A Couple Days in Dunsborough

So instead of going to Thailand, Bali, or up the West Coast of Australia, due to a variety of reasons but mostly financial savings for my travels at the end of the semester, like most of my fellow Domers did, I went down to Claire's, one of my Australian friends, summer cabin in Dunsborough.  Dunsborough is about a two-and-a-half hour drive south of Perth located in the little tip of the Southwest corner of Australia (see the map to the right).  This area around Margaret River is a famous wine location in A

A group of nine of us from Tommy went down: Me, Claire, Maddy (one of Claire's good friends who is pretty cool), Derek (the other Domer that came down), Amaury (A Mauritian from Mauritius), Nessa, Terry, Alex, and Sivam.  We left Tuesday night after dinner and spent the rest of the night playing poker.  I got no good hands at all and only one all hand all night. It was a blow to my card playing abilities.  I think I will stick to Sheepshead and Oh Sh*t.  Wednesday morning we spent deciding what to do exactly and planning our route.  We then headed off to check out these cool caves only to turn around and not check them out for $20.  So instead we drove further down Caves Road and came along Caves Rocks which was just a cool "gneiss" (pronounced nice) rock formation. So of course I climbed all over it. After that we got lunch at a brewery and then started our afternoon of tasting.  We started our tasting tour at the Cove and Liqueur Factory where for only two dollars we got to sample three different liqueur flavors (I went with raspberry, macadamia nut, and lime) and one pre-mixed combination (lemon cheesecake).  They were all delicious.  After that we headed to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory where I did not partake in any of the sampling.  Why anyone would want to eat heaps of different flavored chocolate chips is beyond me.  Next up, cheese!  Coming from the cheese state of course I partook and thoroughly enjoyed all of the cheeses.  We finished the day at a pretty upscale winery (of who's name escapes me at the moment) for free wine tasting.  Since wine is the big drink down here in Australia I have already had some at the formal dinners and such at Tommy earlier and some of the white wines are decent, but I really have no desire to drink red wine ever.  So we went down the list of whites and then I ducked out when the reds started.

The best part of the day however was yet to come.  After going to the local butcher and selecting the meat we were going to grill out with for the night, a group of us went up to Sugarloaf (another rock formation on the coast, but 100x better than the first one) for the sunset.  Climbing rocks is easily one of my favorite activities here and these ones provided the most fun I have had here climbing yet due to a presence of danger most other rocks have lacked.  Nothing I couldn't handle of course but enough to make it super fun.  Not to mention the sunset was gorgeous.  I made it up to the horse head-looking formation and watched it from there.  Got back to the cottage and grilled up the meat for everybody, which consisted of a nice piece of marinated lamb and a sausage for me.

Today we spent most of the morning after breakfast at Yallingup Beach which was a lot better than Cottesloe, the beach up here that we always go to.  A morning of sun and swimming on the picturesque shores of Australia, it doesn't get much better than that.  I am one lucky individual for all of this.  I mean I am sure I am missing out on a fun experience in Thailand as well but spending my spring break in Australia isn't to shabby either.  I have to keep telling myself that and not to take being here for granted. I could be back in the great state of Indiana personally watching our football team struggle or here spending part my spring break on a white sand beach on the shores of the Indian Ocean.  Oceans are super salty by the way. Its gross.  Anyway on that obvious statement I will leave you for today my readers.  I hope to find something fun to fill the last three days of my break. I will keep you posted.  Here are a couple more photos from the trip.

Sugarloaf

Yallingup Beach

A view from my perch