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We picked up Tinie (Ray’s sister) and headed North of Perth to the beautiful Swan Valley. It resembled the Yarra Valley in Victoria but was only 20 minutes from the centre of town. I had the map in the back of the car and we drove around various wineries tasting wine and looking through their very modern cellar door areas. It became imperative that we found somewhere to eat lunch (all that wine tasting and no food wasn’t a good combination) so we made our way to the Whistlers Chocolate Factory. After sampling a variety of chocolate treats, we enjoyed lunch in the cafe. Their combination of pomegranate seeds in their luncheon salad was absolutely delicious!
We decided that we couldn’t visit just one chocolate factory and that we must visit another so that we could make comparisons. I consulted the trusty map and navigated the way to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory. We opened up the door into a city of chocolate and all the people to go with it. It was packed! They even had a very tall foreboding security guard at the door watching over the mountains of chocolate. It was very tempting to buy, but very expensive so we spent our time there sampling (for comparisons sake) and enjoyed a latte while we people watched and caught up with each other some more. We realised after a while that we were the only people left and it was closing time.
We drove back to Tinie’s apartment in Perth and spent a very pleasant evening which included dinner and drinks. Caleb entertained us with mimics from part of his favourite movie of the moment, “Rango”. We very much enjoyed Tinie’s company and having her to ourselves for the whole day because we very seldom get to see her in Melbourne.

We returned to the caravan full of good food, wine and a huge bounty of good quality chocolate. The Swan Valley certainly has a lot to offer in the way of quality produce and is a must see for visitors to the Perth region. It is on our return list.