Original subtitles

Discovering Australia.

Hays Travel is proud to sponsor Gary Barlow's Food And Wine Tour.

'I'm Gary Barlow from Take That...'

There's a big audience out there, and we're ready.

'..and we're on a huge world tour.'

CHEERING

Good evening, everybody!

'..and for our final leg, we're down under.'

# Today, this could be

# The greatest day of our lives... #

Look at that! We have arrived!

'But this isn't just a show business trip.

'This tour is about so much more...'

This is the best surprise ever.

'..because I'm here for the scenery...'

Wow!

'..the company...'

We're off. Whoo! Whoo!

That might literally be the best oyster I've ever tasted.

It is. It's delicious.

Look at this! Watch my hat.

'..and the occasional winery.'

So excited to try some wine!

CORK POPS Whoa!

'But most of all, I'm here for the journey.'

Oh, what, what? Oh, there he is. There he is!

There's one! There's one. There he is!

I'm stuck in one position.

'So, come on, let's travel together...

'..and soak up as much as we can...'

If Willy Wonka was making a salad, this would be it.

'..of this massive...

'..and endlessly surprising country...'

Come on, Dad, come on! Uh-oh, uh-oh!

Argh!

'..on my food and wine tour...'

Wow!

'..of Australia.'

This is it. Good as it gets.

# Your time is coming Don't be late... #

'Our Take That down under tour has seen us head north, south and east.

'But now we've gone west,

'as far west as you can in Australia, pretty much,

'to the city of Perth.

'Perth is almost as close to Singapore as it is to Sydney,

'and it's the capital of Western Australia,

'the largest state in the country.

'With an area of more than one million square miles,

'Western Australia is about ten times the size of the UK.

'But there's plenty of space for nature

'cos the population is just 2.8 million people,

'with around 80% living in Perth.

'It feels like most of them are here tonight.'

Good evening, Perth!

# See the light on your face

# Let it shine, just let it shine

# Shine. #

Perth is one of the sunniest cities on Earth,

averaging nearly nine hours of sunshine a day,

so plenty of sunscreen is a must.

The Swan River winds right through the middle of it,

and the vast Indian Ocean stretches out in front of it,

with some of Australia's best beaches

just a boomerang throw away.

And just a little further away -

a short three-hour hop down the coast -

is a place called Margaret River,

and this is where I'm beginning my adventure in Australia's Wild West.

Jesters Flat is a place where people come

for a good old-fashioned adventure ride...

..through an even more old-fashioned landscape.

WESTERN-STYLE DRAMATIC STING

HORSE WHINNIES

My expert guide today is Emma Gibbons,

the head horse rider here,

and my horse is Cassie.

Now, just to confirm, no relation to Red Rum?

SHE LAUGHS You're gonna be all good.

Yeah. That laugh was a little long then, Emma. I'm ready.

Left foot in, over the top. Left foot in, over the top.

Like a pro. Oh, my goodness.

Well done. Grab one side in each hand... Mm-hm.

..and then you're gonna carry those hands a little forward.

OK, like this. And then pop those heels down.

Pop heels down. Lower than toes. Looks good.

Sit up straight. Shoulders back and down.

It's like going on stage, this. "Shoulders back!"

It's not my first rodeo...

I can tell. ..but it's only my second.

Pff!

And what do you do about the flies?

Um, ignore them. Ignore them, OK.

Ignore them, and then they're not even there. OK.

'This place is home to 60 Australian Stock Horses,

'a breed that's tough, intelligent

'and perfectly suited for long rides through the bush.'

Oh, my goodness.

'And Cassie is one of the easiest to ride, apparently.'

All right, follow me. Yeah.

And we're off. And we're off.

'But just to make sure I don't get carried away here

'and disappear off into the outback,

'owner Paul Brennan is joining us for the ride.'

There you go, Cass. There you go.

She was the perfect choice cos she follows so beautifully.

Yeah. She's a good size for you too, Gary. Like...

It looks proportionally good.

It feels right. Yeah. Yeah, it feels like a good fit.

'Emma tailors each ride here

'to match the ability of horse and human,

'which is reassuring

'when you haven't really got a clue where you are,

'let alone what you're doing.'

So, guys, where are we?

We're in Rosebrook and the beautiful old bush

that's been here for a very, very long time,

and we're only about 10-15 minutes from Margaret River.

I've always dreamed of coming to Margaret River,

and this wasn't how I imagined my entrance would be.

No, it's a pretty spectacular entrance.

'I'm not exactly in my comfort zone here.'

Ooh! Oh...

God!

'..but this is such a nice way to experience this ancient environment.

'If I can age as well as this place, I'll be very happy.'

So, these are my favourite trees here,

these ones that look like people with different haircuts. Yeah.

So, they're called Kingias, and they're really old.

They grow a very, very small amount each year.

So some of those trees will be 200, 300 years old.

It feels like we're looking at so many different species as well.

