The final week of our road trip didn’t involve very much road tripping. On Friday, February 27th, we drove from Albany to Margaret River with two spectacular stops. The first one was Elephant Rocks in William Bay National Park and the second was the Valley of the Giants tree top trail.

Elephant Rocks and Green Pool were both spectacular! We were very sorry we didn’t have our swimming stuff readily available because the water looked so inviting. But we walked around and enjoyed the gorgeous views. And maybe we’ll be back one day to swim….

Then we drove inland a bit and spent a couple of hours enjoying these beautiful giant trees. Magnificent!

Then we drove the rest of the way to Margaret Beach Resort where we spent the week relaxing, exploring and soaking up beach-time. We arrived in time to enjoy a sunset from our balcony.

The townhouse was lovely because of the location and the upstairs common area, but the bedroom situation was a little tight. There were two bedrooms, one with a king bed and one with two twin beds. They gave us two more twin beds to squeeze in where we could, so Hannah had a Harry Potter “room” for the week and the other three girls squeezed together. It worked pretty well!

My favorite part of the resort was the fact that there was the wonderful walking/running path that went directly from our townhouse along the beach. Steffen and I took advantage of that several times during the week for runs or walks. So lovely!

We then walked into Margaret River which is an adorable town with shops, restaurants and a great vibe. From there we went to find a frozen yogurt place I saw online which turned out to be this adorable farm! A fun afternoon that Steffen and I finished with a sunset walk along the beach. By the end of day one, we had all fallen in love with the Margaret River area!

The following day we did something new to us: bird watching! We went on a boat tour along the Blackwood River and saw so many different birds as well as the resident pod of dolphins. The guide was really good, pointing out birds, having binoculars and a study guide for us to reference, and telling interesting stories about the area. We all really enjoyed it.

From there we drove about 10 minutes to Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, the most south-westerly point of Australia where the Indian Ocean and Southern Ocean meet. Unfortunately we missed getting in by 2 minutes (!!) but still enjoyed the scenery. (The girls and I returned later in the week.)

And we made it back to our balcony in time for the sunset!

The next couple of days were spent at the pool, walking along the beach and enjoying the sunset. One evening we drove to North Point in search of a beautiful sunset. We got that and so much more! There were several dolphins surfing in the water, and we enjoyed watching them jump and play. And after the sunset, we were able to glimpse the total lunar eclipse, or “blood moon.” It was hard to capture on camera but a cool sight!

On March 4th we went to Hamelin Bay in search of some stingrays. We didn’t see any (well, maybe I spotted one from the cliffs above but it was hard to tell), but we did have another lovely beach afternoon. I cannot get over how beautiful the sand is and all the colors of blue of the water. Almost every beach along our long road trip has been amazing!

The drive there and back was also beautiful!

On March 5th we decided to take learning offline and into the real world and did two educational activities: visited Jewel Cave and went on a tour of Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse.

Jewel Cave is a gigantic cave with many different types of formations, some looking like trees, others like cauliflower and one particular spot even resembling bacon! Our tour guide was excellent and everyone, especially Olivia, was enthralled. We saw where the first explorers came in through a small hole and how the trees grow through the cave. Really neat!

Then it was time for the lighthouse tour. When we arrived, we couldn’t go on the next tour because it was full, so we ended up having about 45 minutes to wait. Which ended up being a blessing! Because they have a small museum in one of the old caretaker’s cottage and it was very interesting. We never would have spent that much time there, but it was very informative and well done. So that worked out! Then we went up to the top of the lighthouse with our tour. The views were incredible! And we learned a bit more about the mechanics of the lighthouse.

The rest of our time in Margaret beach was spent relaxing. We enjoyed one last sunset before packing up and heading out on our last drive of our 35 day, 4500+ km road trip. It was an uneventful 3+ hour drive north with one stop in Coogee Beach for the “Coogee Live” festival. It was extremely hot and (again) we didn’t have our swimsuits easily accessible, so we didn’t stay that long, but we did see a circus show, played a bit, went down to the beach and had a treat. We love that Australia seems to embrace a festival on the beach. Always a great vibe!

While this road trip that we did is not considered the most beautiful or most interesting in Australia, we are so glad we did it! We got to see so much of this vast country. We got to see the “boring” everyday towns and cute “tourist” towns, the spots that were just a roadhouse in the middle of the outback and the bigger cities, and everything in between. We saw so much natural beauty in the beaches, cliffs, caves, rivers, forests plus lots of wildlife (koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, snakes, dolphins, emus, cockatoos, parrots, magpies and a million other birds). We learned to slow down and spend our days just looking out the car window and appreciating the changing scenery. An experience we will all remember for a long time!