I visited Western Australia for the 2nd time in 2012 during late spring with my hubby. Perth, the city of Western Australia is only 5 hours flight away from Singapore. This would be a short 6 days vacation for us and I had intended to take this opportunity to visit an old friend who was staying @ Perth.
We won't be spending much time @ Perth because we would like to explore the region of the beautiful Margaret River and Augusta. Nonetheless, I will take this opportunity to blog some of the worth visiting place at Perth city.
1. Lovely Weekend @ Fremantle Market
Fremantle Market has rightfully earned itself a reputation as one of the best destinations in Fremantle (located in Perth City) for the locals and tourists alike. Its undoubtedly one of the best and most well-known weekend markets in Western Australia. Here are my top reason for visiting Fremantle Market:
- Heritage Architecture
- Fresh local produce
- Organic food such as my favorite store selling all the healthy nuts and organic honey
- Atmosphere
One thing that is very different about Fremantle Market from our Singapore Market is that the entire market looks clean and neat. The sellers at the store really took efforts to organize their products neatly, even the vegetable and fruit sellers. For once, I actually enjoyed exploring the market slowly because it was free from those fishy smelly markets in Singapore. The floor was not wet and I felt safe to walk on it, unlike the "wet" markets in Singapore.
Fremantle Market has quite a number of stalls selling a variety of products ranging from gourmet such as fresh bakery, coffee, pizza to fresh fruits and vegetables, fashions and body skin care. It's a one stop shopping paradise.
One of my favorite stall is the "Black Cherries Espresso" that sells very good organic coffee. The coffee is well roasted and rich in taste. This was really a good find in the market.
Another favorite stall that I love patronizing was the Freo Honey Shack where I can I get some big tubs of organic honey or manuka honey, way cheaper than those sold in Singapore.
2. Places of interest within the vicinity of Perth
We also signed up for a day trip with a local travel agency to take us to some of the places within the vicinity of Perth.
The travel itinerary included feeding the kangaroos and interacting with the koalas at Caversham Wildlife Park, lunch @ lobster shack, stroll through The Pinnacles dessert, and a adventurous 4WD ride over the massive white sand dunes at Lancelin plus 1 hour of sand-boarding session.
The trip was awesome and I particularly enjoyed myself touring the eerie Pinnacle Dessert with all sort of weird shaped lime stones. The sand-boarding and the thrilling 4WD ride through the steep and sloppy sand dunes was the main highlight of the trip. I would love to do it again!
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| The famous lobster burger |
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| Large area of sand dunes |
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| Time for sand boarding |
3. Heading to Margaret River for wine and dine and some of the best beaches in WA
The only way to get to Margaret River is to self-drive. Margaret River is 3 hours drive from Perth City. Margaret River is renowned world-wide as a gourmet food and wine destination. Also, the little town offers a myriad of activities such as tours to the many underground caves, whale watching, surfing or leisure walk at the many beautiful beaches, and hiking through the beautiful karri forests.
We were fully packed with lots of activities during our 3 days at Margaret river.
- Visit the many wineries, help yourself to complimentary wine tasting or enjoy lovely lunch at the wineries.
We visited 2 of the biggest wineries at Margaret River, Voyager Estate and Leeuwin Estate.
Voyager Estate
The estate is more than 150 years old. From the flawless Cape Dutch architecture and stunning rose gardens, to the spectacular wine room and award winning restaurant, the estate is worth your time to visit. The wines tasted great and I thought it served the best blend of Sauvignon Blanc Semillon was a little bitter sweet + a tinge of spiciness. I was also introduced to its sparkling grape juice with no added preservatives. The juice tasted so refreshing that I bought 6 bottles.
Leeuwin Estate
Leeuwin Estate is located just next to Voyager Estate. The Estate is well known for its award winning restaurant and underground art gallery with collections of above 100 paintings from some of the best local artists. Just like voyager estate, it's definitely worth our time to visit Leeuwin as well. The estate also provides complimentary wine tasting and it was here that I bought a bottle of the 2011 art series of Shiraz.
4. Margaret River best kept beaches
Margaret river has quite a number of best kept beautiful beaches. Due to time constraint, we could only visit 2 of the well known beaches, Hamelin Bay and Redgate.
Hamelin Bay is located in the beautiful National Park that hugs the incredibly picturesque coastline. The long stretch of coastal view at Hamelin Bay was awesome.
Redgate beach is located on Redgate Road. The beach is divided into two parts where you can go left to the surfing end, or right to the snorking, fishing rockpool end. The sea water is also much calmer and crystal clear as compared to Hamelin Bay.
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