It's a biodiversity hotspot.

I think there's 35 in the world,

and the south-west of Australia is actually one of the 35,

and it's the only one in Australia.

She's just ruining the shot with a poo. Yep.

EMMA LAUGHS

'The trees and bush here are just packed with life.'

BIRD CALLS

Hear those birds there, Gary? Hear that squawky noise?

They're the red-tailed black cockatoo.

Oh, yeah, there they go. Whoa!

Can I see kangaroos in the distance over there?

You do. And then these are gum nuts.

Where are you going?

Oh, my goodness. We're a bit off-piste here.

A little bit of bush-bashing, the Australian way.

Yeah, OK. Watch that tree, you.

Hey, hey. Come on.

It's pretty special, isn't it? Oh, my goodness!

Just remember, I've come all the way from little old England,

and here I am, Margaret River,

riding some of the most incredible scenery.

We don't think of scenes like this, I don't think,

when we think of Australia.

You don't think of beauty like this.

And I have to say, as an English person,

I actually think here is the perfect climate.

Yes.

We still get the seasons,

so you get that feeling of seasonal weather,

and you really come to the summers and you love the summers,

but they're not too long, and they're not too hot. Got it.

And the winters are not too cold.

'The combination of a perfect maritime climate -

'long, warm days and cool ocean breezes -

'along with some of the oldest soils on Earth,

'makes Margaret River not just great for horse riding,

'but for winemaking too.

'It's a relatively small wine-growing region

'and yet produces 20% of Australia's premium wines.'

Hey, hey! Where you going? Where you going?

Bloody hellfires!

'And it's the combination of my cool demeanour

'and laidback horse riding style

'that has me and Cassie working together in such perfect harmony.'

She's really picked up on your demeanour. Yeah.

You're a good girl.

And, hey, she's looking after you, isn't she? Oh, listen...

100%. I am literally doing nothing. EMMA LAUGHS

'But there's only so much nothing a man can do.'

I tell you what, all this riding, though, I'm getting thirsty.

'It's been a long ride, but it's time for my reward.

'Because Jesters Flat isn't just about horses.

'It's also home to Paul's little Sauvignon blanc vineyard.'

Come on in, Gary. Come on.

Come on. Here we go. Here we go.

Oh, this is beautiful.

I know, they're looking nice and lush for you today.

Such a good girl. Well done. Good girl.

'My horse has been brilliant.

'She's made me look not totally incompetent.'

She's a good girl.

That looks like a long way down.

And then, woo-hoo! Oh! Like a pro!

There you go.

HE GASPS Wow!

I loved that. Loved it. SHE LAUGHS

What an adventure. Really is.

'She's also given me inspiration

'for some impressive new dance moves.'

You look like you've been kicked somewhere!

I'm just trying to reshape my legs.

HE GROANS

I'm stuck in one position.

I'm gonna spend the day like this now.

HE GROANS

Oh! Oh, the blood's coming back now.

Feels nice. LAUGHTER

'The horse can relax now too

'and have a little cheeky refreshment,

'and so can we.'

So, what have I earned?

Well... What do I deserve?

Because you did that so well... There you go. That's what I wanted.

..we've got a beautiful Sauvignon blanc

that we grow right here, and these ones go straight in here.

How many rows have you got here? Only 11.

We've got a tiny little vineyard. Yeah. It's just tiny.

But that's plenty big enough for me,

that we make this lovely Sauvignon blanc.

You should get tastes of, say, gooseberry and grapefruit in it.

Citrussy. Citrussy.

Sea salt. Yeah, yeah.

'I don't know about you, but there's nothing I like more

'after my morning ride through an ancient woodland

'than a chilled glass of crisp white wine.'

It'd be five o'clock somewhere, wouldn't it?

LAUGHTER It definitely is.

It definitely is. Oh, delicious.

Not too bad, is it? It really is.

That must be nice, as well,

because we're stood here next to the grapes.

There's these little bunches right here. Fantastic.

See these ones here?

They're actually flowering right now. Mm-hm.

And these will get picked

in the last week of February or the first week of March.

Go straight off to the winemaker.

And then, by about the end of the financial year,

we've got it back in bottles.

We give it a month to recover from being bottled, then drink it.

We do make our way through it, don't we?

We do, yeah.

And our horses are enjoying eating them as well, I've noticed.

It's a bit naughty. Yeah.

'Paul makes about 3,000 bottles a year here.

'But it might be closer to 2,000

'if Cassie and her friends don't cut down a bit.'

Well, guys, I've been looking forward to

coming to Margaret River for years,

and this is just how I imagined it would be.

Absolutely beautiful environment, gorgeous wine and lovely people.

Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.

Nice to meet you both. Thank you, Gary.

You too.

'It's a been a great start to my Western Australia adventure,

'but it could all go horribly wrong next

'as I try to make sense

'of wines grown according to the phases of the moon

'and the alignments of the planets...'

