Yallingup to Margaret River Town: The Scenic Route With 8 Stops

The highway takes 35 minutes. Caves Road takes an hour and a half if you do it right. Do it right.

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

People come into the gallery, ask how long it takes to get to Margaret River town, and I tell them the truth: thirty-five minutes if you cut down Bussell Highway, ninety minutes if you take Caves Road, half a day if you stop the way you should. The scenic route between Yallingup and Margaret River township is about fifty kilometres. There are eight stops on it that I'd put on any visitor's first-time list, and the country between them is the reason the drive exists.

Google Maps sometimes misdirects via Wildwood Rd. Stay on Bussell Hwy, turn at the Carbunup store, then Blythe Rd. That's how you find me, and how you find the start of Caves Road if you're coming from the north. Once you're on Caves Road, ignore the GPS unless you've been told to leave it. The road is well-signed and the side trips are too.

Fuel up before you leave. There are no service stations between Yallingup and Margaret River township on Caves Road.

Start the drive at Canal Rocks. It's a five-minute detour west off Caves Road from the Yallingup turnoff. Granite headland, ocean punching through the gaps, a small bridge across one of the channels.

I come here for a reset more than for a view. Ten minutes watching the swell push through the rocks, then back in the car. Best in the morning before the tour buses arrive. Free parking, no booking, no fanfare.

The gallery is the second stop on this drive. I'm not going to pretend it isn't. Turn off Caves Road at the Yallingup end, follow Blythe Rd down past the vines, and there's a sign on the right. Pamela runs the front. I'm in the workshop through the viewing window. Walls are jarrah and southwest limestone — the same materials Caves Road is carved through. Half an hour, easy.

If galleries aren't your thing, skip to Stop 3. If they are, this is the workshop you can actually watch someone work in. We're open Monday to Saturday.

Photo: SeanMack, CC BY 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Five minutes south of Yallingup, just off Caves Road, is Ngilgi Cave. This is the easiest of the four show caves on the route: well-lit walkways, a short flight of stairs, around an hour for a tour. Book via the Capes Foundation cave passes site. Planning more than one cave on the day, buy a multi-cave pass; it's cheaper.

The Wadandi story about Ngilgi the good spirit driving out Wolgine: ask the guide. They tell it properly. how I would build a half-day around Ngilgi for the longer take.

Between Ngilgi and Wilyabrup, Caves Road passes through the highest concentration of cellar doors in the region. You can't stop at all of them on a day trip. Picking one, here's how I'd choose:

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

For lunch with food: Vasse Felix. Founded 1967, the original Margaret River winery. Book in advance, especially weekends.

For a quieter cellar door: Clairault Streicker on Henry Rd, or Howard Park on Miamup Rd. Both have long lawns, smaller crowds, and excellent wine.

For a hatted view: Wills Domain at the Yallingup end has a hatted restaurant looking down to the coast.

the cellar doors near Yallingup for the full list.

About halfway between Yallingup and Margaret River town, at the corner of Caves Road and Quininup Road, is Gabriel Chocolate. They roast cocoa beans on site: bean-to-bar, single-origin, the whole thing. Open daily 9.30am to 4.30pm. Order the tasting flight and a coffee. Watch the roasting through the window.

I like Gabriel because it's the same principle as my workshop. Small operation, person on the property, the making of the thing visible from the counter. To understand the region as a place that supports stubborn small-scale making, this is the third stop on that thread after the gallery and the cave.

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

After too long in the car, take the Wilyabrup Cliffs turnoff west off Caves Road. The carpark sits on the Cape to Cape Track. Twenty minutes' walk south along the clifftop and you're on one of the better sections of the whole track: cliffs straight down to the ocean, peppermint trees inland, no buildings anywhere.

You don't need to walk far. Twenty minutes out, twenty back, an hour total with the views.

Caves Road continues south through farmland, then drops into the Boranup karri forest. The trees here are second-growth (the original was logged in the early 1900s) but they're now tall enough that the road feels like a green tunnel. There's a marked Boranup Lookout off Caves Road that gives you a view down through the canopy toward the ocean.

If you have an hour, drive the unsealed Boranup Drive that loops off Caves Road through the forest. The road is fine in a normal car when it's dry. the Boranup karri-forest loop for the proper guide.

You arrive in Margaret River township after about ninety minutes of driving if you've been stopping. The town is small enough to park once and walk.

Things I'd do in town:

• Margaret River Chocolate Company if you didn't get enough at Gabriel.
• Margaret River Farmers Market if it's Saturday, 7.30am to 11.30am at the Education Campus on Bussell Highway. Best produce in the South West. I drive in most Saturdays.
• Lunch or coffee on the main street. Settlers Tavern for casual. Morries for cocktails.
• Surfers Point for a sunset detour if you've still got time.

Here's how the day actually shapes up.

1. 9am

   Canal Rocks

   Quick stop. Coffee from a thermos.
2. 9.30am

   Blythe Rd

   Gallery. Half an hour.
3. 10.15am

   Ngilgi Cave

   Tour booked for 10.30. Allow an hour.
4. 12pm

   Vasse Felix

   Long lunch. Book ahead.
5. 2pm

   Gabriel Chocolate

   Tasting flight.
6. 2.45pm

   Wilyabrup Cliffs

   Walk twenty minutes out and back.
7. 3.45pm

   Boranup Lookout

   Stretch the legs in the karri.
8. 4.30pm

   Margaret River town

   Coffee, walk the main street, head home.

That's eight stops in six hours, give or take. You can cut any of them and the drive still works.

The point of the drive isn't to tick off stops. It's to spend a day in this country at the right speed.

Bussell Highway will get you to Margaret River township in 35 minutes. You won't see any of this. You'll see a road. You'll see paddocks. You'll be there before lunch.

Caves Road is the road this region's reputation was built on. It runs through the caves, the vines, the karri, the cliffs. Take it on the way down and take the highway on the way back if you're tired. Or take Caves Road both ways and see how the light changes.

The big-bus wineries with the gift shops the size of a hangar. The novelty galleries. Anything with a sign that says "world's biggest" or "largest in the South West". Those are not the road's natural stops.

driving Caves Road properly for the full Caves Road treatment, including the bit north of Yallingup and the bit south of Margaret River town.

For a longer trip than a day, a side-by-side of the show caves for picking between the show caves, and my five favourite wineries near here for the cellar doors I actually rate.

Drive carefully. Watch for kangaroos in the karri, especially around dusk. They're hard to see against the trees.