Our Australia Day in Margaret River

Several weeks ago I got some lovely Aussie temporary tattoos for the kids in anticipation of Australia Day. I hid them away so they’d be a surprise. Nearly a week past the holiday we still haven’t found them. They’re in the van somewhere, they’ll show up eventually and we’ll have a nice surprise. The day before the holiday I grabbed some of the yellow & green ones that were on sale so we survived. (Yes, survived. How do you survive Australia Day without your Aussie pride showing on your face?) 😉

When we visited the Margaret River Chocolate Factory we were introduced to the concept of Fruffles. They looked just like truffles but they were covered in sprinkles (hundreds & thousands) instead of coconut. I’m assuming the name is a combination of Freckles and Truffles, Freckles being little chocolates covered in sprinkles that you can buy at any supermarket in Australia. The ones at the chocolate store were gorgeous and cost two dollars each. We decided to try our hand at making some ourselves. What better day than Australia Day to make this Aussie treat?

We were staying at the Big Valley Campsite, a farm just ten minutes from Margaret River. Which meant we got to feed the sheep and the goats every day. Australia Day was no exception for this little guy, though his brothers were off playing cricket at the time.

After the sheep the goats get a turn. LadyBug found us there, she and her friend had been hunting for magic seeds. Apparently when you plant them they take ten years to grow. They later brought them back and painted them and we wrote down all sorts of interesting facts about them. Things like: ‘We collected them.’ and ‘They are round.’ The next morning all the kids were out looking for them and we had magic seeds coming out our ears. But back to the goats…

The kids must have spent hours in the Magic Tree during our stay here. The first night we wandered up to watch the chook feeding because we wanted to see the young emu that had been hanging around. He was about six months of age, orphaned, and happily ate right along with all the chooks. That was quite the sight, this giant bird as tall as me towering over all the chooks. We turned around to see this massive tree canopy across from the shed with an entrance just begging to be explored.

So much climbing to be done here. I mostly stayed out of there because it did seem like a magical place just for kids and grown-ups really shouldn’t be allowed. I just prayed no one would be injured since the kids were quite capable of climbing pretty high in this tree. JitterBug (8) will proudly tell you he fell out of the tree but thankfully only suffered a scrape or two. LadyBug likewise got a few scrapes from running into branches when she thought she was just running through the leaves.

When we left we told the owners how much fun the kids had climbing in the tree. It helped that it had a great name and a sign all its own.

We had sausages for lunch and then that afternoon there was the cricket. Kids and adults alike. Aussie flags decorated the camp kitchen. TurboBug found his own bat and kept himself busy. He had quite the time offering his ‘cricket’ ball to a nearby dog who would then relinquish it and stare after it longingly. Over and over again TurboBug would approach the dog and play this game with him. It was very cute and had the dog’s owners giggling away.

The boys spent ages playing cricket. JitterBug was there all afternoon. Thankfully there were lots of families there so everyone made sure the kids were enjoying themselves. I saw the backpackers enjoying a game or two of bocce over near the other camp kitchen, sans kids.