Since we decided not to go to Karijini (way too much driving, even for WA), we had some spare time before Nepal, so we headed south. We decided to go to Margaret River with three things in mind – caves, trekking and craft beer!

As we drove south we started to see trees (hadn’t seen them in couple of weeks), and they grew bigger and bigger. On the day of the drive we already decided to visit one brewery and one cave. The Colonial Brewery was a quiet place on a side of the lake with heaps of space including a kids’ corner. They also had one own cider, so Valeria could have her own tasting. The Calgardup cave was more interesting. We got torches and helmets and were free to go and explore – as long as we stayed on boardwalks. It had two sides, one of which accomodated a little lake. 

After exploring the cave we headed to our camping spot. We had booked a tent site for 2 nights close by at Conto. When we arrived there it seemed like a nice and quiet place to spend a couple of nights, but soon we noticed that the place was full of kids. There were tree busloads of teenagers and their teachers camping at the same spot. Luckily they spent there only one night and we had picked our tent spot on a nice separated area. First night we woke up at 5am. First we heard footsteps next to our tent and soon after that something munching the grass, so probably it was a kangaroo.

The next day we started with a walk. A 5-7 day Cape to cape track went past our camping grounds. We only did a half a day walk on that trail from Conto to Bob’s hollow. The trail followed the coastline, most of the way going between low shrub. On the way we got to see beautiful cliffs and wildflowers. Close to our turning point we followed a path down from the cliff to see a small cave and took a rest on a stony beach. On our way back we spotted a lone surfer trying to catch some waves. 

After that we went to grab a lunch and taste some more beer and cider in another brewery, Cheeky Monkey. The setup was pretty much the same as in the first one, except there were more people at lunch time. Fed and happy, we continued our way to the other self-guided cave – Mammoth. Around Margaret River there are several more caves, but access any of them you have to go on a tour. Mammoth cave probably got its name from the fact a number of fossils had been found in there, like jaws from extinct animals. The cave itself was bigger and maybe more beautiful than Calgardup, or maybe it felt so because of the lighting.