I'm an Aquarian, and I don't like working on a Friday.

Here's to Aquarians and flower days.

No work tomorrow, everyone.

'..before John Bishop brings me back down to Earth

'with some mirth in Perth.'

LAUGHTER

Discovering Australia.

Hays Travel is proud to sponsor Gary Barlow's Food And Wine Tour.

Discovering Australia.

Hays Travel is proud to sponsor Gary Barlow's Food And Wine Tour.

GARY BARLOW: My down under world tour

has brought me to the biggest state of them all -

Western Australia.

And now that I've finally made it here

after crossing half the continent, I've decided to make the most of it.

It's my first ever visit

to the wine-growing region of Margaret River.

And I'm going to do what any sensible person would do -

cram in as much wine-tasting as possible

before I head back up the coast to Perth.

So my next stop is Wadandi Country,

where, for tens of thousands of years,

humans have understood that when it comes to nature,

you don't control it, you work with it.

That's the approach they take here at Cullen Wines,

a place where, I'm told, every decision is guided by nature.

But something tells me the person who actually

makes every decision here is this lady,

biodynamic winemaker Vanya Cullen.

Hello, Vanya. Hello, Gary. How are you doing?

Very well. Welcome to Wadandi Country and to Cullen's, yeah.

Amazing place, really is.

Now, tell me, how much do you know about biodynamics?

Do you know what? Very little, actually.

Is it anything to do with, like, org...

the way organic farms work?

Yeah, it is like organics, but it's more than organics,

in that we use planets and plants to farm.

And by that, we have the, er, fire signs

and the fire days and the fruit days.

We have air signs and the flower days.

We have the earth days.

So, when we're farming with biodynamics,

we use those days to perform our events, if you like.

So, we harvest on fruit and flower days.

We're bottling today.

A little bit of a chink in the background, that's a fruit day.

So, we bring that energy of the planets

and that life and that vitality into our wine.

Now, I'm all for anything that makes a wine taste great.

But I have to admit, the idea of fire signs and air signs,

harvesting on one type of day and bottling on another,

all sounds a bit mystifying to me.

Take this cow horn pit, for instance.

During the winter, following the phases of the moon,

they bury cow horns here, pack them with manure.

Months later, they dig them up

and spread small amounts of the fertiliser they've produced

across the vineyard.

It sounds fantastical,

but Vanya assures me it really does make a difference,

and that the proof will be in the tasting.

We have two wines here.

One's harvested on a fruit day,

and one is harvested on a flower day,

and we'll see if we can pick the differences.

Well, I'm an Aquarian, and I don't like working on a Friday.

Does that make sense?

It makes absolute sense. Cheers. Cheers to that.

Love it! Here's to Aquarians and flower days.

OK, OK. No work tomorrow, everyone, just so you know.

No work today. CHEERING

So, this is a flower day Chardonnay.

We harvested it on a flower day,

and if you smell that, you smell it...

you smell white flowers. Mmm.

I mean, the wine is absolutely delicious.

That is nice, isn't it? It really is.

Mm. So, tell me why. Why harvest on a flower day?

Well, we started harvesting on flower and fruit days,

and we noticed there were differences.

So, with our Chardonnay, we find it has more structure,

more minerality and more floral components.

So, we like that in our Chardonnay.

'Mm. Now, we need to keep track here.

'I've tried the flower day Chardonnay,

'and I can vouch for the fact that it does taste floral.

'So, next up, we have a fruit day Chardonnay.

'Same grape, same soils, made exactly the same way

'but harvested on a different day.'

Cheers. Cheers.

This is the fruit day.

Completely different, huh? I mean...

a lot sort of more limey now. Yeah.

Both of these are completely unique wines

that you'll never, ever taste again because the planets will never

be in completely the same alignment in our lifetime.

Oh, I see. So it's different every year?

Isn't that beautiful?

It really is. Yeah.

It's also a very lovely conversation as well.

Because wine should always incite conversation.

You know, that's the wonderful thing about wine,

is its stories of people and the land.

Margaret River itself is a big part of that story too.

We're just three miles from the Indian Ocean,

and the next piece of land is 3,800 miles away.

So there's just pure ocean air

travelling nearly 4,000 miles across open water.

And that sea breeze carries a salty, briny freshness

that gives these wines their unique coastal character.

So it feels like everything is going into these wines.

Flowers, planets, the moon, the ocean air,

and even the flavours from, believe it or not,

barrels made of wood that was harvested on a flower day.

So, every aspect of the barrel-making,

from the harvesting of the trees to the cutting of the wood,

to the putting together, to the firing,

is done on a flower day. GARY GASPS

And we like flower days in our wine, so...

Yes. Interesting. ..they have this.

Cheers. Cheers.

Nice cherries. Mmm! Nice.

Do you get any resistance from people going,

"Ugh. Do we have to do this?"

We used to. "Why the cow horn?"

Yeah. "Why the planets?"

