The start of an awesome roadtrip with the peeps is finally happening. Very much owe to Scoot's 1-for-1, the decision to book the return airfare from Perth was so impromptu that we probably bought it on the day we heard the promo. The plan was to go round Perth area in clockwise direction starting with Wave Rock to Albany and from there to Margaret River and back at Perth. We book our accommodations with Airbnb and rented car from Hertz. We arrived in the evening and headed over to a relative's place for the night before the start of our road trip the next day

tl;dr 

• We rented Toyota Kluger (7-seater) from Hertz to fit 5 person. The space was just right 3 person at the back can get a little uncomfy at times. 
• I would recommend to get max insurance coverage for your vehicle in the event you hit a Kangaroo/Wallaby
• Travel period was during April so daylight was pretty short. Should have left place by 8 AM to get the most out of the day
• Would recommend to allocate more days to complete the trip if you're intending to do something like ours
• Local SIM card by Vodafone and Optus were going @ $20 for 20 GB however reception can get quite back some cities such as Hopetoun. (Not sure if its a coverage issue or operator-related)
• Toilets are available at every small town/city so it's very convenient. 
• Bring along insect repellent, towel to cover your face as the flies are very very annoying

We left for Perth at around 9 AM after breakfast and reached Corrigin for a short break before continuing our journey to Wave Rock. Upon reaching, we headed towards wave rock cafe to grab something for lunch as the options were very limited as most eateries aren't open on Sunday. The food choices inside the cafe weren't much either. We ordered fried rice, burger, sandwiches and hot chocolate. The food was okay. The entrance to wave rock is directly opposite of the cafe. If you're driving there, you just need to purchase a parking coupon and place it on the dashboard of the car and you can enter the place.

Probably due to the climate now, the entire place were full of flies which made the entire experience somewhat annoying and less enjoyable. I would strongly encourage you to bring insect repellent and/or towel to wrap around your face. The flies will attack you every second to the extent where you have to force yourself not to flinch when taking pictures. Also, DO NOT wear black color as they seemed to attract the flies more so then light colored clothes. 
Over at wave rock, there are 2 routes (hippo's yawn, wave rock) you can take and it will probably take you 90 mins in total if you also decided to climb to the top of wave rock to enjoy surrounding view - recommend to spend around 2 hours to be comfortable. 

We left for Hopetoun and stop over at Ravensthorpe to refuel. Unfortunately, the grocery store (IGA) had closed by then so tonight's dinner will have to be a the city's restaurant or which shack we can find. 

We reach Hopetoun around 9 PM and were in luck to find some restaurant operating during such hours on a Sunday night! The place serves quite decent food and you can expect to spend on average $40 per pax. We ordered Fish & Chips, Veal Schitzel, BBQ Pork ribs, Garlic Prawns and some fried pork belly. 

We bought some beers and ciders back and had a great chat with peeps. It was a long day and I slept like a log 

We heard about the renowned Pink Lake online and had planned a day trip to check out the attraction before stopping at Esperance to catch the beach. HOWEVER, we left out the most important new regarding the famed Pink Lake - that is the lake is NO longer pink. It was caused by excessive commercial salt mining that led to the decrease of salt concentration. There are a few more pink lake within Australia but specifically within Western Australia, I heard there's another Pink Lake towards the north. You can bet how disappointed and cheated we felt having drove for 2 hours to reach this place. 

Pretty amazed by the clear waters of West Beach. The waves were fairly strong enough for some to surf and little teasing for those who just wanted to dabble in the clear cold waters. You can't imagine how much we needed this after a long day of driving and disappointment. We left at around 6 as the sky was getting dark. The clothes were all full of sand, had to head to nearby Mcdonald's as there were no toilet or washroom facilities at the beach. Some beaches might have so do some searching online before heading down if need to have such amenities. We bought nugget set to tackle the temporary hunger. It was GREAT

The morning was a little wet and road conditions were a little slippery. We left the slightly later than planned timing as we had to wait for the vehicle replacement. During our way back last night, we hit a wallaby and the front part of the car was slightly damaged. The cooler fan was block by a loose debris so we had to switch off the AC during the journey.

The journey to Granite Skywalk and Castle Rock is around 330 km. We took a short break at Jerramungup before continuing the journey to Porongurup for a hike. For those who enjoy hiking, I would recommend this route as you'll be rewarded with a breathtaking view when you reach the top. There are 2 paths to go. If you have fear of heights, then you're advised to go left as the journey to skywalk will require you to climb a ladder in order tor each the skywalk. Real good adrenaline rush! The hike will take about 2 hours to complete (roundtrip). It is a little strenuous as there are some elevation. 

We added this stop last minute as Lisa shared that this a something we shouldnt if we're near Albany. If you're a animal person, then you should not give this a miss. The entrance fee is 14 AUD and comes with a pack of dried food for you to food the animals. It pretty popular with family as well especially when you see the enthusiasm is those kids who are probably smaller in size than the alpacas, kangaroos and sheep. We spent around 90 mins at the place walking around farm. Some of the areas are out of bounds and you can expect to see more than just alpacas. There were horses, pigs, chickens, cattles and much. 

