Margaret River Part 2

by Miss Penny Black

Our second full day in MR was a tour called ‘All About Margaret River Wine and Chocolate Tour’, which was accurate but not very catchy. The company was just two guys, Dani was our drive for the day and he was from Chile, having moved to Australia four years ago. If you’re looking for a tour in the MR region, I’d highly recommend this one. Dani was an excellent guide who was friendly, knowledgeable and passionate about the region and supporting the smaller, family-owned businesses that were resisting the big companies that are buying up smaller wineries.

We were picked up from our apartments and joined a retired couple from Sydney, two sisters from Norway, and a couple of retired ladies from England. Everyone was very friendly and it was a great group to spend the day with, even if the couple from Sydney didn’t believe me when I told them the birds we could see at the farm were peacocks, not lyrebirds. I’ll let you be the judge.

First stop was a farm experience where we fed llamas, emus and then sat down for a breakfast of scones and tea or coffee. Something to fill the stomach before the wine tasting started!

We also stopped at Cowerup, a little tourist town we had already had a quick walk around the day before, to visit a chocolate maker called Temper Temper. They did some unusual flavours, including one with cauliflower!

They actually made the chocolate on the premises from imported cocoa beans. I don’t think I’ve seen anywhere else in Australia that does that on such a small scale.

We had one wine tasting before lunch, where we sat outside in the garden of Juniper Winery, where an enthusiastic Englishman told us each wine was excellent. None of them really took my fancy, but it was a beautiful place to start our day’s drinking.

We stopped briefly at a lookout where I saw a whale spout in the far distance – I got very lucky on this trip with spotting the puffs of water out near the horizon, although sadly we didn’t see any close to land.

Lunch was at an olive farm and restaurant. We had ordered our food earlier so service was quick and we got to try their range of oils and preserves. Charmaine and I shared a mushroom pasta (divine) and delicious bruschetta before heading off to the next two wineries.

Winery 2 was a small producer and the lady who talked us through their wines was one of the owners. She was very knowledgeable and I found trying their rosé interesting as she gave us two samples, produced from the same grapes in two different years. Not only was the taste very different, but the colour was striking – one was a pale warm tawny and the other was a cool pink!

The third winery of the day was extremely generous with their tasting selection and we ended up ordering a mixed case sent home. In their vineyard I saw the biggest flock of black cockatoos I’ve ever seen – at least 30. At home we get the ones with yellow stripes under their tails, but these had white stripes.

Luke, Charmaine and I said goodbye to the group at about 4pm and had a little rest before going to the weirdest building on the main street, it was a bit steam-punk/cuckoo clock style. The guy at the front desk seemed mildly perturbed that we’d arrived without a booking but the food was great.

The restaurant had lots of little spaces, not one big room. I recommend going there if you go to MR… but make a booking!

It’s two restaurants plus accommodation all in one premises.

Day 3! 22/9/25 Coffee, Art, A Beach And Chocolate

Our last full day in Margaret River. I woke up early and went for a little solo walk. I find if I don’t spend at least a bit of time by myself when I’m on holidays I go mad. Or rather, I get mad and Luke bears the brunt. So I went and had a coffee in a little cafe that was also a health food shop and I watched people coming in and out. Then I walked back to the apartments and realised Luke might like a coffee so I got one for him from a bakery on the main street that had the best looking pastries I’ve seen in a long time. I didn’t end up going back for any, which I’m a bit sad about!

Luke and I took a walk after breakfast and had a look at some street art, and at a gallery nearby. It had an exhibition by Yorkshire artist, Chris Williamson, who did illustrations for children’s books, but also had little sculptures on the wall next to each original pice and you could look in the drawing for the sculpture. His work was very intricate and beautiful.

We met up with Charmaine and our next stop was the Elephant Beach Cafe. it’s the only cafe in the area that is right on the beach and it had a magnificent view of the beach, cliffs and emerald green water. We watched the wait staff whisk all the plates away to avoid attracting the seagulls that plague every outdoors space.

We walked up to the headland and looked further along the coast. There was an interesting rock formation under the water where seaweed had filled in the cracks, making tessellating shapes. I was very glad of my sunglasses, everywhere in Margaret River is so blinding!

Astonishingly, Charmaine didn’t suffer any injuries on this trip. Maybe the curse has lifted!