Um, but I think when you explain that connection,

I think everyone's looking for connection in their lives,

and beauty, and the natural world.

Mm-hm.

People go, "Wow!" You know? Interesting.

And you feel it. You can feel it in the wines. Yeah.

There's nothing in these wines at all, no additions.

I was sceptical when I arrived here today,

but hearing you talk about it, and now tasting the proof... Mm.

Oh, it's delicious, isn't it?

So, these vines are 52 years old. Wow.

So they're old vines, planted by my mother and father.

And I love that sense of, too,

that you get this connection from earth to sky.

And the Wadandi Country gets opened up too,

and all those beautiful stories of nature

from the indigenous people come into these wines as well.

We're drinking 65,000 years of sustainable land care.

Now, isn't that mind-blowing? Mm, it is.

And when you think about that and take a sip,

you're literally drinking nature... Yeah.

..and history, all in a glass. Yeah.

Mm. How... How lucky are we?

LAUGHING: Absolutely! Very blessed. Cheers to that.

Cheers, Gary. Oh, wow.

'My head is swimming a bit.

'A lot of information...

'and possibly a little too much wine.'

Mmm!

So it's time for some fresh air,

and it doesn't really come much fresher

than the sea air here on Australia's western coast.

And, as luck would have it, it's lunchtime.

Behind every great vineyard is a great kitchen.

So I'm standing to attention.

HE MOUTHS

And the man making sure everything on the plate

is as in tune with the land as the wine in my glass

is chef Ben Day,

who's preparing nettle pasta and braised courgettes,

or, as they say in these parts, zucchinis.

First step is, we're going to just add some olive oil into our pan.

We're gonna slowly warm up these braised zucchinis.

So, these are being cooked down in onions and garlic.

SIZZLING

It's got a huge amount of zucchinis.

They contain a lot of moisture,

so we need to cook that moisture away as well.

So we braise it down with white wine

and white wine vinegar as well.

'Next up, some boiled garlic sauce.'

Again, to give that beautiful garlic flavour without being too punchy.

And then just some beautiful double cream from a local dairy,

Bannister Downs.

So, next, we add some smoked tomatoes.

Gives the pasta, again, more acidity...

and some beautiful colour and a little bit of smokiness as well.

Ben's philosophy here mirrors Vanya's approach to winemaking -

it's all about working in harmony with nature

to get the best possible flavours.

These were all picked this morning from our garden.

'Ben adds the courgettes to the sauce,

'and while that simmers, it's time

'for the hand-rolled nettle cavatelli.'

This is a cavatelli roller. It's got a few different groove shapes on it.

So, as you can see, there's just a really dominant stripy shape,

and obviously that shape is

to help the pasta sauce stick to the pasta as well.

'The pasta gets its green colour

'from an ingredient many of us don't normally want in our gardens -

'stinging nettles.'

It gives a very herbaceous, spinachy sort of flavour as well,

but it's mainly for the colour,

getting this beautiful colour into the dough.

'With all the little cavatellis nicely shaped and cut,

'it's time for a quick blanch in boiling water.

'Then it's into the sauce.'

And all we basically need to do now

is bring it up to the boil and add our seasonings.

So, we've got some finely grated pecorino cheese.

And then some freshly milled pepper as well.

'Now Ben can plate up,

'starting with some smoked tomato sauce.'

So, tomato sauce down, and there's no easy way to do this.

It's just got to go in.

'And the final touch, some biodynamic vegetables,

'local goat's curd...'

Nice and acidic, just to cut through all that richness.

'..and a little basil oil

'and some beautiful fresh flowers from the garden.'

And there we go, there's our finished dish,

hand-rolled cavatelli.

Hope Gary likes it.

Oh, my goodness. This looks absolutely gorgeous.

Taking a bit of pasta first.

Fresh!

Everything tastes like it's been picked straight out of the soil

and onto the plate.

It's so detailed and balanced. It's really beautiful.

'And all those biodynamic flavours are pairing very nicely

'with my full moon fruit day wine.'

It really works.

This is complex and so is that,

and together, they kind of work quite brilliantly.

I mean, Vanya's whole belief is letting nature do its thing

and not interfering too much, and it's definitely in the glass,

and I have to say, it's also on the plate.

It's so fresh, so delicious.

Yeah, I'm happy here.

Can you leave me here?

If anyone needs me, I'll be here. Table one, Margaret River.

And it's a fruit day.

I made that bit up, that last bit.

It's not a fruit day. I don't think it is, anyway.

Is it a fruit day? Not a fruit day.

'I really must stop doing that.

'But that's me, typical Aquarian,

'and although I would love to stay here,

'I've got to go and meet my special guest,

'a comedian and Sagittarian who's just a short hop up the coast.'

It's a 170-mile journey from Margaret River to Perth,

and if you're lucky, you might spot a whale or two

or a pod of dolphins in the ocean along the way.

But if you're really lucky, you'll spot a wise-cracking Scouser

on the latest leg on his epic Aussie tour.