The area also had a few other farms and wineries to visit. We decided to ask the owner where would be a good place for wine tasting as we saw a couple of road signs to quite a few wineries on our way here. It was also about lunchtime so we were trying to find a place to eat our packed sandwiches. The owner shared with us this place called 'SingleFile' winery which perhaps is about few km drive away from the farm. We decided to head there and begin our first wine tasting experience. 

The place was amazing. I guess it comes to the amount of underutilized land, you can easily grow your own vineyard and start a winery business. We went in the shop and they started to serve us real quick, probably the fact that we looked like 'lost sheep'. Unfortunately drivers can't drink, so we missed the opportunity to taste good wine at free cost. They tried a total of 3 wines mostly red wines and 1 dessert wine. In the end, we decided to get 1 dessert wine and 1 shiraz which costs around 60+ for both. There is also tiered membership available to those who want to get discounts on regular orders. 

The area was equipped with quite a few picnic tables, perfect spot for us have our packed lunch with awesome scenery. The weather on that day was a little chilly but it sure beats having warm weather sometimes up to 35 deg. 

So if you're on the way towards Margaret River from Albany, you can drop by Valley of the Giants and take walk between suspending bridge among the tall trees. The entrance costs around 22 AUD and you can expect to spend around 90 mins as there are 2 attractions/loops for you to experience. One route leads you to the suspending bridge whereas the other leads you through the Ancient Empire where you get to walk in between the roots of tingle trees. 

Next up - Bettenay Estate Nougat Company. The place had a nice small lake next to it and was pretty quiet at that time probably due to the time of the year. It not expecting much tourism and usually only get about 3-5 customers according to the owner. We happen to be the first customer of the day and we quickly helped ourselves to the nougats and some wine tasting. 

Note that they only display 2 flavours per day for sampling so depending on your luck, you can get quite exotic flavours. As for the wine tasting, we wanted to try the coffee infused wine and the honey wine but since I am the driver, the honour was not mine. Feedback from the folks is that the honey wine is too strong too creamy akin to drinking syrup so we decided to get the coffee one instead. It tasted very much like Bailey's 

They also had a bundle deal where you buy 4 get 1 free and us being Singapore, naturally we managed to hit 5. FYI, they are selling soft nougats not the hard ones you usually get in dark maroon packaging

This stop pop right up my to do list because I am a sucker for chocolates and has been excited to visit chocolate factories be it in Japan, Thailand, whatsoever. The next best thing was they actually had 3 large bowls of chocolate pastilles as samples. The flavours were milk, white and dark chocolates and there were no staff there to control the portion one can take. Further down the shop, you can see operations of the factory and staff using machineries and molds to produce the chocolates. They also sell award winning gourmet chocolates which costs a bomb. I think the cheapest is around 2AUD per pc. 

We headed over to Goanna Gallery Cafe for lunch. It had great recommendations based on online reviews and I can see why. However one should expect to spend around 30 AUD per pax. The menu were somewhat interesting to me. We ordered a curry chicken pilaf, smoked salmon with rosti and guacamole, shrimp salad and beer battered fries. It was a great FEAST. I personally liked the beer battered fries ALOT

Next up, we headed over to Cape Lavender for sweet treats. This is the only place you should visit if you're a fan of lavender - basically the shop sells everything with lavender. You can get lavender honey, tea, ice cream, cake, soap (i think), fresheners etc. It is EVERYTHING lavendar. We were actually very very full but just wanted to have a taste the famed ice cream. 

The drive to sugarloaf road was somewhat mesmerizing especially with angle of sun ray pointing towards the big sea. Almost felt like you're driving towards paradise. The winds as you approach the lookout spot is very very strong. I am not sure if this happens during specific time of the day or it was just that one thing but it sure wouldn't hurt to bring along some windbreaker. A very nice place to stop by before our journey towards Busselton!

Busselton is a lovely place. We managed to reach the jetty before the sky turns dark. Took a long walk to the end of the jetty to check out the underwater aquarium but it was already closed. Nevertheless, it was a good long walk while enjoying the sea breeze. It started to get real chilly as the sun was going down but luckily we had our windbreakers handy. 

We slowly made our way back to the carpark and check into our accommodation, which by the way was awesone!
Sea La Vie was the name of the host. It had great facilities and was sparkling clean

We are heading back to Perth today. The drive from Busselton was great - the roads were wide and traffic was light.The first stop we made was to Fremantle market. It seemed like the kind of shopping that I really like - local stuff, DIY and food. Not a big fan of shopping malls. If you like honey and cake, I would strongly recommend to try the honeycake. Especially if you have right out of the fridge. It's superb! A breakfast power food I guess. Next, I came across this stall selling coffee beans with fusion of chocolate truffle, caramel, hazelnut just to name a few and I thought it was creative. Being a coffee person, I was really spoilt for choice and had decided to get chocolate truffle flavour instead. They can help to ground the coffee if you also use a coffee plunger like I do.  

Overall, a good visit if you're here in Perth for some local shopping and delicacies. 

We headed over to Kaili's Fish & Chips for lunch. It can be quite difficult to get a parking spot during lunch time and always remember to buy parking ticket!
We ordered normal fish set + a soup and we can barely finish! The fish is really fresh but can be a tad bland to some. The soup was flavourful and its actually quite filling perhaps due to the creamy texture!

We also ordered an additional side of fresh prawns to share.
Would recommend this place if you're into fish and chips