Tuesday, 24 August
There's nothing quite like a lengthy good night's sleep, and there was nothing that was going to tip Hughesy out of bed too early on a rather chilly morning. The prospect of a walk through chilly corridors to the shared bathroom facilities didn't exactly give me the ooh-ahs, but I deftly avoided the necessity through judicious under-indulgence the night before.
Once the showering and packing was complete, it was a case of a quick circuit through the dining room (we'd eaten in the bar the night before) for the continental breakfast, which was a return to the regularly defined article rather than the excesses on offer in downtown Perth.
Once we'd hit the bitumen it wasn't long before we were heading back into familiar territory from previous visits to the Swan Valley. That turned into a slight problem since familiarity with the ground suggested that we wanted to go one way, avoiding the city and the CBD if possible while Karen's directions seemed destined to take us through the heart of the downtown freeway.
Madam wasn't sure about all this, and had spotted what looked like a suitable route via the airport onto a feeder that would take intending visitors almost directly to Margaret River, but we missed the turn for that one, which provoked the odd moment of panic until Hughesy spotted an option that would deliver us onto the Kwinana Freeway, which was, according to my calculations, where we needed to be.
The map we had with us (the hire car company, having supplied us with Karen's assistance, had decided we didn't need a street guide) cut out south of Perth, and wasn't that detailed, anyway, and Karen's recent pronouncements didn't exactly fill you with confidence.
Madam was more than a tad spooked, but Hughesy, with the calm insouciance of someone who knows that Kwinana is south of Fremantle and Mandurah is south of Kwinana, reasoned that since we were on the way to Mandurah things were under control.
Madam wasn't convinced, but eventually the inevitable logic of the signage won out as Bunbury started turning up in the en route towards column. Madam was inclined to stop there for lunch, and eventually concluded we must be on the right road after all.
Karen, on the other hand, refused to believe we were travelling on a road at all, and issued frequent requests to perform a U-turn when possible, resulting in an eventual banishment to the glovebox. $5/day to hire the thing and the maps weren't up to date. Sheesh!
Once we'd found our way into Bunbury, a check at the Tourist Info yielded the location of the cafe quarter, and we ended up eating at the first such establishment we sighted. That might suggest a degree of desperation, but we'd taken a glance at the menu, decided it looked OK but we might look a bit further anyway, walked a hundred metres without sighting another option, so decided that was it.
A grilled chicken wrap and an almost identical-looking chicken caesar salad tortilla hit the spot nicely and it was well before two when we were back in the car, counting our way through a succession of six roundabouts before the turnoff that would lead to Capel Vale, the first destination on the tasting trail, and the only Halliday 5-star winery in the Geographe region.