Thursday – John and I headed out early to go to Ngilgi (pronounced Neelgee – hard g sound) Cave. When we got there we thought it was going to be really busy as there were two (or more) buses there. Once we got closer to the cave, we discovered that it was a school tour. I can’t believe how well behaved the Aussie kids are when they are on a field trip. Single file, no pushing and having lots of fun – reminded us of the old days when we were kids *g*

Our tour started at 10 and was a “semi-guided” tour. There were a dozen people waiting for the guide – we could hear the sound of drumming and digeridoos coming from the direction that the school group had gone and were told they were attending a Koomal dreaming performance. Our guide, Mark, led us to the opening and explained the history of the cave. As so many other caves have been, it was found when a rancher was hunting stray horses and almost fell into the hole. The cave has been operating as a tourist site for 112 years! Mark led us down the first set of very steep, uneven steps and explained the pathways. He then told us we were free to roam about the cave for as long as we wanted but that it usually took 45 minutes to go through. It was fantastic! The temperature is a constant 20 degrees Celsius so it was warm enough without being too warm. There were a lot of places with uneven footing but we didn’t have any mishaps. 90 minutes later, we emerged into the sunlight. There are quite a few caves in this region, but not enough time to explore all of them.

Shawl formation in Ngilgi Cave

After we got back to the car, we drove to the surfing town of Yallingup – didn’t see anyone surfing but the beach was beautiful. There was a lot of wildflowers – including some statice. I’m loving seeing plants that are either cultivated at home or imported growing wild here.

Statice at Yallingup Beach

We stopped at the lookout for a few photos and then headed further south to the Wardan Aboriginal Centre. It was interesting but not quite what we expected. It seemed to be more of a museum than an interpretive centre so we will have to wait for another trip to have the full experience. Maybe in the Daintree Rainforest in Queensland on our next trip….

Chris at Yallingup Lookout

Our next stop was back at the Bush Shack Brewery – we were going to have nachos for lunch but the salsa had those dreaded words “may contain egg as produced in a plant that processes eggs, nuts and wheat” *sigh* We each settled on a pint of Strawberry Blonde beer and bought a 6-pack to bring back to the condo.

After that we headed to Dunsborough, thinking to do some souvenir shopping but there wasn’t anything to be found. This is a tourist area with a difference!

Today, Friday, we decided to go snorkeling. First we went to a bay where we had seen someone snorkeling on Thursday but there was nothing to see on the bottom of the ocean, not even when we walked through the seaweed to try to stir up some fish. We decided that Meelup Bay should be our next destination. Unfortunately, when we got there, it was quite choppy and we didn’t have anything for floatation. I guess we’re not going to get to snorkel this trip…..

John and I made a quick stop at Happ’s pottery and winery – they have some really interesting wines but we only bought one bottle of Fuschia. I wish we had gone there earlier in our stay as I would have bought a few other of their wines. On our way to the winery, we found a Christmas Tree – nope, not one that you decorate but a form of mistletoe that grows as a tree. It was so pretty.

Christmas Tree

We had left Karen and Les in Dunsborough to look around – when we got back, Karen took me to a rack of clearance clothing and pulled out a pair of Wrangler jean shorts and asked me to guess the price – I figured $25 and just about fell over when she showed me that the regular price was $120 and they were on sale for $50. There were distressed jeans on sale as well and they were equally pricy. Glad I don’t need to buy any clothes!

It was a bit drizzly today – not hard rain and still warm.