Western Australia
Where waves meet a wine region
Margaret River
Waves, wine and a weekend at Injidup Spa Retreat – this is a Western Australian trifecta. By Akash Arora.
I went to the Margaret River region looking for wine. But much like the sand I found scattered in my suitcase when I returned home, it’s the beaches that proved hard to shake off. Some of them, gentle havens with soft, silky shores. Others guarded by ancient rocks but whipped incessantly by the Indian Ocean.
Perched on a ridge of one such rugged outcrop in Yallingup, a three-hour drive south of Perth, is the Injidup Spa Retreat (injidupsparetreat.com.au) – a collection of 10 adults-only luxury villas, each with 180-degree views of the ocean.
“I have been living on site for three years now and I still love waking up to the sound of crashing waves,” says Injidup’s manager, Sue Dean. “It’s the most euphoric feeling.”
Dean has spent most of her life in Western Australia and, while the state isn’t wanting for spectacular overwater sunsets, the ones you catch at Injidup are something else entirely.
“Not only do you have uninterrupted views here, you get elevation because you’re on a ridge. And sometimes when the sun is setting it seems so large and close, you feel like you could reach out and touch it.”
Lucky, then, that the villas at Injidup boast oversized windows but also come with private decks and heated plunge pools for when the ocean becomes too cold to swim in.
There’s no restaurant or bar but guests receive a breakfast hamper and a bottle of wine at check-in and have the option to book well-known local chef Grieg Olsen, who can dish up sensational three-course meals in the comfort of your villa.
If you want to venture out, some of Margaret River’s best restaurants and vineyards are only a short drive away. For lunch, book a table at Amelia Park
Restaurant (ameliaparkrestaurant.com.au), where you can feast on Blair Alan’s renowned slow-roasted lamb shoulder. Just don’t forget to taste the winery’s fruitforward chardonnays and Bordeaux-style cabernet merlots at the cellar door, with its panoramic views of Wilyabrup Valley – the birthplace of the Margaret River wine movement half a century ago.
For dinner, you can’t go past Yarri Restaurant + Bar (yarri.com.au), which has put the sleepy town of Dunsborough on the Australian restaurant map. Go for the Scandi-chic interiors – pale timber, tungsten lights – and stay for Aaron Carr’s ever-changing menu, which may feature wood-grilled leek with béarnaise one day and mandarin-laced kingfish the other. Perhaps caught off a beach nearby.