Back Down Under...‏

Originally written Monday 31st May 2010:

We arrived in Perth just after midnight last Tuesday morning which meant that once we'd got back to Andy's friend's house in Duncraig, a suburb in the northen part of Perth, and had a Welcome to Aus beer we could head straight off to bed!!!

Suffice to say our first day was not an early start but after sleeping like a log we headed into Perth City Centre which had changed dramatically - as had the prices of everything! A beer in a pub now costs on average 6 pounds sterling each. Long gone are the days of the $2 schooner (which was less than 1 pound back then). Most people buy from the bottleshop (off-license).

We had been hoping to go swimming with the bottlenose dolphins at Rockingham during our time in Perth but disappointingly there were no dolphin swimming trips running during the duration of our stay. Last time I was here I'd been hoping to do that but didn't have the extra day I needed. Looks like we'll have to come here again ;-)

Otherwise the first day was pretty quiet. We met Andy's friend John after work and went for a beer with him before heading back to his place to spend the evening with himself, his wife Vikki and daughter Milly for pizza and beer.

Day 2 saw us visit Hilary's Marina, a shopping complex and tourist attraction with lots of sporting, sea-related and souvenir shops. We enjoyed breakfast at a little cafe in the sunshine. It was probably the warmest day in Perth as the temperature never really exceeded 20'c and being as it is their winter went dark & cold early, but not really any different to much of the weather we had at home in May. Anyway back to breakfast: crepes with icecream, strawberries & bananas. Yum! We spent most of the day strolling down the harbour breakers and along the beach but eventually took the bus back to the City Centre to arrange an alternative trip to do instead of the dolphins. We checked out a few other Perth landmarks before heading back for home-made Shepherds Pie - and beer!

The third day we were treated to some Perth winter weather and had heavy showers all day. Undaunted we headed off on the train to Perth's port - Fremantle, known as Freo to the locals - for a look around and to meet up with some friends. Despite the weather we enjoyed a delicious Shark & Chips (yes as in Jaws) at the Sweetlips Cafe in the Fishing Boat Harbour. Unfortunately the History Museum (still in brochures and the Lonely Planet) was now gone and the markets were closed. Despite that we wandered down Cappacino Strip and around the town. We sampled a glass of Pale Ale from the popular Little Creatures Pub which has its own micro-brewery. Later we met up with Jim & Tash at Mad Monks Bar, another pub & restaurant with its own micro-brewery. We first met Jim & Tash in Egypt in 2007 and it was good to catch up with them again. They took us out to dinner at the "Norfolk Pub" where Andy had a good steak burger and I enjoyed a smoked salmon pasta dish.

Our final day in Perth started with a stroll round Kings Park - a city nature reserve with a lot of original native bush still surviving. We are both sure its been developed a great deal since our last visits but must check the photos! ;-) From there we caught a tour bus which took us out to the Swan Valley. Caversham Nature Park was our first stop where we got up close and personal with several native animals including laughing kookaburra, red kangaroo, western grey kangaroo, wombat, blue-winged kookaburra, dingos, echidna, potaroos, koala and Tasmanian Deveil. They also held a farmshow demonstrating sheep shearing Aussie style, swinging the billy, whip cracking and the like. The Swan Valley arm of the Margaret River Chocolate Factory was next. Though the stop was brief it did allow an indulgence in a little chocolate tasting. Margaret River Chocolate is re-refined Belguim chocolate. Our final visit was to the Sandleford Winery for some wine tasting. Here we managed to arrange a very short & sweet meet-up with Rod & his girlfriend Cathy. Rod & I were part of a group that travelled together in Canada in 2005. Dinner that night was from the Carilion Food Hall - a number of food companies have stalls around and share the seating area including Red Rosster (Aus version of KFC), Hungry Jacks (Aus version of Burger King), fish & chips, carveries, chinese, thai, mexican etc.

