6285 and 94929

Over a year and a half ago we found ourselves packing up to finally come home from enjoyably being stranded in Perth and Western Australia for over four months. We lost the friends we made on the truncated World Cruise as they flew home but we stayed behind – everyone of them to go to a life of quarantine and house fix its! We decided instead to began a four month journey enjoying one of the most remote areas in the world and one of the most diverse wine regions. 6285 – Margaret River!

Perth and its geology and creatures – think Quokka – was joyful for us as we started this section of our journey. We miss the people who were so friendly – from the car rental places to the phone company to stores selling the winter clothes we left at home as we were NOT suppose to spend fall and winter in the southern hemisphere.

Footy was a game I had never seen and loved watching – Australian Football rules with its different sized oval fields! When they aired past championships, I’d never seen them – think Superbowls where you don’t know the outcome! It was delightful. Like American sports, they watched from TV as the stadiums were still empty when we were there. It is truly football and not pass ball like American rules. I can now somewhat follow the Fremantle Dockers or the WA Eagles, think Raider and 49ers. I want to watch but I have to pay to watch and I have to know I will sit still since its like soccer…it doesn’t stop.

We miss petting all the dogs on our walks (especially since we lost Emma a year ago!)or those like Elsa who we saw grow up on our many trips to Firetail Winery which has many of our favorite sparkling, Semillon and cabernet wines. Elsa really wanted to take a ride with us and now we hear she is loving the chardonnay and cabernet harvest workers because she LOVES people!

Now that we walk Dillon Beach almost everyday with JJ we see our favorite pups and love it! From Claire the Great Dane who smells my pockets and wants my goodies but can’t have time to her pals Gucci and Stella who are happy to eat the treats she can’t have! Ollie gets treats every day and of course knows it. He and JJ get along just fine!

We miss the caves off Cave Road. One with the three of us and one with just Larkin and me which had lots of stairs! Hard to believe that under this entire geologic region runs a myriad of caves. We miss hiking the Karri Eucalyptus tree forest.

We miss the almost nightly sunsets. With a warmer temperature in the Indian Ocean, the area doesn’t develop fog like Bodega Bay and the west coast of the USA. We’ve had some wonderful sunsets since we’ve been home and quite a few green flashes but the outrageous sunsets of Margaret River still take my breath away, especially when I glance through the sunsets.

We miss going to restaurants that went from 20 people in late April 2020 at each venue to full capacity right before we left in July of 2020. Amazingly enough we ate at almost every major restaurant and all winery restaurants – those were my only covid pounds which I had to deal with when we arrived home! I do so wish Napa and Sonoma had more food with their winery tasting rooms. It makes sense to offer food with wine!

I miss my long hikes with Larkin up and down the coast! The 75 miles of the Cape to Cape trail was so easy to find and do portions thereof. Nothing like that at Dillon Beach or even coastal California. At least we have a wonderful 2 miles beach to walk every morning just down the hill.

We miss our little house in Prevelly Beach with its wonderful covered back deck. Barbequing in the rain was not an issue! We don’t miss the queen bed or the small shower! We enjoyed our neighbors, the restaurant up the street along with the local general store/winery/post office! It was a short drive or walk to the White Elephant up Gnarabup Beach and a little longer walk or short drive to the Bistro where we got pizza, mostly take out once a week.

I miss the huge fruit trees at our rental. We do have a few producing lemons that give at least one or two a year here at Dillon Beach! LOL!

I miss the incredibly beautiful birds. The Valentine Gulahs and the Twenty Eights and a few I didn’t find the name for. I love watching the red tail hawks, vultures and ravens here at Dillon Beach and we now have a resident Western bluebird family in our birdhouse. The most interesting was watching two red tailed hawks chasing an adolescent bald eagle away across to the hills while we sat in our hot tub. But none of “our” birds are colorful in a large size like Western Australia.

We don’t see the plethora of lost and found anywhere near Dillon Beach. Margaret River folks leave them where folks will notice. Dillon Beach – oh someone dropped something there and they leave it. We do see the sand castle building stuff, dog poop bags, one flip flop and during low tide the metal retrievers find coins!

I miss the used book store next to the sushi place in Margaret River. I kept going in and asking for good Australian writers and even a few on wines and wineries. The unique thing about covid and isolating somewhere other than “home” I could read without feeling guilty. I spent many an hour reading, Michael writing and Larkin watching Critical Role episodes. I wish I had more time for reading now!

I miss seeing kangaroos grazing like we see our deer out our backyard, or our front yard or just basically anywhere they can jump out and hit our car – which of course happens with Kangaroos too! The rental car agencies tell renters you can not drive after dark because you might hit a kangaroo. We miss the hippie surfers. The old surfers who no longer want to surf “surgeons table” but have to see the current group catch their huge waves. Our surfers at Dillon Beach are often retired and could be old hippies too!

I miss the cost and ease of buying Marg wines. My favorite part was the screw tops! We believe we tried the greatest majority of potential wines in Margaret River! I can’t say how many times we filled up this cabinet and drank through their wonderful wines!

I miss the three of us gathering together on the couch watching delightful local, national and world news followed by Bondi Beach and then NCIS reruns. A 4 month family tradition. I miss watching Larkin cozied into the daybed watching Critical Role – hours of segments that she caught up on. I miss the back deck where Michael could grill rain or shine. With all we miss, we are still glad to be home. Larkin has finished her masters and the sunsets we do have have delighted us! Larkin and I have both been happy stress bakers of sourdough bread. I’ve got it down now and enjoy it! I am delighted to have Amazon to deliver because they do not do so in the same way in Australia. But I miss the 15 minute drive into Margs for food, wine and anything else we need which really made up for the lack of Amazon!

If we weren’t home we would have missed the growing grandsons this summer. We look forward to seeing them in a week when we see Larkin graduation with her Humanitarian Engineering degree from Colorado School of Mines!

I am happy to see friends, catch up and have long walks on our beach. We all have two shots and a booster and hopefully be to travel later this month with Larkin to parts south of here! Larkin and I were able to visit PhD programs in October and see Shanna, Damon, Dominic and friends in the Raleigh area!

Yes we miss Margs 6285! We miss that they still have zero covid in the state of Western Australia. It would be like California’s borders being closed to everyone for a year and a half – which would never happen! I think we American’s would go crazy…but Western Australians put all their money back into the local economy so business is good – and no masks!

We love last minute dinner with friends and going out to dinner where you order at the counter because there isn’t enough staff! We are blessed with great neighbors and great friends. Now we pray for more rain. Drought is not fun!

Happy holidays and Merry Christmas. Let the blessings of life that we can count make us smile!