In the afternoon we visited two chocolate shops. The first was the Margaret River Chocolate Company, which is big but I didn’t find their range of produce very interesting.

We visited a smaller business nearby that had a smaller selection but talked us through a tasting of chocolate from different regions around the world. We could taste the difference between African and South American chocolate and bought some to take to Rottnest Island for our friends to try.

Our last stop of the day was back to Cowaramup (again) and we managed to find, in the tiny strip of shops, two shops we hadn’t previously visited. We bought some cheese and ended up having a lovely evening on our balcony drinking some of the wine we’d bought and eating the cheese with some relish and crackers. This always reminds me of Luke’s parents, Lea and Pete, and their long evenings of cheese and chatting!

Busselton Jetty, Thursday September 25/9/25

We left Margaret River before 8am, still being on Melbourne time. Poor Charmaine was still waking up at 2am!

As always, we turned up quite early, and had time for breakfast at The Goose, a cafe right by the tourist office in Busselton. Another restaurant with a beautiful view and the weather was perfect.

Always Luke chooses dessert for breakfast!

We boarded the little train that ran along the pier and had a chat to a nice family who recommended a place with sunset views in Fremantle the following night. I booked a table straight away.

The trip along the jetty was nice but the underwater observatory at the end was really my cup of tea! A circular cement structure with windows along a the way that circled down, and you could look through at the ecosystem that had built a reef on the jetty pylons.

Going scuba diving out here would be amazing! There’s an underwater sculpture garden too, although we couldn’t see it. Several days previously two young blue whales had been swimming around the jetty – sadly not on our day!

The reef has only been growing for a few years but there’s so much to see.

We decided to walk back and were glad or our hats and long sleeves, the sun felt quite spicy.

Feeling like we’d done everything we needed to do, we got in the car and headed for Fremantle.

We had booked rooms at a Rydges hotel that had once been an old pub. It had a beautiful veranda around the outside but the inside was more modern and cavernous.

Kelvin has flown in that afternoon so Charmaine went to meet him. Luke and I had a couple of drinks in the bar then walked through the park to the Bathers Beach restaurant. There were some very photogenic tugboats in the harbour next door and an octopus sculpture too.

One of my favourite photos from the trip

Bathers Beach itself isn’t large but a few people were gathered for the sunset. Inside the restaurant it was a bit blinding, but the food was good and we shared a bunch of small plates.

Apart from a huge, empty Ferris wheel, there wasn’t much going on around our hotel at night so after a couple of drinks in the bar we headed to bed, still somewhat on Victorian time.

Next stop: Rottnest Island!

1Jul2025

Goodbye Khao Lak, Hello Phuket

by Miss Penny Black

While I was only staying in Thailand for eight days, Jess was moving digs to Phuket, for a change of pace and scenery.

We enjoyed our last breakfast at The Sands, I had a last swim in the pool and we finally bought one of the tiny cute ice creams they sold in front of the gym.

I forgot to take the photo before I bit off the ear.

It takes about two hours to get to Phuket’s Old Town from Khao Lak, so we left The Sands at about midday. Jess has been the organiser of the trip, and for once I get to play the travel princess, which has been very enjoyable! Although knowing someone else has all the info meant I asked her the same questions repeatedly and my brain did not retain anything. What a strange phenomenon!

Jess booked us a taxi through Grab, which is like Uber. The fancy Grab car cost the same as a regular car and it was amazing!

The interior had lights all over and even fancy tassels for the curtains

There was a bit of traffic on the way so we got to Jess’ hotel, the Mid Town Hotel, a bit later than expected. Rather unusually, it used to be a shopping mall, so the layout was kind of interesting.

After dumping our bags and turning on the aircon, we headed out into Old Phuket, which has Portuguese history and beautiful architecture. It was a little New Orleans, Nottingham Hill and Bangkok all rolled into one.

Our first stop, for something fun to do, was a Japanese icecream place that did a weird noodle-shaped topping on icecream in a cone.

We got to watch the guy do the noodles and wondered what on earth they were made from before Jess googled it. Turns out they’re a ‘Mount Blanc’ dessert, invented in Paris 100 years ago and loved by the Japanese. The strands are made of flavoured chestnut paste!

We must, must remember to save our energy for the evenings next time! The afternoon was so hot and humid, I couldn’t stand being in the sun. We walked through some cooler market alleys and then Jess navigated us to an air conditioned coffee shop for a drink while we worked out somewhere to go for dinner.