LAUGHING: John!

THEY LAUGH How are you, big dog?

I come bearing gifts as well.

You all right, mate? I'm very good, how are you?

Great to see you. You're loving it here?

Something for after the show, not before it.

Oh, a bag! You've given me a new bag.

Take it, take it. Mate, this is lovely. What is it?

Yeah. Little, little something for you to try, taste the area.

Have you selected this? I have.

I've tasted it. Have you?

Yeah, yeah, had it today. So I've only got half a bottle left?

No, full bottle. Oh, nice. Can I just...

When's this going on the telly?

Cos that's gonna be my wife's going home present.

Yeah! THEY LAUGH

"Look what I've got for you, love! I went all the way to Margaret River.

"It's biodiverse!

"You can wash your hair with it and everything. Look, it's great!"

John Bishop has toured all over the world,

and there's nothing quite like a big night of comedy in Australia.

A lovely way to round off what's been a very busy day.

I was putting weight on.

All the men in here over 50 know that's what happens,

and it's not your fault, lads.

It's cos your metabolism slows down

just at that time in life when red wine starts tasting like Ribena.

LAUGHTER

It's great that our tours have coincided,

and even better to squeeze in some down under downtime together too.

So, next up, a laid-back morning in Fremantle Market

before John and I head over to Rottnest Island

to meet Australia's happiest locals...

Ooh, here he comes. Ooh, look, there he goes.

..the quokkas.

Discovering Australia.

Hays Travel is proud to sponsor Gary Barlow's Food And Wine Tour.

Discovering Australia.

Hays Travel is proud to sponsor Gary Barlow's Food And Wine Tour.

GARY BARLOW: I'm in Western Australia.

A place that's wildly authentic,

where waves abound and everything is wonderfully Australian.

No wonder the locals call it WA.

Its capital city is Perth.

It's got a river running through it, an ocean on its doorstep,

and for the next few days, John Bishop doing stand-up.

And today, we're on tour together, starting off at Fremantle Market,

just a short drive south from Perth's city centre.

MUSIC PLAYING

Oh, the market, this is... music as well.

# Shocked my system

# Infatuated by the way You light up a room

# Ooh, you make me feel it again

# I can't feel With you, I don't need to... #

I'm gonna tip him. You gonna tip him?

Yeah. You got cash?

# Feel it again, feel it again

# Feel it again

# I'm walking up to you The way you... #

Great, that.

It's a lively spot... dating back to the 1800s.

A place where you can buy local produce, artisan knick-knacks

and some of the best coffee in town.

Now, tell me about Australia.

I first came here in 1992,

and I rode a bicycle from Sydney up to Cairns.

You know how ignorant I was?

On the first day, I took my shirt off and bent over like that.

The sun rays were bouncing off my back, my white back.

There was car drivers going, "What's that?!"

So, er, that was the first lesson I learnt here.

You don't mess with the sun here. Don't mess with the sun.

'It's great to hear about the lessons learnt

'from a fellow Brit's Aussie adventures,

'and good to compare notes on our touring experiences too.'

'17 was our first time here in Perth,

but we played here in the '90s but always loved Australia. Yeah.

What I've always found on tour is that nothing else matters

apart from eight o'clock.

Two hours every night, yeah.

Everything that you do in the day doesn't matter... Yeah.

..cos you're skipping through.

But that's part of it. That's what I said last night.

Being a comedian's like being a cowboy.

You ride in, you shoot the town up, you ride out. Yeah, yeah.

Well, listen, we'll try and mend a bit of that.

A few surprises for you this afternoon,

and then we'll put you on your way,

and you can go and do your show tonight.

I'll take that. All right. Beautiful.

So, Gary Barlow, Gary Barlow, the new travel agent.

GARY LAUGHS

Gary Barlow's Tours.

And I'll sort it. I can't wait to see Barlow's Tours

on the side of a bus in the Lake District.

Come on, get on.

It's certainly got a ring to it, doesn't it?

Gary Barlow's Tours.

Let's see how I get on today as John Bishop's guide, though,

before I get too carried away.

Oh, see, here's my store.

Flip-flops. JOHN LAUGHS

Big fan of the flip-flops. Also, different colours!

They don't do - what do they call them?

They don't call them flip-flops here.

Thongs. Thongs, yeah.

Thongs. Yeah, yeah.

"Yeah, I've got to get some new thongs for my feet."

Oh, yeah. All right, there you go.

Fella, all right? There he is. There's the thongs.

'Confusing thongs with flip-flops

'could lead to some seriously embarrassing misunderstandings.

'So, to be on the safe side,

'we'll stick to our trainers for the next stop.

'Rottnest Island, home to crystal-clear waters,

'stunning beaches and the world's smiliest marsupials.'

It's a half-hour ferry ride from Fremantle to Rottnest,

and when you arrive, you can see why the locals love the initials WA.

