Canal Rocks

Sunday 13th July 2008
We all got up early for a Sunday but still didn’t manage to get out of the house until about 10am. We went to the market for a change but the ground was pretty waterlogged so there were not to many stalls there, the kids played in the park while we walked round what was there.
After the market we drove to Smiths Beach, the scene of a massive corruption scandal by Aussie standards, we don’t really know the nitty gritty about it but we think it had something to do with politicians and land developers fleecing the state. We think it was done and dusted a couple of years ago with certain individuals going to prison, now anyone who was anywhere near politics at the time is always linked with the place every time they are mentioned in the news.
Anyway, the development at the centre of this scandal is supposed to be the bees knees so we decided to go and have a look at it and have a bit of Brunch in the Restaurant overlooking the Ocean. The development, whilst close to a very nice beach, cannot see it from most areas. The development looks like a compilation of concrete blocks thrown together to make something squarish and unattractive, and the marketing men have done a great job convincing people that this is the place they want to go for a break. They advertise this place as being a waterside development but forget to mention the bloody great Rock/Sand Dune between the Resort and the water.
As you might have gathered we were not impressed with the place and carried on driving round the coast, just having a look round.
Just down the road from Smiths Beach we came across a rock formation known as Canal Rocks, it is called that because the faults in the rock have allowed as series of natural canals to be made by erosion from the sea. These rocks are spectacular, it is almost like somebody has just dumped a big pile of rocks there just to get rid of them, and nature has thought ‘I can do something with them’.
We must have spent a good hour or so climbing over the rocks and watching the Crabs in the rock pools, needless to say we forgot to take the camera with us so we will have to go and do it all over again so that we can let you see it.
After that we headed for Margaret River, on the way we stopped at a Farm Shop where we tasted a few different meats before buying some Venison Salami and Venison Liverwurst. When we got to Margaret River we stopped for Lunch, we had missed Brunch so were all a bit peckish. The choice of places to eat there was quite disappointing for such a major tourist town, a lot of them were closed for one reason or another, we did manage to find somewhere though and the meal was quite good.
When we left Margaret River we headed for Dunsborough, we were trying to find the Simmo’s Ice Cream Factory that is based there. Simmo’s has got a good name in this area and as we are looking at selling Ice Cream we thought that we would try it out, we didn’t see an Ice Cream Factory as such but as you walk into the place you are looking at about 40 different flavours from which to choose.
This is a well oiled machine, you walk in the front door, buy some Ice Cream and take it out of the back door into a well kept garden with play equipment for kids, Crazy Golf, BBQ’s and seating. This place must be absolutely heaving in the summer, it was busy today and it was relatively cold and gloomy, they even have permanent signs for overflow parking.
The Ice Cream was lovely and Ian will ring them tomorrow to see if we can come up with a supply agreement for our new little venture.
When we got home we watched the second Pirates of the Caribbean film and then had an early night ready for the week ahead.