Day 56 – 10th March 2018 – Boranup (Cheese Factory)

Haim and I decided to make some paper helicopters and paper planes this morning.  It was a big hit and he spent a heap of time decorating them and flying them.  When he went down for his nap, Erin and I decided to take the opportunity to duck out to the Margaret River Dairy Company cheese factory at Metricup.  We chose this cheese factory on a recommendation from my Mum, Carol Sullivan, and we were not disappointed.  The cheese was fantastic.  Their yoghurt was also really good.  Unfortunately they didn’t do a tour of the factory, but they had a heap of their cheeses out for tasting and also small cups of their yoghurt.  So Erin and I did a bit of tasting and shopping in preparation for our killer cheese platter that evening.  Our favourites were the smoked cheddar, triple cream brie, pepper cheese and our top pick was the Chilli Jam!  We also bought some pear yoghurt for Haim.

From there we headed to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory.  This experience was a little overwhelming.  It is really big and packed full of all sorts of things and was full of people.  It was a sensation overload and neither Erin nor I particularly enjoyed it.  Although it is a very popular tourist spot.  They had some chocolate buds out for tasting and the chocolate was really good.  We left without buying anything though as we just wanted to get out of there and away from all the busyness and chaos.

We then stopped off at the Margaret River Providore and this was excellent!  Again it was huge, but well laid out and not as many people.  They sold a whole range of things such as jams, spices, pasta sauces, cold meats, relishes, honeycomb, pancake mix with gourmet sauces and much, much more.  There was also a beautiful section of household and gift items, cookbooks and also wine tasting.  The food was very good and we really enjoyed this stop just browsing around.

The end result of our day shopping was an awesome cheese platter that we all enjoyed for happy hour that evening.

When we pulled into the camp we were met by the boys who had a bit of a story to tell.  While we were gone, Col had driven into Cowaramup to get some water in the two 60L bladders (side note: we have all done an amazing job with the water this week and managed to get through close to 6 days with 5 people using the water!).  When Col returned, he and Jake were pouring the water out of the bladders and into the caravan tanks when Jake noticed a 1.5 metre long black snake a couple of metres away from them.  He grabbed Hamish and put him up on top of a big log, out of harms way and the snake quickly slithered off into the bush.  It is a good reminder that just because you don’t see them, they are around and you need to remain vigilant of where you are walking, zipping up tents and not leaving things laying around the camp.  It is not something you need to be fearful of, as much as have a healthy awareness that they are out there and you are staying in their environment.  We let the neighbours know as one had a dog and both our neighbours had kids.

Col has finished off another great video which is a compilation of the SA camps that we have stayed at so far.  Hope you enjoy!