It's wonderfully airy here,

and well adapted for quokkas.

And a great place to be a ranger too, like Kaija Antipas,

who's going to introduce us to the island's happy hoppers.

Have you heard about the quokkas?

Do you know what?

I was told not to come to Western Australia

and miss the quokkas on Rottnest Island.

Well, I'd have to agree with you there.

What about you, John? Well, I'm the same.

Everyone said, when you're here, you've got to meet the quokkas,

which sounds like a really good film that Ben Stiller was in.

But everyone said there's something unique about being here.

'And there is, because if you really wanna meet the quokkas,

'there's no better place on the planet.'

So, quokkas are a native mammal on Rottnest Island.

They're actually all over WA,

but this is the only viable population left in WA,

so it's pretty unique.

And is it true that they're, like, the happiest animals on Earth?

I imagine they are happy

cos they live on Rottnest, they have no natural predators,

and their whole environment and ecosystem is protected.

So, has this idea that they're the happiest animals

come about from everyone taking selfies with them?

I think so.

That's where it's blown up worldwide.

But I think that's come from the fact

that they don't have predators here, so they're very inquisitive,

and they're not afraid of humans at all. They'll...

You can walk up to one,

and they're not gonna run or be aggressive at all.

They're quite chilled, really, on the island.

And what do these quokkas eat?

They live solely on all the native vegetation here.

So... leaves and trees.

Um, and they actually don't need any water either,

which shocks a lot of people.

Really? They get all their hydration from the leaves and the vegetation.

It doesn't really rain very much here,

so that's, you know, how they've adapted to be the only animal here.

'Look at us two, asking sensible questions!

'It feels like me and John

'are co-hosting a serious wildlife show here,

'except for the fact that John keeps calling 'em quaffers.'

How long does a quo... quok... quaff...

cocker? Quokka.

How long does a quaffer live for?

Quokka! Quokka! I got "quaff".

So, what's the lifespan of a quokka, then?

Uh, about 10-15 years. So not too long.

So, we know the lifespan, we know they're called quokkas.

The next question is, where are they?

Usually, we see them sort of... I can see one.

..under bushes, in the shade. It's in there.

Oh, yeah, there's one. Oh, yeah. Oh, look at his eye!

Is it sleeping? Oh, no, it's awake. No, he's awake.

'They're nocturnal creatures, so the daytime is their naptime.'

So, that's where they'd normally sleep, under the tree?

Yeah, they curl up in a little ball

and stick their head on the ground and just fall asleep.

That's exactly what I do.

LAUGHTER

Oh, they're cute, aren't they? Yeah.

Yeah, they've got beautiful little faces.

There he goes. Oh, yeah, that one's moving around.

Oh, they've got big tails. And they're eating the samphire.

Yeah, so, this little plant you can see here... Yeah.

That's, like, a saltbush, we call it, or a samphire,

and yeah, it's very salty.

We eat that in the UK.

Yeah. Yeah, you can eat it, but here,

because of the salt lakes, it's SO salty.

Oh! Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it's not very nice.

'Quokkas are related to the kangaroo.

'They have pouches and long tails.

'And so, naturally, John's trying to engage one in conversation.'

Hello, missus!

'Although the next bit will be a bit lost on anyone under 50.'

What's that?

There's been a car crash? GARY LAUGHS

There's a car rolled over? Two hours away?

Quaffer, well done. We'll sort that out. Thanks.

'Having gone from serious wildlife reporting

'to a second-rate episode of Skippy...'

Here he comes! Oh, oh, oh, look!

There he goes, there he goes, there he goes!

'..it's time to get a quokka selfie.'

Hello, mate! Shall we back in?

I think if you sort of crouch down now and stick your heads in,

you should get it.

Get in, Gary, lean in. Hey!

Meet the quaffer. Quokka.

GARY LAUGHS

Oh, they're beautiful, aren't they? You've put it back to sleep.

I know, thanks. That's what happens to my gigs, to be honest with you.

I tell you what, the wind's making my hair look like 1983.

Yeah. LAUGHTER

Oh, and they've gone. Oh! Finished.

But that was a good selfie. That was great!

You know, we get people, and they get right up in their face,

and it, you know, I don't think they really like it,

so that was a perfect selfie. That's good.

Done the right thing. Got the ranger's tick of approval.

'And there it is, a quokka and two quaffers.

'It's been an education,

'and I'm sure it's provided more material for John's gig tonight.'

Good luck with the shows.

Yeah. Thanks, pal. Good luck with the shows.

'Although he'll get the name wrong, of course.'

So, next up, while John Bishop heads back to Perth...

..I head out to sea for some lunch.

Got it? Yeah, got it. It's a monster!

Wow! Look at that.

Oh, my goodness. Great job!

Discovering Australia.

Hays Travel is proud to sponsor Gary Barlow's Food and Wine Tour.

Discovering Australia.

Hays Travel is proud to sponsor Gary Barlow's Food And Wine Tour.

