Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia

For those who's going Western Australia, no doubt you would be visiting the Margaret River region for their excellent wines. Consider taking a day or two, and going further south to Augusta, and visit Cape Leeuwin, the most south-westerly point in Australia!


Here at this extreme point lies Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, one of the last few lighthouses that still have a clockwork mechanism and kerosene burner. Of course, electricity is being used now, but it was until 1982 that it was still manually operated by the old mechanism. You need to buy tickets to go into the lighthouse.



This lighthouse watches over not one, but two great oceans. Here at this most southwestern edge, two oceans collide - the Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean. As I stand at one of the rocky outcrops, the waves were tremendous, and the feeling somehow great. But it seems that these two oceans were in battle as in the distance, dark clouds loom. As I got into my car, it turns out that the clouds were laden with hail! Lucky that I had manage to reach my car, as it would have been a painful experience from the sounds of the hail stones on my car top! Nevertheless, an interesting experience!



Well, you'll probably not get the hail experience, but a stop at this south western point of Australia where the Southern and Indian Ocean meet would be cool too eh?

Stirling Range National Park

Most Singaporean travellers I know visiting Western Australia and Perth would inevitably do the coastal road trip down to Margaret River wine region, and probably all the way south to Albany. This is really a great route to do, and one I did and enjoyed tremendously. However, there is another place well worth visiting in that region, and that is Stirling Range National Park.


There is another route down to Albany from Perth - an inland highway, that passes by a park known as Stirling Range National Park. The best time to visit is spring, where flowers of all kind bloom. There are, of course, hiking opportunities in the park, and thus, with the abundance of flowers along the hiking trail, makes for a really enjoyable "walk in the park"! :)



There are accommodations in the Park itself, which is recommended if you want to enjoy the full day in the park instead of commuting to nearby towns. An example is here. If you are planning a driving circuit down southern WA, esp in spring, then this is definitely a good stopover. You start from Perth and come down via the inland road to Stirling Range, enjoy a couple of days here, and continue down to Albany and from there, do your usual route back upwards via the coastal Margaret River region. If you are a wine and flower person, you have the best of both worlds! :)