Holiday Inn City Center Perth

... green cup the beer had been served in (homemade brew...) so we expected a little more. Boy were we wrong! The taste initially is ok but a second later it's like smoked fish - blech! We still thanked our host and moved our way through the maze that is the banana plantation towards our lunch spot, again hosted by a local family. We split into 2 groups - one heading to the Escarpment, and mine going the shorter route. This meant we got there a few minutes earlier so we ended up ...

... hand luggage, handbag, and a big bag containing duty free goodies such as 200 ciggies, a litre of vodka and a box of Goon from Kirsty. Tramp central eh? I sit on the bench with my Indonesian shoulder rug wrapped round me and phone Kirsty. She isn't too sure where the hell I am so I pick up my life which is scattered about the park floor and head over to some fellow tramps who are positioned on the bench about qoo metres away. Waddling over, I ask them ...

... giving up and heading home utterly drenched and cursing the day someone gave me advice to head to Western Australia first.

Eventually managing to extract ourselves from the house, Carl and I drove to Lancelin, a beachside resort home to mammoth sand dunes which we tumbled over in his 4x4. I was even allowed to take the wheel but I think Carl may have regretted it when we ended up perched on a precipice and ...

... all morning we stopped off at the Pemberton pub for lunch and
another pints. After another couple of hours driving we found
ourselves in Margaret River where we found the pub for another drink.
We then brought some food for dinner and of course something to
drink. We headed back to our cabin for the night.

... with banners and balloons when we arrived, more that made up for not collecting us by taking a day off work to drive us on a guided tour of the Perth area. It happened to be one of Perth's stormiest days ever as there were trees blowing all over the roads and sporadic floods (a normal spring day in Ireland).
Actually, looking back now, that was probably our most productive day in the 9 months since we left home!
Anyway, bye bye expensive first world Australia.

... et kloster hvor vi gjorde holdt til kaffe og kage og fik set lidt på bygninger. Sidste strækning og så hjemme!! Klokken var omkring 21 og vi var totalt smadret så vi smuttede på Hungry Jacks (Burger King) inden vi endte hjemme i vores senge. Torsdag stod på afslapning og vi sov længe. Om eftermiddagen tog John og jeg et smut i shoppingcenter, hvor vi mistede hinanden i en stor non-food butik, så vi gik frem og tilbage og kiggede efter hinanden i mindst en halv time! S ...

... huge sting rays that were very impressive. The highlights though were the jellyfish, which were beautifully illuminated and behind glass; and the big octopus which was really active and using all his legs and suckers in a kind of glass-dance - it was great to see! Then we headed back to Christopher's for a quick re-fuel before heading out to Yanchep National Park, about half an hour up the coast. So we parked up and walked down to the ...

... It's pretty tough having so many great beaches to choose from! City Beach was alive and festive. The lawn was full of picnickers, and the beach was a lively mix of kids and adults playing cricket, lighting sparklers, dodging waves as high tide approached and pushed them further on shore, or just sitting on picnic blankets enjoying a bottle of wine. We joined Lisa and her friends on the lawn and sat back ...

... beds each night. Instantly then we had a nice crowd to hand with for Christmas and New Year. We had a spit roast pig from Christmas dinner and had great craic.

We moved in with them for a couple of weeks but my body seriously cant handle that kinda drinking and thats saying something. I got an OT job and needed my beauty sleep and John got a job in a bike shop! We started renting a room of a guy John ...

... and other foreigners at the backpackers. To be fair, some of the backpacker staff were cool. And, at the clubs, I met scores of nice people, including Jason and his wife Alisa, and there friends who kept me dancing until 6 am (the sun was coming up and I was fearful that I was going to burn up if the sun touched me - quick hurry home!). Rhetorical questions/comments for Western Australians: * Where the hell do all those flies come from? Are you hiding piles of sh!t ...