ROADTRIIIIIP!
Yep, we all went on a ROAD TRIP! A group of us (myself, Nicole, Olivia, Matt, Clare, Kevin, Ben, Dana, Erin, Jen, & Julie) headed down south to Busselton for the Labour Day Long Weekend.
For us, the trip down started off pretty crap. We were supposed to leave home by 345pm to a) meet the other half of the group at Caltex on south end of the freeway, and b) miss the holiday traffic. Needless to say we ran about 40mins late, missed meeting the group, and was well into the traffic as soon as we hit the freeway.
It was bumper to bumper for just over an hour. How the hell do people commute like this on a daily basis!? I was about to turn around and forget about it all! I wouldn't have, and lucky I didnt because we would have missed an awesome weekend.
We arrived at the camp ground in 'Busso' at about 830pm. The sun had just gone to bed, so the darkness was setting in. Now, as most of you campers know (like an unwritten rule), its best to set up a newly purchased tent in your back yard before you go camping, right? No. We decided the first place to setup was in the dark, under trees, at the camping ground. Brilliant! But me being a top notch hands on kinda guy, we had it up in about 20mins after deliberations about where poles went! The girls held the lanterns, the guys set the tent. Bravo. A few pumps of the foot to inflate the air mattresses, and we were all set.
The morning was greeted with bacon & eggs on the campstove (fires prohibited) , which tuckered us up ready for the day ahead. First stop, Bootleg Brewery. Unsure who's idea this was, but Bootleg Brewery wasn't my first choice. After mentioning I was holding out to visit Bushshack Brewery (nee Wicked Ale Brewery) , it was straight into the car and leaving Bootleg in a trail of dust.
But before we headed to BushShack, we decided to venture down to Cowaramup to Candy Cow - THE fudge and candy place in the south-west! Of course, we all indulged in stuff we didn't need - like candy, chocolate, and fudge!
And then one more stop-off, which is half the reason we agreed to go south for the weekend, was to stop off at Happs Winery. We came through here about 2/3 years ago and sampled a few wines - but the top pick for us was an Anne Coralie's. Bit of a late pick, unique tasting sweet white ... made with capsicum! Tastes amazing. They still had some, but changed the name to the Late Pick Verdhello. Alas, it didnt taste the same as we remembered, so we ventured to the alternate late pick and bought a few bottles.
Back on the road, and finally on our way to BushShack Brewery. Bushshack is awesome and I'd highly recommend anyone visiting to region to go there. It's a complete chillout zone - picnic benches and live music outside under the trees, and pool / table soccer / couches / bar inside the surf shack style red brick and tin roof building. They have an array of different flavoured beers - from kole to ginger, and passionfruit to chocolate - everyone will find their taste! Of course, we left full of lunch and a few beers, and the obligatory takeaway 6-pack of mixed selection beers :)
Leaving Bushshack, we thought one more stop off ... Simmo's Icecreamery. We knew where we were going, however little-miss-back-seat-driver said there was one in town, so we headed that way. Half way there, she realised the one in town was the one OUT of town .. the one we were originally heading to! So we turned off at a roundabout to throw a u-turn. At this point, we were driving past a golf course. Someone must have just tee'd off, as we were driving down the road and a golf bacll landed about 6 feet in front of the car and bounced off. HOLY CRAP! That was close!
Anyways, eventually got to Simmo's and indulged. I asked for a large double cone, without realising they basically fill two buckets with icecream and turn them up onto a waffle cone! It took about 20mins to finish it! Matt scoffed a 3 scoop cream topped sundae, then happily finished off Olivia's serve.
Waddling out of Simmo's, we decided to head back to camp to relaaaax. One car (us) headed into Dunsborough to the bottlo and deli, the other car went back home. We grabbed some more beers for the night ahead, and cruised on back to the tent for a well earned siesta!
I was the first to awake next morning. After no motion from the other tents for about 15mins, I couldn't hold off any longer and went in search of a coffee! Found the local takeaway cafe and deli, so grabbed a large latte and some fresh bacon & eggs & sausages to cook up for the clan. Everything was still and quiet when I got back, so after I had the smell of bacon wafting around the campsite, there was soon a horde of people asking how long til it was ready!
This was only half a day for some of us, as we had to head back to Perth for 6pm for a birthday dinner. After breakfast, we dropped Olivia and Nicky at the Busselton Jetty so they could walk to the end of it and go into a pod to view the underwater life, whilst Matt and I headed to Par 3 for a little golfing. It was a even score by the ninth, until I decided to throw caution to the wind and mis-hit into a tree :( Alas, I lost by 2 strokes.
The drive home was MUCH quicker as we took a different route, and had minimal traffic. Went directly to the birthday dinner, then home by 10pm. Quick unpack of the car, straight to bed, and up at 430am for work the next day!