Margaret River

argaret River lies about 270km south of Perth. It is quite an easy drive down either the South Western Highway, or the more scenic (but longer) coast roads through Rockingham, Mandurah etc.

It is quite a trendy tourist spot, and there are quite a lot of tourist activities, and some wonderful wineries in the area. Some of the activities include visiting wineries, walks through beautiful national parks, exploring spectacular caves, and horse riding.

The area is littered with restaurants, galleries and the like. Further to south (about 50km) is Augusta, a small and picturesque coastal town. Augusta has a beautiful ocean beach, and is meant to be a secret sailing spot.

The actual township of Margaret is about 3km inland from the beach. This picture shows part of the main street.

About 40km to the north is Dunsborough, another coastal town, with a beautiful beach, a pretty coastal road, and a nice caravan park, right on the beach. Dunsborough would be quite sailable, but flat water (possibly bump and jump) only. It also runs East - West, so requires a slightly different wind direction.

There Margaret River Tourism Association has a web page that describes a lot of the attractions of the area. I strongly recommend visiting this site to get a feel for the multitudinous number of activities in the area.