Down South

We escaped the bustling city of Perth for a few days down south. We booked a farm stay just outside of Margaret River as our base with no real plans. At a leisurely pace we made our way along the Kwinana Freeway which goes on for miles and miles. Local knowledge, thanks to Bunbury resident Annwen, assured us that the best spot to stop for lunch and a swim was Meelup Beach.

Located around 10km north west of Dunsborough, Meelup Beach is a small sheltered beach on Geographe Bay with crystal clear water and rocky outcrops at each end. Meelup is a special place named by the local Wardandi people and meaning place of the rising moon because the full moon appear to rise out of the sea on specific days of the year. Although we weren't there long enough to see this natural phenomena occur, we did enjoy swimming and picnicking under the peppermint trees. Unbeknownst to us at the same time about 80m away and within the flags on the beach our friends the Braid family were also taking advantage of this spot as part of their summer holiday!!

From Meelup Beach we drove a short distance to Cape Naturaliste and a visit to the lighthouse. The 20m tall lighthouse, positioned on a high bluff overlooking Geographe Bay, was constructed from local limestone in 1903.

The guided tour which included climbing the lighthouse was a little too pricey for us, so we just wandered around the grounds and the base of the lighthouse. At one stage we caught up one of the tours and managed to eavesdrop a bit until they disappeared inside the lighthouse! Anyway some of the interesting facts we heard and read about included:

• The 4.6m diameter prism crystal lens was made in England (in kit form) for around $11,000 are now valued over $5 million! 
• The characteristic settings of the flashes means this lighthouse has two flashes in ten seconds with intervals of 2.5sec and 7.5sec and is visible for 46km. 
• The lighthouse began operating in 1904. 
• The weight had to be rewound during the night every 40-50min!
• 1996 saw the last lighthouse keeper (in Western Australia) be replaced by a fully automated system at Cape Naturaliste!

 

As the afternoon was quickly disappearing, it was time to continue our journey on to the farm much to the relief of two very excited girls who were literally dying with anticipation!