Day 5 – White Elephant Café and a lighthouse

While at Woodlands Winery, Bev had spied some earrings that she liked and the woman wearing them had said they were available at a winery called McHenry/Hohnen Wines It was also one of the places the host at Woodlands had recommended as having interesting wines. It seemed like a good place to go to, so I popped an address into the Navigation system and off we went. I managed to miss the turnoff and then saw their shop front as I drove through a little village called Witchcliffe. I made a U turn and sure enough found it was their outlet. We tasted our way through much of their range of wines which were very interesting. One wine, Hazel’s vineyard Syrah 2019, took Bev’s fancy as Hazel was the name of a close friend who had died recently. Bev wanted to celebrate her memory with it as she had not been able to attend the celebration of her life. The owners had wanted to try different things with wines, and I found they were an interesting range with the reds being particularly good especially the higher priced ones.

Coincidentally the jeweller who made the earrings Bev fancied (they are all made from different kinds of eucalypts) appeared in the shop with her parents (visiting from Canada) and so Bev was able to introduce herself and let them know how much she admired the earrings (of course a purchase was made).

The view from the Café

I had read that White Elephant Café on the coast at Gnarabup was one to visit for good food and a stunning ocean outlook. It was a very good recommendation. There were passing showers but when they passed, it was very beautiful. A surfer’s paradise. We saw a couple of windsurfers scudding across the ocean in front of the very large rollers coming in from the Southern Ocean. The lunch of fish and chips was very filling and appropriate for the situation, but the fish was a little disappointing although the chips were moreish.

The beach at Gnarabup - It looks calmer than it was

Our route from the café took us along Caves Road where there are several caves to visit. However, we were short of time and prioritised going to Cape Leeuwin lighthouse - the place where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean which apparently throws up large seas. The wind is almost ceaseless and while we were there we were battered by the wind.

Cape Leeuwin lighthouse

It was an interesting place with a nice little museum in one of the former resident’s cottages. The Lighthouse (tallest in Australia) was only 9 kilometres from Augusta but for most of the time it was manned, access was very difficult. For children going to school, it involved on a good day, a three hour round trip. Often the road was impassable, a far cry from the sealed road nowadays. The conditions which they lived in up until the light was automated, were very basic. The water came from a spring which was accessed via a waterwheel that pumped it to the houses. The photos show the system still in place although in operative due to the build up of silica.

Waterwheel covered in silica/limstone

The wooden channel leading to the waterwheel

I cooked another barbecue for dinner with which we had the special bottle of wine to celebrate Hazel’s life. The wine was delicious, a cross between our Syrah and a South Australian Shiraz.