Perth - Margaret River - Perth

We left South Africa very early this year (7 January ) to head to Australia. We flew to Perth via Singapore and after a day dealing with jet lag, we headed off to Denmark with Nikki and Rina. We had lunch in colonial looking Bridgetown and arrived in Denmark in the evening. It's a coastal town and wine region quite a few hours south of Perth. We went to the beaches, did plenty of scenic drives and some wine tasting and a canopy walk, cooked supper, drank loads of local wine and chatted about life and love deep into the night. A highlight was live music on two afternoons at Rockcliffe Winery. Denmark otherwise is a very sleepy little place. On Monday we drove up to Margaret River, WA's premier wine region. For Tuesday, Nikki planned a winery tour with a company called Wine for Dudes, so we didn't have to nominate a designated driver. On Wednesday we drove back to Mandurah and then up to Dawn and Kevin for dinner. Nikki dropped us off at the airport to catch the very late flight to Melbourne. But, we were back in Perth again on 10 February for 10 more days! This time we got to hang out in Mandurah at Nikki's house, catching up on admin and computer stuff and watching the Winter Olympics on TV. We spent a day in Perth City and had lunch with Roy and Verne at the Lucky Shag on the bay. We visited Dawn and Kevin again and even got to gatecrash a lovely beach wedding as Nikki's dates on Saturday night. We visited Freemantle and the Swan Valley wine region and had dinner at Ivan and Leigh's in Guildford. We lunched with Nikki at Cottesloe Beach one day and Gail Zeeman at Mullaloo Beach on another. We even went to Nikki's local Spur, with decor and a menu exactly like a South African Spur, but at 4 times the price! On 20 February we left Australia , bound for Singapore. From one very expensive country to one that's just been voted "most expensive city in the world to live in." Thank you to our friends who have us to stay. We don't even have to couch surf because we get the spare room or someone gives up their room for us! We're easy guests and we usually bring wine and love to take you out to dinner too!