Markets getting started. Not too busy at 5pm

Jess found a restaurant that was almost in view of the coffee shop and we went to see if it was a decent temperature.

The wait staff kindly put on the aircon for us and we gladly sat in the gorgeous decor: the place had been described online as having a French influence. It had a cement floor but the decor was all teal velvet drapes and cushions, marble tabletops and purple walls with giant disco balls revolving slowly. I loved it!

We had some simple but delicious Thai food and then walked back to the hotel and lay in the aircon. Jess has definitely not suffered anywhere near as badly as I have with the temperature and humidity, which I think is exacerbated by the city environment (and not having a pool handy) and possibly perimenopause.

Despite the discomfort, I really liked what I saw of Phuket. I don’t know why I’d previously imagined it as a soulless tourist trap. The markets did have stalls selling lots of the same things over and over, but I could imagine coming here with a group of friends and having an amazing time just visiting all the fun and unusual bars and restaurants. Being a pride month, this really is a good time to come. I think we missed the initial celebrations by one day, I’m not sure if they have a parade to kick it off.

I took a Grab car to the airport and arrived in plenty of time. After throwing away my water bottle at security, I bought some water for the plane then they had a second security set up as we boarded and I had to throw away the new bottle, which I wasn’t happy about. I read later there had been some bomb threats in Phuket in the previous two days. I don’t know how a clear bottle of water bought in the cafe inside the airport was a threat but there you go.

Jess hadn’t cancelled her return flight as it was part of a package so I had an empty seat next to me – what a luxury! I slept most of the at home, caught the Skybus then a train and was home around lunchtime. Luke was working from home so he picked me up, made me a sandwich and then I went to bed and slept for another five hours.

A rare gang of yellow-tailed black cockatoos were destroying a pine tree when I got off the train at Heathmont. So cute but so violent!

Corch and Leah’s favourite restaurant, the Afghan Kitchen, was closing down so they brought over a feast for dinner and it was lovely to catch up with them. Kat and Luke had saved two weeks of the Saturday quiz and we did them while we had dessert. Trivia with friends – one of my favourite things!

I slept for another six or so hours then it was time to get up, go back to the airport and fly to Queensland! More about that in the next post 🙂 .

26Jun2025

Jess and Amanda In Thailand, days 2-5

by Miss Penny Black

One of the best things about staying at an Asian resort is the breakfast buffet.

The buffet at our resort starts at 6:30 and our body clocks are several hours behind Thai time, which meant we are usually first seated in the best spot in the ‘adults only’ zone by 7am.

The food that Jess and I choose is a venn diagram with almost no overlap. Jess chooses a selection of toasts and jam then a bowl of yogurt and porridge, while I go for curry, eggs, bacon, salad, rice noodles…. literally a bit of everything else.

The coffee and tea cups at resorts are always tiny so I took one of my keep cups so I could make a bigger drink. It has the added benefit of being able to make a coffee then take it away and put it in the bar fridge in the room (I like cold coffee) for later in the day.

After the first few of days of buffet madness (first breakfast at 6:30 then second breakfast at 10:00 after yoga) , we’ve taken pity on our stomachs and slept in for longer and gone for only one breakfast today.

Our package with Luxury Escapes includes the daily breakfast, two other meals during our stay, two massages each, plus one free-flow cocktail hour every day. There’s two cocktail hours to choose from, one from 3-4 at the pool outside our room, and one from 6-7 near the main restaurant.

Map of the resort with our room where the red arrow points. The dark blue in the centre is a lake, not a pool. The aqua wing is where most of the families are most of the time. The resort is really well set out and keeps he kids

We’ve done most of our cocktail hours at the bar near our room, not only because it’s convenient, but also because we’ve become friendly with the bar staff there. They are very lively and we talk to one of the guys, Ton, who helps us learn Thai. So far we have mainly learned how to order a drink and explain how many drinks will lead to us being sick.

Cocktails aside, We did a language class on our second full day and Gabriel, the teacher, took us through some basic Thai phrases.

We have been practicing phrases and adding to our notes. Thai people are very kind and encouraging about us using as many words as we can.

We have done two yoga classes and also a fruit carving class!

