Sunflower Animal Farm
It’s the June holidays! Off we went to Perth for our first “long haul” trip after six long years since Amos’ birth in 2013. The airplane ride had our two little country pumpkins squealing—Joel a little more subdued but Amos wouldn’t stop grinning. It was good that we had prepared him for the ride; read him stories about being on the plane and showed him videos of it so he would know what was going on. Amos enjoyed the bumps of taking off and landing. For the rest of the 5-hour flight he was pretty much glued to KrisWorld and, like his brother, binged on movies he never got to watch at home. There were news of wet weather over Western Australia. It was to be a rare and welcoming relief for the farmers there after a long spell of dry weather, and that’s the way it was.
We arrived in the afternoon, two hours short of sunset, and spent a night at Mantra on Hay to avoid driving through pitch darkness to the farmstay. We had a good Thai takeout dinner, swam laps at the hotel’s heated pool, and rose early next morning for the 3-hour drive to Sunflower Animal Farm down south at Margaret River. An hour into the drive dark clouds, heavy with rain, started closing in all around us. We dropped by Bunsbury for a quiche and coffee, picked up some snacks and drinks before heading down to the Goose—a seaside restaurant at Busselton. There we encountered the stormy prelude. In the warmth of the restaurant we watched the waves swell, the drizzle driven sideways by the charging winds. In the last hour of our journey the heavens opened. The rain pelted in heavy drops. Our wipers swiped madly to clear the view. I squinted past the murky windscreen, Sandra watched the roads like a hawk and the kids went silent.
Amos at Busselton
Thankfully we did not miss our stop. We rounded the bend where the sign told us to and rolled very slowly into the farm. It was half-past three in the afternoon and by then the skies were dark as night and the storm had sodden the ground. We stepped outside and Perth’s wet winter chill bit into us. A hasty check-in after we scurried across the mud to our lodge. It fronted a lovely lawn and rolling meadows but we would not notice them until we got past the depressing weather. From inside the lodge we saw that the storm cloud had no end. Everything was grey and cold and wet. Weather report said the storm would persist. We wondered if we would ever get to go outside and see the animals. Amos didn’t care. He danced and showed us how wonderful it already was to be there.
Our stormy beginning...
Morning—and by God’s grace the weather cleared. A drizzle persisted, but there was sunlight and it revealed our lovely lawn, the meadows, families of wild kangaroos, and nature in all its splendour. As much as Amos had anticipated meeting the animals, he was daunted by the muddy ground on the way to the pens, so we had to carry him most of the way. Once there, the animals—driven to fits of manic prancing by the prospect of feeding—frightened Amos so much we had to keep him away. Even Joel took some time before he would surrender the slice of carrot to the pony’s eager, slobbering lips. A half-hour into it Amos ventured a tour into the hen house, and had its overzealous residents swarming to him, clucking, keenly honed to the feed in our hands. Amos scurried right back to us, wide-eyed with fear.
Having escaped the hen house
At noon we drove over to Flutes restaurant at Brooklands vineyard and had an aperitif of mulled wine and a fantastic lunch of gravied rice and duck. Back at the farm Amos continued keeping his distance from the animals but acquainted himself with the farm’s three hardworking Collies, patting their pelts and telling them just how cute they were. Then on the last morning at the farm, Amos tottered out by himself to the paddock, just beyond our lawn, where a brown pony stood grazing. He amazed us by stepping right up to it and patting its mane. The pony let him as it went on grazing, and Amos crouched by its ear and whispered secrets to it.
Amos and Chili - the hardworking farm dog
Amos, the pony whisperer
After leaving Sunflower Farm we lodged in Margaret Forest, a 2-storey accommodation at Margaret River central—a quaint, idyllic township of niche fashion, breakfast cafes and gourmet bakeries. We made short trips to the region also—Ngilgi Caves, farmers’ market, vineyards (the gnocchi at Xanadu Winery was excellent), and had fantastic fish and chips at Cheeky Monkeys. Along the trips Amos surprised us with his inexhaustible ability to sing gibberish in the car, his resilience to the drizzle and the biting 9-degree wind chills.
But at Ngilgi caves, we grossly underestimated the level of fitness that was required of Amos. He gave up walking entirely a little after we started our journey underground, and went limp all over like a sack of potatoes as I carried him through plunging stairs and craggy spaces that were tight even for kids. At the entrance to one of the cave’s chambers, one American kid saw how drenched I was from the perspiration and refused to enter. Not exactly good advertisement for the ancient calcite caves but it worked me out good for the calories I’d be putting on later.
Amos in the caves
Relieved to see the light of day
We returned to Perth after three nights at Margaret Forest. Along the way we dropped by Bunsbury Farmers Market to pick up a lunch of cheddar, cucumbers and cold cuts and a side of granola-yoghurt with stewed apples. Then we visited friends just off the Kwinana Freeway and enjoyed their happy floral tea and lovely tarts of eggs and ham.
If you’re looking for a good serviced apartment while you’re at Perth, we totally recommend Mounts Bay Waters Apartment Hotel. It is at heart of the city less the noise and bustle, has excellent amenities and is close to spots like Elizabeth Quay and Kings Park. We had planned for a submarine tour at the Maritime Museum, and having learned from our experience at Ngilgi caves, it was best to leave Amos with grandma at the apartment. It turned out to be the right decision. The tour was intriguing and informative, but we’d have a hard time negotiating the crawl spaces of a naval submarine with Amos in tow. As inclusive as we wanted to be, we also needed to make practical choices.
Joel scurrying to his battle station (Adults - don't try this if you don't want to bump your head)
Up close with a section of a decommissioned sub and its torpedoes
The last full day of our trip was spent touring the Yanchep National Park, where we saw little but little furballs of koalas curled against the cold rain and asleep on trees. In fine weather it would have been a more enjoyable stop. After a good lunch of lobster tails and fish at the small fishing town of Cervantes, we surveyed the amazing landscape of the Pinnacles. But it was at Lancelin Sand Dunes where the boys had one of the most memorable experiences of the trip. Thank God that the weather cleared just in time for some sand-sledding. It was tremendous fun for the boys (and Amos amazed us yet again by his fearlessness on the slopes), except for a glitch at the end, when Amos—given to occasional bouts of floppiness, let go on our way down and plunged face-first into the powdery sand. Thankfully he wasn’t hurt, and received only a mouthful of sand in return. Most surprisingly it did not daunt him. After washing up (and swallowing the sand we had asked him to spit), he demanded another run—which we of course refused. If that didn’t frighten him, it certainly gave Papa and Mummy a nasty scare.
Up the sand dune
Our final stop was Kings Park. There we let the boys roam and run—amusingly in their ponchos. The rain abated but it never stopped. With better weather we would have explored far more of this enormous park. We left early for the Breakfast Bar at Mount Street, and brunched on its lovely Middle-Eastern fusion dishes and good coffee. After that, it was off to the airport.
The boys were beat after another round of KrisWorld on the flight back. It was past midnight by the time we were settled. The boys hit the sacks and fell asleep right away. And when they wake, a fond afterglow awaits.
