Things to Do in Yallingup When It's Raining

Autumn is my favourite time of year. The rain comes, the crowds thin out, and Yallingup goes back to being the place I actually live in. Rain is when you see it properly.

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

People email me before they come down. "John, the forecast is for rain. Should we cancel?" My answer is always the same: no, come anyway. The summer crowds are a different region entirely. The real Yallingup is the one you see in winter and autumn, when the light goes soft and the karri smells like karri and the wineries get quiet enough that the staff actually have time to talk to you. Rain isn't a problem here. It's a filter.

Here's what I'd do.

The most obvious move first. Drive ten minutes from the village and you're at book your Ngilgi Cave tour. The cave is open in any weather. It's actually better in rain. Fewer day-trippers, and the cave itself is sixteen degrees year-round so you're warmer down there than you are up here.

Photo: SeanMack, CC BY 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

The self-guided tour takes about forty-five minutes. There are audio stops, the formations are properly lit, and there's a section near the bottom where they turn the lights off for thirty seconds so you can hear what total silence sounds like. Most people don't expect that. It's the part visitors talk about afterwards.

The Wardandi story of how the cave got its name is part of the tour. Listen for it. The Wardandi people knew about this cave for tens of thousands of years before anyone "discovered" it. The story matters more than the formations, in some ways.

the half-day around Ngilgi Cave

the cave-by-cave comparison

Come in. Watch the work. Rain is when I'm most productive — the gallery's quieter, fewer people drifting through, and I get a long stretch in the workshop with the door closed and the dust extractor running. There's a viewing window between the gallery and the workshop. Stand there for ten minutes and you'll see how furniture actually gets made — which is to say, slowly, with a lot of sanding. Pamela will probably make you a tea. Blythe Rd — Google Maps sometimes misdirects via Wildwood Rd, so stay on Bussell Hwy, turn at the Carbunup store, then Blythe Rd.

I built the gallery in 1988: solid jarrah walls, southwest limestone, hand-laid. In rain the limestone darkens and the timber warms up and the building looks the best it ever looks. Honestly. A sunny day washes the colour out of the walls. Rain brings it forward.

You can stay as long as you want. Nobody's going to push you out. The wood stove gets lit on the cold days.

For lunch on a rainy day, this is the move.

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

Vasse Felix restaurant, open for lunch does a long lunch better than anywhere else in the region. In winter they light the fires. The dining room looks out over the vines and the light through the rain on the glass is something I've always thought a painter could do something with.

Book a table. Order a tasting. Stay for two hours, three if you're not driving. The wait staff don't push you out and there's nowhere better to be when it's grey outside. The food is straightforward and good: local produce, sensible cooking, no fuss. Best chenin in the region. Their cabernet on a winter day is the right answer to most questions.

With kids who need to burn an hour, the Yallingup Maze is the call (check current hours on the Yallingup Maze site). It's a hedge maze and a mini-golf course on Wildwood Road. Yes, that Wildwood Road, but for the maze itself you actually do want it.

It's outdoor, which sounds like the wrong recommendation on a rainy day, but in light rain it's fine and the kids don't care. There's coffee and there are puzzles inside. Heavy rain, skip it. In drizzle the kids will love it more for the puddles.

Drive twenty minutes south to Margaret River town and you have an afternoon's worth of options without going outside much.

The bookshop on the main street. Margaret River Brewhouse for an early beer and a wood-fired pizza. The dairy down the road for a tasting (the camembert is excellent in winter). The cheese factory. The new chocolate shop in the centre of town that I will admit I do go to occasionally. Several galleries.

With two hours to spare, walk down to the riverside park even in light rain. The river runs higher in winter and the karri trees along it are something to see. Bring an umbrella.

Photo: Calistemon, CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

North rather than south? Dunsborough's town centre is fifteen minutes the other direction and has the same kind of options: galleries, cafes, a couple of decent bookshops. Bay Organics on the corner does a coffee that gets me out of the workshop on cold mornings.

what to do when it is raining

I'm going to tell you what I actually do, on a rainy Saturday when I'm not working.

I drive eight minutes to Smiths Beach. I park. I get out. I walk.

Photo: David Stanley, CC BY 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

There's no one there. In summer the beach has a couple of hundred people on it. In rain it has me. The sand is firm, the spray off the surf is mixed with the rain, and you can walk for forty minutes without seeing another person. I come back wet, change my clothes, sit by the fire with a coffee, and feel like the day belonged to me in a way that nothing else can give you.

This is the part of Yallingup I don't really write about because I want to keep it. But the truth is most people would never think to do it. So I'll tell you: it's the best thing you can do here in the rain, and doing it shows you why I've stayed since 1982.

winter in Margaret River

Yallingup in the rain is not Yallingup with the weather wrong. It's a different Yallingup. The colours are richer, the light is softer, the smells of the bush and the sea get more intense, and the locals are easier to find because we're all out doing the same things we'd do anyway.

Don't cancel. Come down. Wear a jumper.

Then go home and tell your friends it rained the whole time and the place was awful. We'd appreciate that.