attempted one during our last trip 2 years back but oh what a difference 2 years make. There were simple maze challenges that we could attempt and the kids were excited to set off.

We allowed Jah to take the lead as we manoeuvred through the maze. We actually did pretty awesome and completed the entire maze (found 4 pit stop towers) in 1 hour flat!

We headed back out to the main counter and cafe where they also sold lots of puzzle games and board games but they were pretty pricey so I would suggest strategising on how to say no to the kids when you walk through there. There is also a bouncy castle, playground and some mini mazes in the open fields in front of the outdoor seating. Joel had a lot of fun with the kids there while Mummy chilled and waited for our refreshments.

We had a really fun time at Yallingup Maze and I was really surprised that we didn’t have to ‘quit’ halfway. Looks like we have equally competitive little versions of us. :p

We headed to somewhere really special for lunch after, one of our favourite vineyard lunch spots in Margaret River, The Watershed. This place holds special meaning for us because this was where we celebrated our engagement, post proposal on 16 September 2007. So it was really nice to be back as a family of 4 🙂 Check out our ‘before kids’ and ‘after kids’ photo! :p

Everyone finished lunch in extremely good spirits that day..at almost 3pm! A really special Day 3 for us. 🙂

Click here to read more about our red eye flight into Perth 🙂

Day 1 – Day 1 Rockingham, Busselton Jetty (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 2 – Wonky Windmill Farm and Orchard Picking (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 4 Whale Watching Cruise and Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 5 Ngilgi Caves, Canal Rocks and Laurence Wines (Margaret River Roadtrip)

JahBella’s Mummy

12Sep2016

Perth, Western Australia Itinerary August 2016 – Day 2 Wonky Windmill Farm and Orchard Picking (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Posted in Holidays, Perth, Travel with Kids, Uncategorized by jahbella

Day 2 has got to be one of the best days of our entire trip! We headed to the Wonky Windmill Farm bright and early and the kids were really excited to get upclose and personal with the animals. Ok well Bella was really excited up until the point when she had to feed or go up close then she freaked out and changed her mind :p

We got to the farm at about 1030am (post breakfast at Sails Cafe) and we were just in time to feed the goats their breakfast and to play and feed some of the smaller animals (rabbits and guinea pigs) before the 11am Orchard Picking Tour. If you happen to get there earlier, you can visit the rest of the farm and feed the bigger animals before heading for the Orchard Picking Tour. Our entry fee included a bag of food for the big animals each and access to the Orchard Tour.

After spending some time with the little animals, we were all ready to pick some oranges. However it started to pour and we had to wait for the showers to pass. Bummer! Thankfully the rain clouds passed somewhat and we were able to make our way to the Orchard with a brolly in the drizzle. The rain completely stopped by the time we neared the Orchard and the sun was out in all its glory!

This part of the farm visit was definitely the highlight of our trip. Our guide Denise took us through the Orchard and we were introduced to the various trees (oranges, mandarin oranges, lemons and lemonades). The lemonades taste like lemons but look like oranges on the inside. Interesting! We were taught how to identify which were ready for picking, how to pick them and we tasted and ate many of them while we were at it.

We were also given a bag to hold the fruits we wanted to buy and the kids went crazy! Our bags were later weighed back at the counter and it cost us $5 per kg.

The fruits were so fresh that we managed to bring our loot back to Singapore with us and mind you this was from Day 2 of our 10 day trip. The kids loved picking the fruits and running free in the Orchard. The weather was also somewhat kind to us because it started to pour only just as we were wrapping up the tour and we made a dash through the Orchard and through muddy puddles to get to our umbrellas. Such good fun! Yes mummy would never allow that in Singapore :p

The rain subsided by the time we got back to the main building and the kids were still very pumped up about touring the farm to see the bigger animals (it was almost 12pm by then). We saw and fed goats, cows, llamas, kangaroos and more. Jah had lots of fun with the kangaroo and even patted him on his own accord. Whilst Joel got the raw end of the deal and got spat on by a alpaca . My bad for not telling him about the little warning we got from the staff. :p

The kids almost didn’t want to leave because they having so much fun but we had to feed our rumbling tummies. So off we headed to feed our tummies with an awesome brewery lunch (the brewery even had a fenced up playground) and some post lunch chocolate desserts 🙂

