30th October 2022
Margaret River to RAC Karri Valley Resort
Jo's Birthday
It's Sunday, so our previous breakfast option of Egberts is closed. Whilst walking along the main street (The Bussell Highway) on Saturday I noticed a bakery that opened at 8:00 on Sundays, Brumby's, so that's where we had a very good breakfast of freshly baked croissants, pastries and coffee.
A detour on our route to Pemberton takes us to Cape Leeuwin, the most south-westerly point in Australia. This might be a bit tenuous as it is neither the most westerly nor most southerly. However, on our evidence, it might well be the most exposed and windy! There is a prominent lighthouse at Cape Leeuwin and we spend quite a bit of time looking around the very interesting exhibition in one of the three lighthouse keepers' cottages. Jo notices that the fresnel lenses for the lighthouse were supplied by Chance Bros. I couldn't help noticing that the lenses were originally 'mounted' in a bath of mercury to provide a low friction way of rotating them. Sounds a bit dodgy by today's health and safety standards. Still, the lighthouse keepers were kept fit climbing the 250 odd steps to the light carrying the kerosene to keep the lamps alight - before electricity finally found its way to the lighthouse in 1983.
We had a lunch (of sorts) in the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse cafe before getting back on the road to Pemberton.
Pemberton itself is about 20 minutes beyond the RAC Karri Valley Resort, but we decided to go on to Pemberton to check where we were due to meet the following day for the 'eco tour'. Between Karri Valley Resort and Pemberton we stop at Southern Forests Chocolate company for a drink of hot chocolate and, in my case, a bar of their delicious chocolate. This is located down a track of 100-200 metres and is surrounded by a vineyard. We are more of less the only customers and as it's drizzling we stay inside and chat to the owners. We hear that the owners have abandoned the grape crop this year as they are unable to get the pickers. This is a story we will hear again and again - shortage of labour. We see 'We're Hiring' signs in cafes and restaurants in particular. The roots of the lack of labour can be traced back to the Covid pandemic and the Australian policy of closing its borders, thus cutting out the backpackers that have traditionally provided the itinerant workforce for vineyards and hospitality. However, Bruce was saying earlier that the lack of labour was spreading throughout industry; he related that nurses who typically may get $75k per annum around Perth were able to get jobs as truck drivers in the mining industry north of Perth at $150k per annum. I digress...
We get to Pemberton, and as it's Sunday, virtually nothing is open. We locate the meeting place for the tour the next day and retrace our steps to the Karri Valley Resort and check-in. We have a well appointed lakeside room with a balcony that extends over the lake.
Having settled it we take ourselves on a walk around the lake and up to the Beedelup Falls and the Walkthrough Tree.
A lot of the Karri Valley Resort is aimed at self-catering, but there is a very good restaurant, virtually next to our room and we have Jo's Birthday Dinner in the restaurant.