Augusta 2023

A warm start to the day as we got the boat hooked up and ready to go but as we travelled south the temperature started to drop and became more comfortable.

We discovered that the cruise control had stopped working so that is something I need to investigate as soon as I can.

We arrived in Augusta by lunch time and had a bit to eat at Flinders Bay while we waited for check-in time at 2pm.

The accommodation was easy to find and Wisteria Cottage is well signposted just past the Jewel Cave turn off on Caves Road if you are heading north.

It is a short drive down a gravel road to the cottage and we were greeted by the owner, Bev who brought over a lovely crusty fresh baked loaf of bread and inside the cottage was a bottle of red wine, a bar of chocolate and some butter to put on the bread, a lovely surprise.

As this trip was meant to be mostly about relaxing and enjoying ourselves, we just settled in for the afternoon, drank some wine and ate some bread and butter before sitting out in the lovely garden and enjoying the sounds of nature.

Bread and wine

Firstly a word about our accommodation.

Wisteria Cottage is, to us, heaven on Earth. Set a little way back from Caves Road it is serene and peaceful with the only sounds being the wind in the trees and the songs of the birds.

The cottage is fully equipped with everything and them some.

There really isn’t anything we are missing or anything we want that isn’t available. I will do a separate article on the cottage and give a bit more detail on what you get but for now I can safely say, that it is the best equipped accommodation we have been to so far and we have been to quite a few.

On top of that there are a host of thoughtful little extras that you don’t usually get so it really is a great place to stay.

Our plans for the day involved a trip to Woolworths in Margaret River to do some shopping for a few items we didn’t bring with us. Once that was complete we made our way to Lake Cave and managed to join the 11:20am tour.

We got some appreciation of just how unfit we are on the way down the steps into the cave. They just seem to go on and on and on and they are fairly steep.

Steps down to Lake Cave

I could feel my thigh muscles complaining loudly but eventually we were at the bottom and finally got to see Lake Cave in all its glory with a proper lake at the bottom.

It not only rivals Jewel Cave in beauty but may even surpass it.

Lake Cave

It isn’t a particularly long cave but it is fairly deep and is wasn’t long before we were contemplating the long climb back up to the top.

Everyone else was long gone by the time we got there but we made it at our own rather slow and plodding pace.

We had planned to do a few more things but we were so worn out from the visit to the cave we decided to just head back to the cottage and veg (again) for the rest of the day.

I know some people might think that it is a bit of a waste of the trip to just stay at the cottage for so long each day but we just love the peace and quiet and it is a way to recharge our souls after putting up with the hell of suburbia for the past few months.

Dinner was steak, mushrooms, zucchini and onions on the BBQ and some chips from the oven. We enjoyed it under the wisteria looking out on to the garden and just soaked up the tranquillity.

Wisteria Cottage

Plan A for this day had been to take the boat out fishing but our muscles were objecting to the abuse they had received the day before and were aching like crazy so fishing was put off until the following day.

In the end we did nothing but sit and relax at the cottage enjoying the peace and quiet.

Now that might seem like a huge waste of time but we just loved it :)

Next day we finally we got the boat out and went fishing.

Taking the boat out

Initially the weather wasn’t exactly encouraging as the wind was up and there were even the odd shower of rain or two.

Even so we launched down at the town jetty and it was good to see that there are finally some good parking bays for boats down there.

We headed off up towards the Blackwoord River to a spot called ‘the sticks’ and threw a couyuple of lines in. There was a bite or two but nothing very encouraging so we moved back down closer to town to a spot we have fished with success many times before.

As soon as we dropped baits we were getting some good bites and we very quickly discovered that there were a LOT of juvenile pink snapper around.

Juvenille snapper

Some of them would have been a good size to eat but they were undersized for the species so they all had to be put back.

We lost count of the number of hook ups and they fight very well, especially the bigger ones.

We also caught a few wrasse, something we have never seen here before but in the and the only keeper was one very large herring.

It was still a great day out but we do seem to have a bit of a leak in the boat somewhere. The usual suspects are the seals around bung holes and the echo sounder so I will have to check those out and run a bit of extra sealant around them to see if it fixes the leak.

Nothing much to worry about but I do prefer a dry boat to a wet one.

By mid-afternoon we were back at the cottage enjoying a very nice coldie or two and relaxing :)

Another day out fishing but although the weather was much better, the fish weren’t as co-operative and we didn’t catch much at all. We wound up with just two sand whiting but it was a nice time out on the water.

I did try to patch up the bung holes and there wasn’t as much water getting in to the boat today but still some got through so there is obviously something I missed.

The afternoon was all about relaxing at the cottage again. Well this is supposed to be our holiday relaxation trip LOL

This was an ‘out and about day’ where we started off with visits to Cosy Corner and Hamelim Bay.

Eagle Rock at Cosy Corner

The weather was nice and cool with a strong breeze blowing but the negative side of strong breezes is that there isn’t any drone footage of anything during this trip.

We took a walk up to the lookout where the breeze was even stronger but on this day the stingrays weren’t hanging around so all we got was a rather distant shot of a small eagle ray.

Hamelin Bay

Dorothy was keen to do some shopping so the next stop was at Tinderbox in Cowaramup where she picked up more soap than any man could use in most of his lifetime.

We had a couple of pies heating up in the Travel Buddy oven so we sat in the park to eat lunch and then it was off again.

Then we went to Vasse Virgin where Dorothy bought, guess what? More soap…

Vasse Virgin

I had run out of booze so we stopped off at a bottle shop in Cowaramup on the way back to the cottage and picked up a bottle of ‘red ned’ that despite the $17 price tag, turned out to be quite drinkable.

It may not sound like much but that was a full day out and it was 4pm by the time we got back and spent some time playing with the dogs. Ollie and Vincent are fixtures at the cottage and we have got to know them quite well. They wait outside the door in the mornings and come over for a game in the afternoon. I will missed them very much when we had go home.

Overall it was a nice relaxing trip where we got to do all the things we wanted to do and enjoyed staying in lovely accommodation.

I would be happy to stay here for a month but it was already booked out and we couldn’t afford it anyway LOL.

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