An early start the next morning for our flight to Broome. Proving that I still have a dynamite character, I was checked for explosives at the airport!!! Once in Broome a courtesy shuttle dropped us at the "Beaches of Broome" backpacker hostel and after checking in we wandered down to Cable Beach which is all of 10 mins away from here! Along the way we spotted a black-headed ibis, magpie larks and wedge-tailed eagles.

At 5-ish we joined the throng that was catching the bus to Town Beach for the phenomen known as "Staircase To The Moon". Given the correct weather conditions and tide levels etc this can happen up to three times a month between about March & October. The Staircase is an illusion created as the full moon rises over the mudflats of Town Beach in Rowbuck Bay at low tide giving the appearance of a staircase to the moon. Did exactly what it said on the tin! Was phenomenal! Before jumping on the bus back, we wandered round the Town Beach market which appears on the Staircase to the Moon nights with its food stalls, jewellery, nicknacks etc.

Yesterday we did some Broome sightseeing. I can only describe Broome as what I thought every Aussie town would be like before I actually came here. Its very close to nature and the outback here with boabab and eucalypts lining the streets. Town Beach by day was our first stop. Apparently the bay is littered with flying boat wrecks which were distroyed by the Japanese Air Strikes in 1942 and on shore is the Pioneer Cemetary. Jutting into the sea is the remains of the old jetty. We learnt more about this at the Broome History Museum which covered the local history of the area particularly the pearling history of the area as well as shell collections, geology, white fella artifacts, information on the aboriginal tribes of the area.

We washed our history lesson down with a sample of Ginger Beer made by the Broome micro-brewery Matso's. In addition to Ginger Beer, this brewery makes chilli beer and mango beer amongst its collection. The ginger beer came chilled with ice. Was delicious & very refreshing :-)

Pearl Luggers is a shop that also offers trips to a pearl farm & its own local talk/tour. However within the grounds of the shop are two dry-docked pearl luggers (boats) which are free to walk around. Displays provide further information on the boats, their crews and more history of the pearling industry.

Then it was back to Cable Beach for a 1hr Sunset Camel Trek. Seeing Cable Beach from atop a slow-moving dromedary is an interesting and enjoyable experience (though there is some saddle soreness by the end of it! ;-)). We were paired up to ride the camels. We have both previously ridden a camel in Egypt but had our own camels. Here we "shared" a camel called "Lazy Daisy". Mr Daisy, for it was an 18-year old boy camel, actually got the name from his racing days - as a racing camel in his youth he won many trophies. The sunset was gorgeous with fiery reds, oranges and yellows piercing the sky across the sea whilst other colours were brush stroked across the sky above us as it slowly turned dark and the horizon crimson.

We left the beach once the sun had completely gone down. Twilight here is very short or non-existent and once the sun has gone it quickly goes dark. We had dinner at the hostel - a seafood basket for me with fish, prawns, crab, squid and chips - washed down with WA-brewed Swan Draught Lager. Fortunately the hostel food is relatively cheap, as are the beers (similar to British prices).

Today we went out to Gantheaume (Gan - the - am) Point 5km south of Cable Beach where cliffs have been eroded into all sorts of curious shapes and show beautiful layering of reds, yellows, oranges, blakcs, whites and greys. I would imagaine that it would be particularly stunning at sunset, but with only one (very early) bus to the point each day, we had to see the early morning sun on it. This is also home to 120million year old dinosaur tracks - there are concrete casts on the cliff top as the real ones are usually only revealed when there's a low tide - and Anatasia's Pool, an enlarged pool built by the first resident of the old Lighthouse Keepers Cottage after the lighthouse was automated and the cottage sold off. The resident's wife suffered with arthritis and bathed in the pool to ease her joints.

In between some dips in the sea, we walked the 5km beach walk back to Cable Beach before heading to the hostel for lunch and a cold refreshing dip in the pool. We did wander back down to the beach when it got cooler to see another gorgeous sunset.

Today we are off into town for a wander round. Tonight we have to get packed up and have an early night as we have a 6:30am pick-up for our trip to the Kimberleys.