Click here to read more about our red eye flight into Perth 🙂

Day 1 – Day 1 Rockingham, Busselton Jetty (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 3 – Margaret River Farmer’s Market and Yallingup Maze (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 4 Whale Watching Cruise and Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 5 Ngilgi Caves, Canal Rocks and Laurence Wines (Margaret River Roadtrip)

JahBella’s Mummy

6Sep2016

Perth, Western Australia Itinerary August 2016 – Day 1 Rockingham, Busselton Jetty (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Posted in Holidays, Perth, Tips with Kids, Travel with Kids, Uncategorized by jahbella

I had worked out many itinerary permutations before the trip and finally settled on one that would see us driving straight to Margaret River (MR) after being fresh (no pun intended) off a red eye/ 5am landing. This would allow us to only break up the trip once and be back in Perth after 5 days in MR.

Travelling with kids on a road trip called for a lot of advance planning eg. Where would we be stopping for meals or breaks? Unlike the couple road trips where we could do many spontaneous stops or leg stretches. With kids, we had to ensure that we got to the destination in the least amount of time possible but still having sufficient meal breaks and possibly even an ‘entertainment’ or ‘attraction’ break.

We landed in Perth at 5am and proceeded to bundle the kids up in their winter jackets + ski gloves. Yes we looked ridiculous and kiasu in that airport but I reckon we looked really smart and warm :p once we hit the 5deg cold to get to our rental car.

It was going to be a 4 hour drive and so we decided to stop enroute at Rockingham for breakfast. The drive was about 1.5hours long because we had to travel pretty slowly in the rain and with foggy windows (took us awhile to figure out how to get the anti fog on).

We settled for a warm ham and cheese crossiant and hot chocolate at Lulu’s cafe. It was nice to be out of the cold and in a warm toasty cafe with a electric fire place next to our table. Almost didn’t want to leave. There is also a nice playground across the road from the cafe which would have been an ideal run around for the kids if the weather was warmer.

With our tummies full, we continued our drive towards MR and intended to take a lunch and ‘entertainment’ stop at Busselton Jetty.

We drove another 2 hours before we got there, thankfully the kids dozed off on that leg of the journey. We normally don’t allow sleeping in the car but this time we were glad they were getting some rest and we were getting some quiet and were able to focus on the road. And I honestly enjoyed the adult car conversations we were finally able to have without a child either interrupting us or having to have ‘speed’ conversations or updates while on our way to pick the kids. No guilt, the kids were in the car (asleep) and we had 2 whole hours of conversation time. 🙂

We got to Busselton just in time for the 11am jetty train ride. The train ride about 2+km down the jetty would take about 45 min there and back with an approx 8 mins stop at the end of the jetty. You can also choose to walk if you like. It started pouring almost as soon as we got out of our car so we were super glad that our beanies and gloves were all accessible in our handcarry and not packed away. Yes even for the adults! Phew! The kids love the train ride and the cold didn’t bother them as much as it did us.

Everyone was ready for some lunch after our little train adventure and we headed to The Goose which is a restaurant right next to the jetty. We have been to this restaurant many times over the years. It used to be a restaurant that serves tapas but serves mostly your usual mains now.

We only had a 1 hour drive left from Busselton to MR after this (easy peasy) and we got to our accommodation just shy of 2pm and just in time for our afternoon nap. If your kids don’t need a nap then you would still have lots of time to explore some vineyards or taste some local produce.

So this was pretty much how we survived 18 hours on the ‘road’- from leaving home at 8pm till we settled at our MR accommodation at 2pm the next day. To be honest it was really an awesome Day 1 with these kiddos and we couldn’t wait for Day 2!

JahBella’s Mummy

Click here to read more about our red eye flight into Perth 🙂

Day 2 – Wonky Windmill Farm and Orchard Picking (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 3 – Margaret River Farmer’s Market and Yallingup Maze (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 4 Whale Watching Cruise and Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse (Margaret River Roadtrip)

Day 5 Ngilgi Caves, Canal Rocks and Laurence Wines (Margaret River Roadtrip)

More coming up…:)