rockingham | JahBella

As the first half of our 2016 Perth holiday came to a close, we were busying ourselves with getting back on the road to head back into Perth. Our initial plan had us leaving Margaret River by 8am so that we could move at a more leisurely pace and have the kids take a nap at the new accommodation by 2pm. However that didn’t happen due to some last minute laundry/ dryer issues (we had to wait almost 2 hours for the kids winter pants to dry). 😦 For once, mummy the control freak wasn’t too fuss about the delay in our plans because I was seriously under the weather and moving at sloth pace myself. In fact I was wondering how I would make it through the day as the human GPS in my state. Thankfully the pharmacies in Australia are superb! We made a stop on our way out of Margaret River to get some meds and the nice pharmacist sold me their ‘home mix’ cough syrup and even poured me a glass of warm water to mix it on the spot! The meds work wonders and I was much much better by the time we got to our lunch stop.

We made a slight detour for lunch at Rockingham because we thought the kids might enjoy a boat ride over to Penguin Island to visit some Happy Feets. But with me being under the weather and us leaving Margaret River so late, we decided not to visit Penguin Island and settled for lunch at the jetty café. Simple fish and chips, the kids going crazy from chasing very hungry and persistent birds around (Bella was petrified and Jah was just angry :p) and catching our first Ponyta made for a nice afternoon.

We reached our Perth accommodation at about 330pm which meant the kids didn’t settled down until almost 5pm. Thankfully our plans for the night were rather simple too. Just good ole Chinese food at Northbridge. Yes after days of western food, my kids and husband needed their Chinese food. Kids really appreciated their hot plate tofu and Salt & Pepper Fish however note to self, please remember to order chicken in future especially after all the fish and chips!! The good thing about the Chinese restaurants are the fact that they open till late (who says you can’t find anything open in Perth after 5pm). We had our dinner at 8pm and even squeezed in a bubble tea each after. 😉

Looks like a 4 hour road trip to and from Margaret River isn’t that hard after all. We survived our first long road trip in Perth! You know what they say…what doesn’t break you, only makes you stronger..I can’t wait for more roadtrips with my 3 favourite people in the world! 🙂

JahBella’s Mummy

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…:)