Margaret River & Busselton, WA

First road trip in Western Australia! I needed a break, and after inspecting a couple cars and ending up not buying them, I decided to not wait anymore and just rented a car for a few days. I asked a couple of friends if they had anything during the upcoming weekend, and picked up the car.

First stop: A cafe my friend worked at. I sat down at the cafe to wait for her, and got a coffee and a croissant. The second I let go of the croissant it was swept off by the wind. Well, at least I still had my coffee, so I snapped a nice picture to start the journey.

After my friends shift ended, we got in the car and drove a couple of hours down to Bunbury to pick up another friend, and continued 30 minutes more to Donnybrook to pick up a fourth friend to join us. After the quite small car was full, we made our way to our first destination of the road trip: Busselton.

Busselton is a small beach side town with some great and chill attractions. I had read that Busselton jetty was actually a famous location because the Japanese director Miyazaki had gotten his inspiration for the Spirited Away movie there. The train in the movie is similar to the red train that takes people to the end of the jetty. Also the jetty itself can be seen in the movie.

Before the jetty walk we actually headed to our apartment for the night. We booked it only a few nights before, as the whole trip was planned in a very short time period. Actually, it was better that there was four of us, since every 2-3 person apartment and room was sold out much earlier. Every hostel, hotel and motel bed had already gone. But one apartment for 4 people was available in Broadwater Resort, so we booked it.

After settling and a clothes change (Side note: I went shopping to a small boutique shop next to my friends cafe as I waited for her. She said that she was sure I would find something from there as the colours of clothes were very similar to what I wore. And I did find a dress and wanted to wear it immediately. You can see the dress in nearly all the pictures. It was also a birthday present for myself as the trip was planned to take part on my birthday weekend. Prepare, the sentence that I started continues now...) we headed out to eat in Origins Market, which was recommended by both Google and the resort reception.

The place was indoors, there were multiple stalls for food and also stalls for clothes, jewellery and other decorative items. We all chose different dishes and waited patiently for the food while listening to a local live performance.

After dinner and the jetty, we found a small fair by the shoreline. We didn't go to any rides though, as some of the attractions seemed a little old and you could hear all sorts of squeaks and sounds from them. I guess it would've been ok, but I chickened out.

Back at the apartment we tried to make the tv work to listen to some music while chilling and having snacks. I was surprised - my friend Tamaki had baked some delicious muffins at work in the morning and brought them with her. She had also created a lovely topping for the dish and I was so surprised! This is certainly an another core memory for me.

Next morning I woke up early and went to the pool to enjoy my new age of 33. Refreshing start. Felt good.

Soon we checked out and made our way to Margaret River, the famous winery area. None of us are super into wine but we did visit one and had some tastings. We also visited a huge chocolate factory, a local brewery and the Margaret River city centre with a really good breakfast cafe, Margaret River Bakery, and some outdoor markets.

Before heading to dinner, we went to surfer's point to see the waves. They seemed rough, but there were a lot of wind surfers in the water nevertheless. We took a walk at the beach and thought about surfing - just thought about it, as we didn't actually have time to do so since we had booked a table from a popular Italian style restaurant from Margaret River town centre.

The restaurant, La Scarpetta Trattoria, had gotten good reviews and it had super lovely interior and exterior. I think the house is quite old and has some historical value, but I am not sure. The food was good, but nothing super memorable. We ordered four dishes to share and ate them all of course, but we hoped the dishes would've had some more flavour.

After dinner, it was adventure time. I checked from google maps our route to take back my friend to Donnybrook and maps recommended two different routes that would both take the same amount of time. The other one we had already driven, so of course I suggested we drive the other way.

Maybe we should've done some closer research before heading to roads that went through a national park and a few state forests. Maybe, if we had a 4x4 or just a much bigger car, the drive would've taken us the same amount of time as the other route. But as we turned to the first road that soon changed into a sandy road with lots of bumps and holes, we realised that it was going to take a while. On multiple occasions, I was thinking whether or not to turn back and take the other route, but soon we had driven too long and it felt pointless. What was meant to take us around 2 hours, took us closer to 3 and a half.

But I saw a wild emu in the forest and got to practice my driving skills as a wood truck was coming behind us flashing his lights to make us move. It was an adventure, for sure (but because of this adventure, the next time I hired a car, I hired a bigger one. Just in case).

The next hours just consisted of driving, again. We dropped my friend back to Donnybrook, another one back to Bunbury and then made our way to Perth.

It was a very short trip but I enjoyed it to the fullest. And honestly, it feels like I was on the trip much longer than what I actually was. We saw so much without feeling rushed. 10/10 would do it again but with a bigger car.