For my 30th birthday Andrew organised an amazing getaway down south complete with amazing restaurants, winery visits, and a stay a the King's Cottage at the Cape Howe Cottages. He also managed to squeeze in climbing a mountain, which I was a little bit nervous about because I'm generally scared of the outdoors and nature.
1st December, Cape Lodge
I'm so glad I took the morning off of work because I really felt like I was on holiday straight away. I went for a run, stopped into Bunnings to pick up windscreen washer, and put up the Christmas tree. Andrew is flat out at work so had to go in, but we still managed to leave Perth at around 3pm.
After a long drive down (well, long by my standards, Andrew thinks is a short stroll) we arrived at the picturesque Cape Lodge. We stayed in a lovely little cottage with beautiful views of the garden and lake. After arriving and having our welcome truffles (which I actually liked!) and filtered rain water, we got ready to walk over to the restaurant.
The restaurant was a beautiful room overlooking the lake, and we even managed to catch the multi coloured sunset. The meal was one of the best I've ever had, with the only two others we could think of that even came close being Wildflower, and Aria (in Sydney). I normally don't take photos of food but couldn't resist this time; it was all so beautifully presented. I can't wait to show my parents to see what they think, I even ate roe!
The pick for me was the risotto, Andrew's favourite was the quail. Andrew chose a Cullen wine that was also the best wine I've ever had. He only later told me later that it was also the most expensive bottle I've ever had!
2nd December: Leaving Cape Lodge, Woody Nook, Vasse Felix, Sunflowers Animal Farm
Still full from dinner, we managed to fit in a delicious breakfast at the Cape Lodge restaurant while watching a couple of parent ducks teach two little ducklings to duck dive, it was so cute! The parent duck would go under, then the little ducks would panic and when the parent duck finally popped up they'd zoom over to parent for safety, probably feeling lucky to be alive. They got the hang of it by the end and were going down and popping up way later a long way away from where they dove.
We walked off breakfast with a walk around the grounds, and saw their garden where they grow a lot of the things used in the dishes at the restaurant, including artichoke which I'd never seen growing before (it's an impressive alien looking plant that reminded me of that thing that grew in my parent's yard a few years back).
Our next two stops were a couple of wineries, Woody Nook then lunch at Vasse Felix. Both beautiful grounds in their own way and we had perfect weather to enjoy them. We've stocked our wine shelf with a few great bottles from each place. After lunch (and buying a few bottles from Vasse Felix) we walked through the art gallery below the restaurant. Most of the paintings were just a bunch of lines, but they were very pretty lines I guess.
The Sunflowers Animal Farm was our next bitter sweet stop. Emma recommended this place to us mostly because it had what she described as a bunny dome, which sounded like a magical place much to my own heart. Unfortunately the farm had been hit by the khaleesi virus a few weeks back and they had lost every single bunny except for one that had been handed in by an owner who couldn't look after her anymore. I hugged that bunny for a good 20minutes and she hugged me right back, it was quite emotional.
I also got to feed Wendy the joey! It was amazing, she held my hand and looked into my eyes while drinking gingerly. All the other animals seemed to go nuts for food, but you really have to convince a joey to drink it's milk which is kind of endearing.
Much to Andrew's horror we witnessed another one of those special animal moments that make us lose faith a little bit. After the children bottle fed the calves, the calves decided they hadn't had enough and proceeded to try and drink each other's "milk", but they were all male cows. What resulted was an awful calf threesome that has earned it's place in the list of animal horrors we've witnessed (right up there with the giraffe flemen incident, and the monkey butt fingering incident).
We also met a very strange cockatoo that hated men and loved women. He would say "wanna cuddle?" or "I've been a good boy" as his war cry as he ran to attack Andrew.
Then came the long drive to Cape Howe which honestly was terrifying. We passed by so many kangaroos on the side of the road and almost hit a joey. I was so relieved when we finally got to the Kings Den! I'm so scared of night time country driving.
3rd December: Cape Howe, Greens Pool, The Lake House
The Kings Den is as amazing as we remembered it, just so peaceful and romantic. Look at the beautiful breakfast pack the owners put together for us.
Greens Pool was absolutely stunning, I even waded in the water a little bit. The rocks were so easy to walk on; I usually get a bit scared at intrepid walks (Andrew probably wishes he never taught me that word) but these rocks were so easy and grippy to walk on that it was a pleasure to explore and see the gorgeous views, lizards, and even a manta ray.
The Lake House for lunch was really cosy, especially since it started raining.
After picking up some gluten free bread from the Denmark Bakery we headed back to make the most of the Kings Den.
4th December: Denmark and the Kings Den
This was our most lazy day. We slept in, had an amazing cooked breakfast, went to Howard Park and Madfish Winery, The Black Pig Cydery, stopped in Denmark for lunch, then enjoyed the rest of the day relaxing at the Kings Den.
We may have gotten carried away.
5th December: Bluff Knoll
I climbed Bluff Knoll. I can't believe I did it, and it wasn't that bad! Well, it was very challenging (and intrepid) but there were way less bugs and snakes (although way more goannas) than I thought there would be, although thank god for the Bushman's Spray which I think kept most of the flies away.
There were very different and distinct sections of the path, and although it was genuinely a path the whole way, some parts were very rocky and slippery and quite hard to navigate. My favourite parts were the bits with the actual steps even though these were the steepest. The worst bits were the parts with flat rocks (about 1/3 up near the waterfall, and towards the top).
The view from the top was like nothing I've ever seen before, and it was completely still with no wind so it was just lovely. We sat and ate an apple and a muesli bar before heading back down.
It took us about 1h 20min to climb to the top, and about the same to come down. I have to say that the way down was probably harder than the way up because you really had to choose your path more carefully.
What a perfect little trip to end the year with, thank you Andrew for a great 30th b'day present!