We made tomato roses, cucumber leaves and carrot… tulips? The carrot was the hardest. Tomorrow we’re going to take the tiny carving knives that we were given as part of the class to breakfast and do the Michelin plate challenge, which is where you try to plate up buffet food to look like it came from a fancy restaurant. Then you get a member of staff to judge which is best.

Jess’ highlights so far:

Mango pudding

Warmer pool water (it was kind of cold when we first arrived)

Learning Thai, doing yoga and fruit carving

Having food made for her!

22Jun2025

Jess and Amanda In Thailand, 21/06/2025

by Miss Penny Black

In the winter holidays last year, everyone at my school went to Bali or Thailand or somewhere sunny, so Jess and I booked a mid year holiday this year so we could be two of the snow birds flying north for some warmth and an extended mid year break.

Come July, the situation is not quite what we anticipated, with me being on a year long leave from work and spending a lot of time driving back and forth from Orange frequently (Mum died at the end of last year and Dad was diagnosed with dementia), but Jess has earned her tropical break and I’m looking forward to some cocktails by the pool and breathing some dense, humid air. Inhaling smoke from Dad’s wood fire in his shed has given me pretty severe asthma, so I’m seeing this trip as a medical necessity. If I’d asked a doctor I’m sure it’s what they would have ordered.

We are staying 8 days at The Sands, Khao Lak, which is an hour north of Phuket.

Jess and I have both been to Thailand before but not this area. For a while I was looking forward to seeing sunsets but the weather looks to be overcast at the least and thunderstorms at the worst but that’s fine, it probably means the resort will be quieter.

Luke got up before 7am to take Jess and I to the station with our meagre luggage – we’ve both opted for carry-on only. No checked baggage! Going to the tropics for a week or two really doesn’t require much stuff.

From Ringwood we took the 7:15 train, then the Sky Bus from the city to the airport.

We were a few minutes early for check in (just the way we like it) then calmly sailed up to the security check point where I had not one, but TWO knives confiscated, since I’d brought a wooden picnic set of cutlery and not looked to see that there was a small metal knife along with a bamboo one in the set. The embarrassment!

We booked our trip through Luxury Escapes which, despite the name, combines a resort deal for 8 nights with the most bare-bones of Jetstar flights. No meals included! I brought a pile of snacks and Jess bought a toasted sandwich on the plane.

We both bought puzzle books in the airport (I *am* in my 50th year, after all) and spent most of the flight happily solving sudoku and arrow words.

Our first flight was pretty much full and we had the window and middle seat, with a tiny old lady wrapped in black clothing sitting on the other side of me. Fortunately she liked to get up pretty frequently so would get up too and have a stretch. The Jetstar plane had a USB port at each seat, so my deep fear of running out of battery on my phone was, once again, proved unnecessary.

Jess and I have a mini book club project on this trip. We each chose a novel and we are going to read chapters concurrently. I chose ‘Mania’ by Lionel Shriver, which we are reading first because I didn’t download Jess’ book ‘Ministry of Time’ by Kaliane Bradley. On the plane we read the first couple of chapters of Mania which, as I suspected, has plenty to discuss in it already.

After 8 hours we landed in a Singapore without delay or incident, and found the food court in the delightfully decorated and spacious Changi Airport. With only two hours between flights we didn’t have time to see any of the big gardens or the butterfly house, but what we did see was lovely.

At the gate Jess. noticed these rather anatomically-suggestive chairs and insisted on a photo.

The next flight was two hours and we were surrounded by a large Russian family. The dad’s seat was next to us but there were several empty rows, so before the plane took off he moved several rows away from his wife who was next to us and three kids who were in the row behind us. It was great to have an empty seat, but what an ass.

When the lights dimmed for take off we had our overhead light on so we could do puzzles and one of the kids in the seat behind asked me if we would turn it off so they could sleep. I just can’t imagine a time in my life where I would’ve had the confidence to ask a stranger who is clearly at least 30 years older than me to do me a favour like that! Obviously I said no.

We got into Phuket airport 2 whole minutes early and found the Luxury Escapes people in the pick up bay. There were a lot of people milling around but we ended up with a lovely new minibus to ourselves. the drive to the resort was an hour in the driving rain, but the roads looked pretty new and there was no traffic.

Highlights the first day:

Jess has said about five times that buying the friction erasable pens for the puzzle books was a game-changer (pun intended).

No travel hiccups and no waiting for baggage carousels.

