From Cape to Cape with Margaret River in between

After a little overnighter at Rosa Glen, out the back of Margaret River surrounded by grape vines and adjacent to a quaint little CWA room, we headed to the Capes via the amazing Mammoth Cave.

There are a whole series of incredible caves underneath Margaret River. Mammoth Cave is just one of them but we selected it because of the local surfer/farmer at Rosa Glens recommendation (he had stopped to see if we were ok and invited us to his property) and also because it was 'self guided' as opposed to having to join a tour. At Mammoth we all got our own headsets and could wander at leisure around this vast cave....which was very impressive. The photos don't show this so I won't bother putting them up, except for the exit here:

The coastline is still beautiful, only problem is it is now too cold to swim. This is Redgate Beach halfway between the two capes. I tried my hardest to convince Cem to turn around at Perth and head home via the north again, up via the warmth again, but unfortunately he wouldn't hear of it...

The north cape is called Cape Naturaliste, there is a lighthouse there, but we saved the lighthouse visit until the south cape - Cape Leeuwin - and just walked around taking in the ocean views and spotting some migrating whales but much further out than those we had seen at Red Bluff.

The following day at Cape Leeuwin, however, was a pretty dramatic experience. Cem reckoned we had perfect lighthouse weather.... and our first (daytime) rain of the trip. We got caught in ferocious, driving rain on the walk up and of course there is nowhere to take shelter at a lighthouse! The rain eventually stopped and it was so windy that we were almost dry again by the time we got back to the café/shop/entry.

Cape Leeuwin is situated just past the town of Augusta. Another reason this area also held particular interest was that I have recently read M.L.Stedman's 'The Light Between Oceans'. This novel is set at both Janus Rock, a lighthouse on an island 100km off this coast, and also Port Partageuse a mythical town supposedly modelled on Augusta. The 'between oceans' is where the two oceans meet; Indian Ocean and the Great Southern Ocean, and this is here at Leeuwin.

Anyway, its a good book, where the lighthouse plays a major theme, could recommend it.

The drive from cape to cape also takes you through beautiful Karri forests.

We also were very taken with our campspot that night in the middle of the forest at Boranup in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park. Very nice spot, complete with a supply of firewood. We had another campfire, its been a while since our last and enjoyed sitting up late in the forest. The next morning it was raining so we packed up and pushed on, otherwise we may have considered staying longer.