GARY BARLOW: On the last leg of my Western Australia adventure,

I've come to a sun-drenched island.

Rottnest.

It got its name when a Dutch explorer landed here in 1696

and thought the island was inhabited by giant rats

and named it Rottennest,

but the animals he saw were quokkas,

so it should really be called Quokkaville.

But there's lots more to this place

than taking adorable selfies with cute marsupials.

The ocean around here is teeming with life.

And I've built up quite an appetite, so I'm off to catch my lunch,

one of Western Australia's great seafood delicacies.

Good afternoon! Welcome aboard.

Are you excited? I'm very excited.

Very excited? Yes.

'My seafaring guide is Takiya Rapana,

'or "T" to her seafaring friends.'

Come on up. SHE LAUGHS

Oh, T, this is the life... Beautiful views, beautiful views.

..I've become accustomed to in Australia!

If I go missing, you'll find me here, everyone, yeah.

Welcome home, welcome home. Yes, exactly.

'I have to say, this is one of the nicest fishing boats

'I've ever been on.

'And we're sailing into prime fishing waters.

'The island sits on Rottnest Shelf,

'where the shallow coastal currents

'meet the deep offshore waters of the Indian Ocean,

'creating a bounty of marine life of every shape and size.'

We've got 40,000 whales that migrate from the north

back down south, humpback whales. Today?

Yeah, I think we've just missed them at the start of the season.

Really?

We'd spot 50 whales breaching, mum and calves, it was unreal.

Amazing. We've got bronze whaler sharks that follow our boat,

bottlenose dolphins, all sorts of things.

'But the animal we're fishing for today is the Western rock lobster,

'which, confusingly for us Brits,

'are also known as crayfish, or crays, around these parts.'

We have lobsters back home,

but what's so special about these lobsters here,

and are they sustainable?

Our Western rock lobster was the first fishing industry

that has been approved by the MSC to be sustainable.

A part of our licence that we hold on board

is a Fishing Tourism Operator's Licence,

so we're allowed 80 crays on board, 12 pots in the water,

and we're not allowed to sell them. OK. So...

It's restricted? Very restricted. Yes.

How far down? You might have to go for a swim

if we do pull up an empty one.

Yeah, I... Come on, now.

I haven't brought my budgie smugglers!

You'll be perfect. Get my agent, I'll get 'em on board.

I love it. You'll be fine.

Let's do this. All right, let's put you to work.

Brilliant. Awesome!

The "work" bit not so much. "The work bit"!

'Cray pots are the tool of choice for lobster-catching.

'They're sturdy wooden boxes with a funnel-shaped opening

'that the lobster climbs through to get to the bait that's left inside.

'And once they're in, they're not getting out.

'And all T and her crew need to do

'is return to the spot and haul in the pots.'

I believe in you, you got this. OK. You've got this.

Good luck, team! Let's go!

Everyone's hungry.

So tangled.

We need to deliver. No pressure, no pressure at all.

No pressure at all. No pressure at all.

No pressure at all. We've got this.

'So, it's T's job to hook the rope that's attached to the pot.'

All righty. T, you've done this before.

'And it's GB's job to haul them in.'

Here we go. All right.

Am I in? You ready?

Am I in? Got this? Ready to go? Let's go, let's go!

Awesome!

Oh! Light work.

Keep going, keep it going. Is it heavy?

It is. Yeah? How many are you feeling?

I'm gonna say seven. Seven? Yeah.

Nice number! Lucky seven.

Let's go, let's go!

To the top. We want the pot in the horns, all right? Ooh!

OK. Let's go, all the way.

Keep going, keep going! Ah!

Yes!

Look at that! Look at that, yes!

Beautiful job! Full pot!

Wow!

'That's the easy part done.

'The next bit is to pick up these clicking-clawed crustaceans.'

That's a big boy there.

You need to be careful of the tails, right?

Behind the carapace for me, all right? Nice and tight.

Yep, OK. Got him?

Oh, God! Good job. Got him?

Yep, got him. It's a monster! Wow!

Look at that! Great job! Oh, my goodness.

Oh, wow! There we go.

Do you know what, aren't they beautiful? Look at the colours.

Got some monsters. Insane.

'Easy for you to say.

'It's a good catch, but when you fish in a marine conservation area,

'there are strict rules about which lobsters you can keep

'and which ones you must return to the sea.

'Rule number one is the size.'

So, this is our gauge that we use to measure them.

76mm long. OK.

If you look in between his horns here, where his shell starts,

that's where you wanna put the first edge of the gauge. OK?

It takes our lobsters seven years to grow this size for us to keep.

Yeah. Nailed it. Yeah.

Absolutely nailed it. So, we've ticked that box.

'The next box to tick is the gender.'

So, if it's a male, absolutely fine to keep.

If it's a female, absolutely fine to keep as well,

as long as she doesn't have a tar spot or eggs.

OK. Just take a wild guess.

