We took the coastal route from Perth all the way south to Esperance over the next couple of weeks. This South West coast down to Margaret River is quite accessible from Perth and therefore has a very well developed tourism industry. The wind and rain continued for us all during this time, but this only made the sunny patches all the more beautiful.

​The rugged coastline is a favorite for seals and surfers, tourists and travelers. This food bowl area of WA has a huge selection of wineries along with gourmet foods and crafts. Covid restrictions – what covid restrictions, there are none, with the exception of the WA Safe check-in app! 

​ We spent a day out at Cape Leeuwin within the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park, walked the Sugarloaf Rock trail, saw migrating whales and the lighthouse at Cape Leeuwin. 

In another example of great marketing we passed through the small town of Cowaramup. Playing on the towns name there are 42 life size fiberglass cows throughout the town all placed for maximum photo opportunities and many ‘cow’ inspired shops, eg, Mukau Gallery (pronounced Moo-Cow), Candy Cow lolly shop , Rump on a Stump artwork, plus the Deja-Moo Country Fair and Cow Rally, which sees hundreds of attendees dressed in cow onesies descend on the town in July, trying to beat their own world record of the most people in one place in a cow onesie!

​Down at the Margaret River river mouth there was no surfing because the weather was too wild but we had a great time watching kite surfers followed by a challenging 4WD  through the beautiful Boranup Karri Forest (the Karri is the third tallest tree species in the world).

​​After a quick trip south to Augusta (not to be confused with Port Augusta) for the best fish and chips in the west, we started heading east feeling somewhat homeward bound – albeit still a few thousand kilometres to go!