Day 105 – 21st Feb – Port Douglas – Cairns – Perth
We checked out and spent the day at the pool before our pick up at 5pm to take us to Cairns airport. We arrived just after 6pm and waited until we could check in. Our flight wasn’t until 9:20pm. We got some tea in the airport and then boarded the plane for our 5 hour flight to Perth. We landed, got an Uber to our apartment we had booked and went to bed!

Day 106 – 22nd Feb – Perth
This was going to be our only full day in Perth and so we got up and went to explore the city. We thought it would be as modern as Sydney or Melbourne but it was quite different to the other cities.  It was a lot smaller and not as modern from what we saw.  We had a look around the shops and went for lunch at a fish and chip place which was nice. It was run by an English guy so he did proper fish and chips with curry sauce! After lunch we wandered around more of the city and went down the quay area to see the river.

Day 107 – 23rd Feb – Perth (Rottnest Island)
We got up and set off to Fremantle to catch the ferry to Rottnest Island. I was very excited as Rottnest Island is only one of two main places where the ‘happiest animal in the world’ live; the quokka! We hadn’t picked the best day as there was the Perth to Rottnest Island channel swim which meant the island was really busy! The swim is about 20km and quite a big event for the area. There are no cars on the island so there are two main ways to get around; biking or getting on the hop on hop off bus. We thought we’d try and be healthy so hired bikes! The island is about 23km in circumference so not a huge island and they have a few different cycle routes to follow. We decided to cycle up to The Basin to have our lunch. When we cycled to our 1st stop we saw a few quokkas around the trees and when we parked up and went to the picnic tables for lunch, there was actually one under our table! It was so cute! After lunch we started the middle cycle route which was about 10km and stopped at various places on route. At one of the lookout points there were a few quokkas in the trees and I failed miserably at getting a selfie with one and just looked a bit of an idiot half lying on the ground! We then cycled to a couple of other stops. The water around the island was so clear and we stopped at Salmon Bay to have a swim and snorkel. When we were sat on the beach afterwards, there was a plane above us with someone skydiving and landed on the beach where we were. After watching this for a while we cycled back to the bike shop and dropped our bikes off. The only ferry we managed to book onto was the 8pm one as they were all full with the channel swim. Dan went to check if there were any earlier and luckily for us a few people had booked onto the later one so we could get onto the 6pm ferry instead. We got back to Fremantle about 6:30 and then got the train back into Perth. If anyone is over in Western Australia, Rottnest Island is a must!

Day 108 – 24th Feb – Perth to Dunsborough
We checked out of our apartment and got an Uber to near the airport to pick up our campervan. After the briefing on the van we set off south to Dunsborough to see Dan’s university friend, Duncan. It was about a three hour drive and we arrived about 3pm. We drove to Goanna cafe which is the cafe that Duncan and Ali own and run. We were warmly greeted by Duncan and Ali and sat with Ali and their three children while Duncan finished in the kitchen. He brought us out three big tasting plates which were lovely! After chatting for a while we were shown to our accommodation in the grounds of the cafe which Duncan called a ‘shed’. It was far from this! We had a lovely apartment with a really cool outdoor kitchen area. When Duncan finished work he took us back to their house which is in the town of Dunsborough and about a 10 minute drive away and we sat in the garden having a good catch up, drinking wine and eating homemade pizza! Duncan had a really cool pizza oven outside in the garden which was pretty small but cooked the pizzas in about a minute.  It has given Dan ideas about upgrading our pizza oven! We got a taxi home and spotted four kangaroos on the way home!

Day 109 – 25th Feb – Dunsborough
We met Duncan and Ali at the cafe in the morning and had breakfast together. Going out for breakfast is really popular in Australia and we were quite surprised how busy the cafe was for a Monday. Having said that, the cafe has pretty perfect trip advisor reviews and therefore its reputation brings people in (the food is amazing!). After a gorgeous breakfast we set off for our day wine tasting (Duncan stepped up as designated driver!)! Dunsborough is in close proximity to Margaret River and also within the South West of Australia which is famous for its vineyards and wine production. The first vineyard we went to was Mongrel Creek which was almost next to the cafe. We sampled all their wines! After this we went to Blind Corner which is an organic winery. They had lots of different processes to make their wines and still use foot crushing for their red wines. They also told us that there were 56 ingredients that can be put into wine that don’t need to appear on the label but  they only add one; sulphite. The wine at Blind Corner tasted very fresh and the lack of additives really made a difference to the taste and maybe the hangover too! The next and final vineyard of the day was Marqs. We didn’t try all the wines here as we were flagging a little bit at this point (couldn’t hack the pace). We sat in the garden, had a glass of wine and a sharing platter of meats and cheeses to soak up some of the wine!
Duncan and Ali then took us to Canal Rocks which had some stunning scenery over the sea. The water colour was so blue and we watched the waves crashing over the rocks.
Our next and final stop of the day was to Wild Hop brewery which had just opened. It had a really big beer garden and we sat down enjoying the sun.
In the evening we went to the shops to buy some food for a bbq. While the food was cooking, Ali read a story to her son and I read a story to the girls. I’m not too sure how successful I was as they seemed to be more hyper than before they went to bed and they wanted to play more than hear the story! We then went and had tea, Duncan again excelled himself with his cooking and made us a delicious meal washed down with a few glasses of the wine from the vineyards!

Day 110 – 26th Feb – Dunsborough
We had a bit of a lie in this morning and met Duncan late morning at the cafe. Unfortunately for us Tuesday it is closed so we couldn’t sample another breakfast today! We set off and went to the Ngilgi caves. The caves were estimated to be a million years old! We did the walk around the cave, ducking at times to avoid the low roof. Obviously Dan didn’t have much problem here! The air was quite thin towards to the bottom and really humid due to the lower carbon dioxide levels. The walk took about an hour and then we went to the beach to have a cool down. Again the water was so beautiful and clear. After this we headed to Duncan’s house for lunch. We had another lovely bbq and then got dropped off back at the ‘shed’ to get a shower.
After a couple of hours chilling in the shed, Ali came and picked us up and again we headed for an evening at their house. We spent some time playing with the children and balloons before we ordered a take away and again sampled a couple of wines from the region!

Day 111 – 27th Feb – Margaret River
Dan and I were spending the day on our own today as Duncan and Ali were working. We went and had breakfast at Goanna and then set off towards Margaret River. Our 1st stop was at the gin distillery called giniversity to sample a couple of the local gins. We then went for a walk around the town of Margaret River before heading to Privally to see the coastline and the beach. On the way back to Dunsborough we stopped off at Blind Corner winery to pick up a couple more bottles of their wine! After Blind Corner we went to Simmos which is an ice cream parlour to sample some local produce! After this we went back to the shed and Duncan picked us up after he had finished work to go to their house for our final night together. Duncan wanted to cook for us this evening and we were really looking forward to this! While Duncan was cooking tea and chatting to Dan, I went to finish reading the bedtime story I started a couple of days before. We then settled down and had a gorgeous meal of a rack of lamb on the bbq. The evening then turns into a bit of a blur and it was too late to get a taxi so we stayed over in their house! One minute it was 10:30pm and the next it was 1:30am!! Whoops!