Day 9. Margaret River

Today dawned very foggy in Bunbury. We were up early and after breakfast and packing up, we were on the road before 8:00am, heading for Margaret River. Ah! Margaret River, the name which in our minds is associated with fine white wines, conjures up mental pictures of endless rolling hills festooned with grape vines. In reality, parts of the area are like that, but the majority is wooded forest country with tall trees breaking into cleared paddocks for grazing.

We were told that viticulture at Margaret River is not that old, perhaps 50 years.

We arrived at our accommodation well before we had access to the room, so we decided to roam the town. Once again, we found that places like galleries, that Adrienne likes to visit, also do not open until 10:00am. We did find a coffee shop we liked and had morning tea. We wandered a little more and Adrienne did some shopping for Bella and Mia. We looked for other galleries but had limited success. Then it was time for our lunch appointment at the 34 Degrees South olive grove, owned and operated by long time friend Syd Dunford. But, not before chasing another gallery in the opposite direction to that which we wanted to go.

That gallery proved elusive, so with time pressing we headed for Syd's place.

We had seen Syd most recently in October 2009 when he attended the 40th anniversary of first intake at St Paul's Residential College on the Douglas Campus of James Cook University.

Syd welcomed us and gave us a tour of the farm on quad bikes. Adrienne rode with me. The farm is a gorgeous piece of real estate which has the Margaret River as one boundary. There is a house, sheds, an olive processing plant and a building for oil tasting combined with a retail outlet. Syd showed us two possible locations for a new farm house overlooking the irrigation lagoon in the future.

Besides the dogs (Spice and Basil), Syd also has a couple of alpacas (Pepper and Chilli) on the place. Not to mention the two gaggles of geese and the solitary guinea fowl.

After the tour Syd laid on a lunch in the olive grove, which was spectacular from both content and location. Good food, good wine, good company. Wonderful.

We took a break from the meal table to inspect the processing plant. This is a modern plant configured for single man operation. Syd can process 3 tonnes of olives per day comprising harvesting and pressing. The olives are pressed the day they are picked.

Syd then invited us to do some oil tasting, where we tried oil from three varieties of olive. While there we took the opportunity to buy some olive oil and olive oil soap which is also made on the property. Olives for eating are also produced and sold.

We returned to the lunch table for more nibbling and quaffing wine until it came time to go.

In all it was a great day and a particularly fantastic afternoon. Good food, good wine, good company.

For anyone living in the Townsville area, 34 Degrees South products are available an Angelina's Delicatessen in Fairfield Waters.