Yallingup is a small coastal town on the Indian Ocean. It is popular because of its proximity to many beaches, limestone caves, the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park and the Margaret River Valley wine country. There are more than 120 wineries! We visited three of them. The Banyard 1978 was a great lunch spot for a few minutes from our lodge. We had the freshest pasta paired with a local red wine. They are also known for the seven varieties of honey. The others were two of the oldest wineries in the area: Cullen Wines and Leeuwin Estate. We arrived in time for lunch at Leeuwin. Our meal paired nicely with their chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. The estate has an impressive art collection and calls their premium wines by theme in an art series. We intended to get dessert and wine at Cullen Wines but the kitchen was closed. We tasted their Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Both were good but we preferred Leeuwin.
It was definitely winter and we got some serious weather during our stay. The reports said rain the first night and then mixed sun/clouds with a little wind for the remainder of our stay. That was not what happened. It poured each day. The wind was fierce. We had a little compact car and it was pushed around in the wind. We tried to capture the changing weather with photos from our living room looking out onto the ocean. The flip side was we saw many rainbows and even seemed to drive into one. (No good photos of the rainbows.)
On a sunny morning we passed a fisherman on the beach. We continued to walk along the beach until the clouds started to roll in. The golden sand and waves crashing into the shore was very peaceful.
Cave Road was the main road and its name was not a surprise when we learned there are more than 100 limestone caves between Cape Leeuwin and Cape Naturaliste. We visited two of the six open to the public (technically five in the winter). Ngilgi Cave is in the Geographe Bay and was open to tourists in 1899. This cave was Western Australia’s first tourist attraction and “Cupid’s Corner” was marketed to honeymooners in the early 1900s. Couples would climb rope ladders in suits and dresses to explore the cave in an all day adventure. Today, the semi-guided tour takes about an hour.
Lake Cave is the most actively dripping cave in the area and is the only cave with a lake. It is the deepest cave with an entry through giant sunken entrance among ancient karri trees. There is a “suspended table” formation that hovers over the lake. We could see the effects of humans touching the crystal and the new growth. Both caves were spectacular—next time we can go to the others.
We hiked a small portion of the 123km Cape to Cape trail along the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge. We started at our hotel at the Injidup Springs and ended in the town center of Yallingup. Along the ways we saw the Canal Rocks, Smiths Beach, the Super Tubes and a few surfers. Unfortunately we did not see any whales. We heard rumors of sightings at the Leeuwin Lighthouse but nothing farther North.