Male or female? I'm gonna say male.

Male? Correct. Yeah.

See these two things here? Yep.

That's his two penises. Ooh! Oh, you all right?

They're quite strong, aren't they? God, they are strong.

Can you take it? Yeah, absolutely.

I wasn't expecting that!

You're OK. Wow.

We'll chuck him back in the pot, all right?

'Now, my lobster seems to have reacted badly

'to the mentioning of his two penises.

'So, now that he's safely back in his box,

'I'll let T explain more.'

There's three different types of ways

that you can tell a male from a female.

We've got a male here.

So, these two here, that's his two penises, all right?

Two? Two. King of the ocean, hey?

That's one way.

Second way is he's only got one set of swimmerets.

Females have two.

And females also have different back legs

compared to the males. OK.

'So, the big male lobsters T and her team have caught today

'are old enough and long enough for another kind of pot.

'So now it's time to hand over to super seafood chef Tony Howell,

'who knows all about making lobsters like these

'taste as good as they look.'

So, there we go.

We've steamed them for about six minutes.

Just gonna finish those off on the barbecue.

The reason why we finish them on the barbecue,

we don't do it the whole way, is if we do it the whole way

on the barbecue, it'll dry the meat out.

'So, now the lobster halves go onto a hot barbie,

'shell-side down so they don't dry out.

'And then, to keep them extra moist,

'Tony spreads on a thick layer of roasted garlic butter.'

No freebies, boys. Off you go.

You've gotta watch them. They'll come up and nick the leg.

They'll grab a leg and take off.

You start to hear the sizzle.

You know, the butter's gonna start melting,

the aroma'll start coming round as well.

I'll just throw butter on myself while I'm doing it.

So, we'll just let those tick along at the back there,

and then we'll do our salad while we're waiting for that.

'The salad is Thai basil, Vietnamese mint and coriander,

'with sliced green papaya.'

So, it's nice and simple. You can do this at home quite easily.

'Now it's time to give the lobsters a finishing touch.'

Let's give it a bit of blowtorch, get a little bit of colour.

All right, they are just about... perfect.

All right, so, we're just gonna pop that straight on the plate, like so.

That's the hero.

'Then a handful of salad

'with a zesty dressing of fish sauce, vinegar and chilli,

'and the dish is ready.'

That's it. Simple, tasty, fresh.

Goes with wine, goes with Rottnest Island.

Come over for a week, have some crayfish,

grab yourself a nice wine and a beer and enjoy life.

Cheers!

'That sounds like some very good advice to me.

'So Takiya and me have taken it and poured ourselves

'some Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc Semillon.'

Oh, it's... Good? Wonderful.

Cleanses the palate, yeah.

'And we're ready.'

This is the moment. Here we go!

Sorry, T, I know it's usually ladies first, but special guest.

No worries, this is an exception. I've jumped the queue!

Special guest.

Oh! I think we need a bigger table to fit everything on.

Look at that.

This looks terrific. I hope the cameras are catching the size.

The size!

It's a solid crayfish. It really is.

It is solid, isn't it? Yeah. Especially this time of year.

We're lucky, aren't we? Exactly. We are spoilt rotten.

'The whole crayfish, cray, lobster naming thing is a bit confusing.

'But there's no confusion over the taste.

'This is one of the all-time great seafood dishes...'

Oh, that is so delicious.

'..in a picture-perfect location.'

I knew it was beautiful,

but actually coming off the mainland and coming out here,

it's just opened my eyes to just how big the skies are,

how beautiful the oceans are, and this little jewel right here.

You've done a little part of Western Australia too. Yeah.

You know, it just keeps going and going and going...

Shh! Don't tell anyone. Oh, yeah, it's not that good (!)

LAUGHTER It's actually really bad.

'What a way to round off a wondrous adventure in Western Australia.'

This is it. I found it. How good is this?

The dream. The dream. Good, follow that dream.

It is a dream. I got there.

What a pleasure to spend it with you. Cheers.

Absolute pleasure to have you.

Thank you very much. Cheers.

# Ooh

# Look at the sky

# Ooh, so much beautiful light

# All our dreams, they are... #

It's been a cracking end

to my wild adventure in Western Australia,

but I've barely scratched the surface here in WA,

so I'll definitely be westward again.

# It's all right

# I love a day like this

# I love a day like this Oh, I love a day like this

# Over and over

# Over and over again

# I love a day like this I love a day like this

# Oh, I love a day like this

# No, there's nothing better

# There's nothing better Than this. #

'Next time, a big boys' reunion in the outback...'

I feel like Crocodile Dundee. Oh, you don't look like him.

'..with the multi-talented Ronan Keating.'

You're singing. BLOWS DIDGERIDOO

There we go. Excuse me.

# Winding

# Looks brand-new

# Blinding

# Over that hill

# It's coming

# We'll feel life

# Again... #

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Gary Barlow's Food And Wine Tour Australia.