In the past whenever I thought about Australia the first thing that popped into my head was the red earth of the outback.

So it came with great surprise to be travelling through rolling green hills and lush vegetation as we journeyed our way into Australia’s South West.

Two hours after leaving Perth on our road trip down south I was starting to get peckish, so stopped off for snacks in Bunbury. Bunbury’s a city that’s really going places and after a whistle stop tour of some great spots on the high street and waterfront, I discovered that you really can have your cake and eat it here.

After washing rum baba out of my beard it was back on the road, another hour south to the luxury resort of Cape Lodge where I’d be staying that evening, to meet up with Sean from Margaret River Discovery Tours. His tours are all about reconnecting with the land and understanding nature. I realised that a slow kayak down the Margaret River is one of the most relaxing, tranquil things you can do, and that the views out into the Indian Ocean from the cliff tops are mesmerising.

That night I was staying at Foragers, a farm based cooking school, 130km away in the town of Pemberton. Run by Sophie and Chris, it’s not only exceptional cookery classes and luxury chalets, every Saturday Sophie hosts seasonal dinners in their 40 seat dining hall, using ingredients fresh from the kitchen garden and produce from the Southern Forests region.

After all this food I needed to do some exercise. The Munda Biddi mountain bike track stretches just over 1000km