One of the Japanese men staying at the YHA in Margaret River looked confused this afternoon as an Englishman asked him Genki desu ka?. However, he replied politely and they exchanged pleasantries. The Japanese man seemed very surprised that the man next to him had been to his hometown of Kamakura. Twice. The aforesaid Englishman is usually a bit more keen to try out his linguistic skills when he’s had a glass or two of something alcoholic, which is about where we are in our tales of our journey around the South-West of Australia.

Yesterday morning, we got up long, long before our breakfasts to dash down to the Dolphin Discovery Centre to try to catch a glimpse of the wild dolphins that are reported to visit the beach there and swim among their fans. It was a bright summer’s morning, but the water seemed very cold as we waded in up to about our knees (or at least my knees, which may not be as far from the sand as those around me). Right on cue two dolphins (Tangles and her calf Turbo) came up and swam around for a good forty minutes. While we didn’t go swimming, as such, with the dolphins, this was definitely worth getting out of bed for and certainly worth the $2 admission fee.

Even with one activity under our belts, we were able to load up The Beast and check out of The Dolphin Retreat YHA in Bunbury well before ten o’clock.

From Bunbury we headed to Busselton for a wander around the town. Down at the beach, near the big water-slide, they have a lengthy jetty. This, K had read is 2km long! There’s an admission fee (isn’t there always?), but we figured that it’s not every day that one gets to walk over a mile out to see without getting their toes wet. The sun beamed down on us as we walked the mile along the disused railway line, past the fishermen and fisherwomen and those diving in off the pier. The ocean was wonderfully clear down below us. Towards the end of the pier, there is an underwater observatory that you can go in (again, for a fee). We opted just to take photographs back along the jetty to the coast. If you see these photos, see if you can count how many flies were there that day, it seems like there were rather a lot, if not all of the flies in Western Australia.

Cape Naturaliste was our next stop, famed for its lighthouse and splendid views. I shall now remember it for the following reason: That is where I locked the keys in The Beast in the blazing afternoon sun. Miles from anywhere.

Thankfully, there is a little shop at The Cape, where they had part of an old coat-hanger to lend me. After a good little while of fumbling around with the coat-hanger inside the skin of the passenger door, pretending that I knew what I was doing, I effected my first ever car break-in! I was surprised at quite how easy it was, to be honest. Thankfully, people in the car park took an interest in what I was doing and the keys were clearly on display in the ignition. I feel assured that had I been up to no good, that this would have been obvious enough to passers by and that I would soon have my collar felt by one of the local constabulary.

Having sweltered in the heat, we opted not to take a long walk around The Cape and stopped only to have an ice cream before we headed back on our way to Margaret River, which is from where I am writing this.

On the way I marvelled at the beautiful landscapes. The colours here in WA’s landscapes are phenomenal: all of the colours of the rainbow are evident in the natural surroundings. One day, I shall take a photograph that will capture this, but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I was reading this!

I brought The Beast to an abrupt stop about 20km outside Margaret River and did a swift u-turn in the road. A sign had caught my eye, and I recalled a conversation from a journey home from work, one evening last month. ‘Dave’ Juniper, a friend of mine from the office, isn’t a huge fan of red wines he was telling me. One evening a friend of his presented him and his good lady with a bottle of red from the Juniper Estate somewhere in Australia. He told me that this was the nicest red wine he had ever tasted. I promised that I would keep an eye open for this winery. Oddly, I’d forgotten about the conversation until I saw the sign announcing its proximity, so the subconscious had obviously retained the conversation and kept it handy.

Having driven away from the previous wine-tasting, I swapped places with my darling wife and tried some of the wines that The Juniper Estate had to offer. Indeed their reds are, indeed, very tasty and we took a couple of bottles away with us. And a white. The first bottle of red went down particularly well with our meal in the town last night. You’ve got to love BYO restaurants!

Today got off to a much lazier start than yesterday. I sat in the courtyard of the YHA and read though a Colin Dexter novel in the sun. Our wineries tour wasn’t due to start until around noon. Today, though, we both hung up the car keys and allowed the nice lady from Wine for Dudes do the driving. We stopped of at four wineries in total, each being very different. None of the wines at the first were to my palate. At the second winery we got to blend our own Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot. Having tested both the Cabernet and the Merlot, I opted for a 9:1 mix, which tasted just right with our picnic lunch on the lawn.

Our third winery of the day was… The Juniper Estate! I don’t think the woman behind the counter recognised us from the previous day’s testing and we joined in tasting their wines. We even got to try a white port, a bottle of which we took away with us. We made a quick stop off to pick up some locally-produced olive oil on our way to the final winery of the day… Edwards. Mrs J put the plastic card into action having taken a shine to a couple of the wines there, while I spend some time outside taking rather a shine to the beautiful yellow Tiger Moth aeroplane on display in the hangar. This ‘plane has flown from the UK to its current resting place and has also completed a circuit around Australia.

And that’s us about up-to-date. We’re spending an extra night here in Margaret River because we like it so much. Tomorrow there is talk of visiting a fudge factory, but we haven’t yet decided what we are to do with this evening. I feel that this decision may be easier if I close up the laptop.