The Caves Road Drive: Every Stop Worth Making

Caves Road is the spine of this region. Everything good hangs off it.

Photo: Lasthib, CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

I've driven Caves Road in every condition you can think of. Pre-dawn, on the way to surf at Smiths Beach. Afternoon, with a load of jarrah in the back of the ute. Wet winter nights with the wipers on full and a kangaroo every kilometre. The road is 110 kilometres top to bottom, Bunker Bay in the north, Karridale in the south, and it threads together pretty well everything that makes the Margaret River Region the place it is. Caves, wineries, forests, beaches, galleries. My workshop sits about ten minutes off it, down Blythe Rd in Yallingup.

This isn't an exhaustive list. It's what I'd tell you if you came into the gallery and asked.

Google Maps sometimes misdirects via Wildwood Rd. Stay on Bussell Hwy, turn at the Carbunup store, then Blythe Rd. That's how you reach me, and it's how you pick up Caves Road from the north end without getting tangled in side tracks. The road itself is well-signed once you're on it. Fill the tank in Dunsborough or Cowaramup. There are no fuel stations on Caves Road proper.

The drive end to end takes about ninety minutes without stopping. With stops, it's a full day. With wine tastings and a cave, it's two.

Most people start Caves Road thinking of it as a Yallingup-to-Margaret-River corridor. That's a mistake. The road actually begins up at the Bunker Bay turnoff near Cape Naturaliste. Start there.

Bunker Bay itself is a sheltered curve of white sand on the north-facing side of the Cape. It's protected from the swell that hammers the rest of the coast, which makes it the gentlest swim of any beach within an hour of my workshop. The Pullman resort is here, and there's a café in the carpark complex that does a respectable coffee.

Five minutes back is Eagle Bay, and just inland from there, Eagle Bay Brewing Co. Open daily 11am to 5pm. Twenty-eight beer taps. The kitchen is genuinely good. My standard order is whatever they're doing with local fish, and a pale ale. If you're starting the drive at lunchtime, this is a sensible first food stop.

From the Eagle Bay area, the road bends west to the cape itself.

I take every single visitor here. Not because you're supposed to. Once you're standing up there looking out at the Indian Ocean, everything else about this place makes sense. The lighthouse tours are run by the Capes Foundation and they're short and worth it. Even if you skip the tour, the walking tracks around the cape are free and the views are what they are.

Caves Road runs south from the cape through farmland and bush. You'll pass the turnoff for Sugarloaf Rock. Take it. It's two minutes off the road, the carpark is small, and the rock itself is a chunk of granite standing in the sea like something a sculptor abandoned. Sunsets here are good. The lookout is good any time of day.

A few kilometres further south you reach the Yallingup turnoff. This is where Caves Road earns its name.

Photo: SeanMack, CC BY 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Ngilgi Cave is the first cave on the route and the easiest to do. It's been a show cave since 1900, and the Wadandi story about Ngilgi the good spirit driving out Wolgine: the guides will tell it to you. Buy a cave pass through the Capes Foundation if you're planning to do more than one cave on the trip; it works out cheaper. how I would build a half-day around Ngilgi for the longer take.

The Yallingup turnoff also leads to my part of the world.

The gallery is a five-minute detour off Caves Road. Turn at the Carbunup store onto Blythe Rd, follow it down past the vines, and there's a sign on the right with my name on it. Pamela runs the front; I'm usually in the workshop through the viewing window. The walls are solid jarrah and southwest limestone — same materials Caves Road was carved through. If you want to see what this country looks like when it's been turned into furniture, this is the room.

Between Yallingup and Margaret River township, Caves Road passes the highest concentration of cellar doors in the region. There are dozens. You can't do them all. Here's what I'd pick.

Photo: Vasse Felix, CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Vasse Felix is on the corner of Caves Road and Tom Cullity Drive. It's the founding Margaret River winery, planted 1967, and the restaurant kitchen has been one of the most consistent in the region for as long as I've been recommending it. You can book lunch at Vasse Felix online, which I'd suggest on a weekend.

Clairault Streicker is further north, off Caves Road via Henry Road. Quieter than Vasse Felix, with a long lawn and an excellent kitchen. For a winery lunch where you can hear yourself think, this is it.

Wills Domain sits up on a hill at the Yallingup end. The hatted restaurant has views over the vines down to the coast. Good place for a long lunch with a view.

I'm not in the business of recommending restaurants I don't believe in, so I'll stop the list there. the local wineries write-up for the full take.

About halfway between Yallingup and Margaret River town, on Caves Road at the Quininup Road corner, there's Gabriel Chocolate. It's a bean-to-bar chocolate maker. They roast the cocoa beans on site and you can watch the process through the window, same principle as my workshop. Open daily 9.30am to 4.30pm. The single-origin tasting flight is the thing to order. Coffee here is also above average.

It's worth a stop even if you don't think you care about chocolate. It's the kind of stubborn small-scale making that this region encourages. Same reason the gallery exists.