Cheap food in Changi – Jess’ dinner was only $3!

Seeing Jess get excited about travel stuff that I don’t think about, like the condensation thing that happens on some planes – we googled it and it’s to do with the aircon system in the cabin when it starts up.

The novelty of the thick air and smells of the tropics.

Down sides:

Being exhausted and having dry skin and eyes after so long in aircraft.

I don’t know why this picture of our room won’t load properly but it’ll have to do. We are on the ground floor and our room opens onto some grass then the swim-up bar. Fun!

7Apr2025

Cresfest 2025 in Creswick

by Miss Penny Black

For many years my friendship group has been tossing around the idea of all retiring to a country town where we can all be within a few minutes of each other. One of my friends is very keen in Creswick being the destination and, since I’d never been, I decided this year, while I wasn’t working, would be a great time to check it out. Cresfest is an annual folk music festival that happens in April so it seemed like a good chance to see the town at its best.

I left Melbourne at midday on Friday and it took a bit over two hours to get there from Heathmont. Creswick is near Ballarat, which is on the opposite side of Melbourne and, unfortunately, involved driving down the Calder freeway. ‘Godforsaken’ might be a little dramatic, but it’s a drab and dull drive for an hour on a rubbish-strewn road with sad old farms every so often.

Creswick itself is surrounded by small hills and forest, making it a bit of an oasis in the somewhat barren landscape of central Victoria.

I arrived a bit after 2 and had a look around the Airbnb I’d booked (‘the house on the hill’ if you like the look of it). The house was very nice and well appointed except for the fact that all the lights, bar the lamps, were fitted with cold white globes, there by reducing the coziness of the property by half. Why anyone, anywhere outside of a medical setting, would put in blue white light over warm white is a complete mystery to me.

The house is built on a hillside overlooking the town but the front of the house is just bedrooms so there is a pod on the side of the house with a glass wall and a lovely view.

It has a log fire and some uncomfortable single wicker chairs, which is a shame because lounging in front of a fire in really comfy chairs is a premium night time experience.

After poking around the house and making a mental note of all the things I’d change if I owned it, I went for a walk down the main street, which is about 200 metres away down a steep hill.

The main street of a Creswick definitely has a fancier end. There is a French patisserie with very posh case of pastries, several historic pubs and restaurants and a local library that looks like it was built very recently with zero concern for the gold rush era streetscape.

No photos of the library, it was too ugly.

After a lap and a detour down a side street I walked back to the house and jumped in the car to visit the local lake.

Very pretty, possibly enhanced unfairly by the flawless weather. Jane tells me the water is always freezing.

For the rest of the afternoon and half the evening I drank wine, listened to the Parenting Hell podcast and did some drawing. I watched the sunset, birds flocking around, and ate a slice of cauliflower bake that I brought from home.

Jess and Christophe arrived mid evening and we had a few drinks before going to bed at a very sensible hour.

In the morning I was pleased and surprised to wake up without a hangover.

We had all bought Saturday tickets for Cresfest so the first order of business was getting our digital tickets translated into wristbands. Our first act of the day was a duo of Indian guitarists who played bluegrass (so they said, folk music is a whole new world to me) and got the crowd to sing along to Home Among The Gum Trees, which was twee but cute.

Jane and Ash were driving up on the day so I went back to the house to meet them then we walked back down the hill together. After not being able to get into a show that Jess and Christophe were already in (there were 20 venues spread out around the town) we sat outside the pub for a chat, got some lunch then went to see The Tuck Shop Ladies, who were very entertaining, playing short, funky, original songs.

We walked to the primary school to check out what was there and Jane booked a session with a fortune teller. We also caught a bit of a lovely father and daughter act who turned out to be friends of Kat’s. Small world!

I got a bit tired of wandering and headed back to the house in the late afternoon to sit in the sun and relax. Eventually I lit the fire and then everyone else came back and we sat and had a very pleasant chat for a while before Jane and Ash headed back to Melbourne.

The overall assessment of the festival had been that it was a bit overpriced, poorly signed (the food vans that had set up at the primary school were completely out of sight of the rest of the festival) and it would’ve benefited from more stalls. However the acts we saw were good, the crowd was lovely and the weather was 10/10.

Being so used to electronic music festivals, it was strange to be sitting down listening to people play, but it all felt very civilised and I expect it’ll get better every year.