Thursday, May 13, 2010

It's all about the food...I mean, the view!

When we go down to Margaret River, you could probably guess that for me, it's all about the food. This time was no different. We didn't even stop to check in to our rental accommodation before we went straight to the Amberley Estate for lunch. What a wonderful start to our stay and a great introduction to the local wine region for Mary!


Since that stop, we've been joking that like the woman on the Ellen Degeneres Show (starts at minute 2:28), Mary loves Jesus, but she drinks a little. She really enjoyed the Amberley Chenin Blanc (hello, any of Mary's friends who can find Amberley stateside!) and of course she liked her lunch too. We visited one winery each day, and we discovered two fantastic breakfast spots. While Artezen in Dunsborough offered up the best breakfast by far (you MUST eat their blueberry pancakes with neufchatel and passion fruit puree!), the winner of the best view goes to Bunker's Beach Cafe.



The morning we went there, we woke up to a cold fog. So much for the "great view" the guidebook had promised, we thought, but we had a reservation so off we went. We drove out of the fog along the way and enjoyed a gorgeous view while we enjoyed a basic (but tasty) breakfast (and juice, of course)


I took a picture of the view from our table, and you can see the fog here:



The next day, we went back for afternoon snacks and were greeted with this beautiful (fog-free) view:




The two other wineries we visited were Cullen (a favorite from visits past) and Wise, a new-to-us winery with an amazing view of the Cape Naturaliste area. Too bad the restaurant isn't kid-friendly enough to entice us back. Sigh. If you are an adults-only group, enjoy your beautiful view and fantastic food. Seriously.



The best food discovery by far was the Yallingup Woodfired Bakery. Holy moly. If you are headed down south, please please please bring me back some of their bread. Mary has offered to drive back herself to get it, and she would even be willing to drive on the left for the prize. It's that good. The bakery isn't marked for tourists, but my bloodhound instincts allowed me to find it anyway, and wow is all I have to say. Yum. Must.

2 comments:

Karly said...

Looks and sounds fantastic! I love the picture of the girls and the vineyard...beautiful.

Karly said...

Oh, and the one of Stephanie (that is her isn't it?) looking out over the beach...great shot!