A little further south, take the turnoff west to Canal Rocks. It's a granite headland where the sea has carved channels through the rock, and there's a small footbridge across one of them. Five minutes off Caves Road. Photographers love it; everyone else just stands and watches the water push through the gaps.

Photo: Lasthib, CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Time the day right and you can do Canal Rocks for sunset and be back on Caves Road in twenty minutes.

If Ngilgi is the easy cave at the top of the route, Mammoth and Lake are the bigger ones in the middle.

Mammoth Cave is self-guided with an audio device, which means you can take your time. There are fossils embedded in the cave walls (Tasmanian tigers, giant wombats), and the cave itself is, well, mammoth.

Lake Cave is the prettier of the two. You descend down through a karri forest sinkhole into a chamber with a clear underground lake reflecting the cave roof. Guided tours only, about an hour. Do Lake if you're only doing one of the southern caves.

how the four show caves compare if you're trying to decide between all four show caves.

Between the southern caves and Margaret River township, Caves Road runs through the Boranup karri forest. The trees here are second-growth (the original karri was logged a century ago), but they're tall enough now to make the road feel like a green tunnel. There's a lookout signposted off Caves Road that gives you a view down through the canopy to the ocean.

driving the Boranup loop for the proper way through this section.

About two-thirds of the way down the route, Caves Road meets the town of Margaret River. Pull in for fuel, coffee, and the Margaret River Chocolate Company if you didn't get enough at Gabriel.

On a Saturday morning, if you're anywhere near here, the Margaret River Farmers Market is at the Education Campus on Bussell Highway, 7.30am to 11.30am. I go most weekends. It is the best place to buy produce in this region. Local growers only, no resellers. Coffee, eggs, sourdough, in-season fruit. If you've ever wondered what people mean when they say Margaret River is a food region, this is what they mean.

With more time, keep going past Margaret River township. The road continues through farmland to Karridale, where Caves Road technically ends and Bussell Highway takes over. From Karridale you can detour to Hamelin Bay, which is the beach with the stingrays. They come in close to shore, close enough that people wade with them. It's gentle and strange.

Further south is Augusta and Cape Leeuwin, the other cape that bookends the Cape to Cape Track. This is where the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean officially meet. The lighthouse here is taller than the one at Naturaliste and the wind is louder. Worth the drive if you have a full day.

To turn this into hours, here's how I'd run it.

1. 8.30am

   Eagle Bay

   Coffee at the Pullman or in the Bunker Bay carpark. Walk the beach for half an hour.
2. 9.30am

   Cape Naturaliste

   Lighthouse walk. Skip the tour if you're tight on time, just do the cape views.
3. 10.30am

   Sugarloaf Rock

   Ten-minute stop on the way south.
4. 11am

   Ngilgi Cave / Blythe Rd

   Cave tour, then the gallery. Yes I am biased.
5. 1pm

   Vasse Felix

   Long lunch. Book in advance.
6. 3pm

   Gabriel Chocolate

   Tasting flight and a coffee.
7. 3.45pm

   Canal Rocks

   Quick walk, photos, back in the car.
8. 4.30pm

   Lake Cave or Boranup

   Pick one depending on energy.
9. 6pm

   Margaret River town

   Dinner. Or push on to Hamelin Bay for sunset if you've still got petrol.

That's a long day. You can cut it down to four stops and still feel like you've done it properly.

I'm going to lose a few friends here, but there are stops on Caves Road I think are overrated. The chain wineries with the bus tours. The novelty galleries that don't make anything on site. Anything that exists because someone thought tourists would buy it, rather than because someone wanted to make it. Caves Road has a few of these. You'll recognise them by the size of the carpark and the smell of the gift shop. Drive past.

The real stops are the ones where the person making the thing is somewhere on the property when you arrive. Gabriel roasts his beans. Pamela curates the gallery. The cellar door staff at Vasse Felix can tell you who picked the fruit. That's the spine of this region. That's why the road is worth driving.

the scenic way from Yallingup to town for the scenic-route version of the middle section, which is the one I do most often.

Autumn is my favourite. Light is low and side-lit, vines are turning, the crowds have thinned. Coffee outside is still comfortable.

Winter is wet, green, fewer cars. Bring a jacket and don't skip the caves; they're the same temperature year-round.

Spring brings wildflowers along the verges. Good for the walking tracks.

Summer is busy. Book everything. Drive early or late and avoid the middle of the day on the road.

Caves Road doesn't have a destination, exactly. It just runs through everything. Come down for a day and only drive the highway version, you've seen the region in fast-forward. Take Caves Road instead and you've seen the region the way locals see it: slowly, with stops, with the occasional sidetrack for fuel.

The road has been here a long time. So has my workshop. To break up the wineries with something quieter, the gallery is on Blythe Rd. We're open Monday to Saturday. Pamela usually has the kettle on.

Drive carefully. Watch for kangaroos at dusk.