Hanging out with the cows

There was 7 - 20mm of rain forecast for Margaret River today with showers increasing from late morning.  We decided that being on the road early would help minimise riding in the rain and we planned to leave by 8am.  It was closer to 8:30 by the time we were on the road, with a detour to the coast which was looking much calmer than previous days.

The cafes in Dunsborough were open and busy with lots of people enjoying a morning coffee as we picked up the road to Yallingup.  I lost my navigation soon after as I followed Simon up a quiet country road with some steep hills.  Our original route had us doing about 330 metres of climbing, so I was not impressed when the gradient hit 15%.  Apparently, the route had recomputed when we added a stop at the Margaret River Chocolate Company.  The route was definitely more undulating than expected and eventually we decided it was preferable to return to our planned route so at least we knew what to expect.

The Chocolate Factory was busy by the time we arrived and settled in for a coffee and hot chocolate.  I stocked up on chocolate supplies for the next couple of days, wine and chocolate being the essentials for any good cycling tour.  We detoured via the Providores as recommended by my sister and bought some curry powders and risotto mix to make a change from salmon and salad for dinner.  We could see that the rain was rapidly approaching so took the most direct route into Cowaramup, a town renowned for its many cows. 

We were soaked by the time we stopped at the Gourmet Food Merchant for lunch.  They only did toasted sandwiches, which weren’t a patch on yesterday’s gourmet delights but the coffee was excellent.  It was still raining so we headed onto Peacetree wines, conveniently located a few hundred metres up the road. A small, boutique wine producer, the wines are mainly available at the cellar door and we enjoyed a leisurely hour working through the varieties on offer and chatting to a couple of locals, one of whom worked at Xanadu winery. We picked their brains for ideas on wineries to visit, given that there is a power outage planned for parts of the Margaret River region tomorrow so many of the wineries won’t be open.  We only needed one or two to make for a good day out.

After purchasing a bottle of Tempranillo and another of fume Blanc (which we decanted into a Wine to Go so we didn’t have to worry whether our accommodation had a corkscrew) we headed back out into the drizzle and the 31 km Wandandi Track from Cowaramup which continues onto Witchcliffe. Due to all the rain the track was full of puddles but still relatively easy riding.  We quickly covered the 17km into Margaret River and Simon waited outside with the bikes as i did a quick shop at the local IGA to pick up dinner provisions. 

We were relieved to reach our accommodation. Our panniers were splashed with mud, so we gave them a quick wash and dropped them in the bathroom before emptying them and wiping them down properly.  The Airbnb studio had a wood burning stove, so before long we had the fire going and our freshly washed clothes drying out whilst we enjoyed some biscuits and cheese and a glass of Flametree Shiraz. 

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