Day 65 - Margaret River to Perth

  Perth, Australia
Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Unfortunately when we woke up this morning Lisa was still poorly, so there was no way we could do the "tree-top walk" on the south-west coast, which we were all really looking forward to :(

The walk involves strolling along a walkway 40m above the ground, amongst some very tall 300 yr old trees, and it's supposed to be one of the best things to do in Australia. Oh well, maybe next time!

It would have been a good 4 hr drive from Busselton, so we would have needed to make a very early start to get there, which obviously was not condusive with poor Lisa's condition.

So we mulled over a few options and decided it was best to head back to Perth, to get Lisa home. We thought it also made sense to drop Katie & I off in the city before heading back to chez O'Neill for our last supper, so to speak.

On the way back north we did manage to stop off at a stunning beach at Meelup, near Dunsborough, which was practically deserted!

 

Check out the white sand!



It was so peaceful. I think that Si & Lisa will be ok living down here for a couple of years with somewhere like this 30 minutes away. Tough life! ;) 

 

Simon had made the schoolboy error of allowing me to pack a small football, which I suddenly remembered and then spent about 5 minutes kicking around the carpark. I obviously had a great time doing this but I think everyone else within a 3 mile radius was DELIGHTED when it was time to go!

By now we were a bit peckish, so stopped in a local bakery for a bite to eat. I'd forgotten all about the Australian obsession with pies, the menu was full of them! There must have been about 20 varieties, it was heavenly!

I'm not sure that many travel blogs on this site will include a photo of a heated pie cabinet, just think how lucky you all are!

 

After wolfing down our pies and watching Lisa steadily get surrounded by seagulls we set off for Perth, which mainly involved a very pleasant 4 hour ride in the sunshine.

Simon dropped Katie & I off in the middle of the city, in Kings Park, which is a lovely big stretch of parkland which overlooks the city.

 

Kings Park is also full of war memorials to commemorate the loss of Australian lives in various conflicts around the world; it might come as a surprise to some to see how many major wars Australian soldiers have fought in over the years.

 



We took a few snaps with the city skyline behind us, then walked into town to have a quick wander round.

 

To get into the CBD we walked down 'Jacobs Ladder' which is a set of steep steps taking you from the edge of the park down to the city level. 



Local joggers apparently run up and down these steps 4 times which is supposedly great exercise. We were fairly knackered after going down once, so more power to them! 

The (shopping) centre of Perth is nice without being particularly attractive, so after quickly buying the few things we needed, we found the train station and headed back to Si & Lisa's place in the 'burbs.



After being late the other day we made it back an hour EARLIER than planned this time, so I think our hosts nearly had simultaneous heart-attacks when we walked through the door!

Si knocked up a very good spaghetti bolognese for dinner (complete with non-meat option for Katie), and we were able to finally polish off those delicious beers from the brewery, which tasted even better without the 30 glasses of wine before them! The dark nutty one really is one of the nicest beers I've ever tasted, what a shame it's brewed on the other side of the world!

We totally forgot about the desert wine we bought yesterday, so we'll have to carry that with us until we find a suitable time/place. Fingers crossed the bottle doesn't shatter before then!

After dinner we had a few things to do on the PC (saving new photos onto discs, booking car hire and hostel in Cairns & hostel in Uluru/Ayers Rock etc), Katie was able to get a good idea of our Aussie plans after Perth from speaking to Lisa, and then we had to pack and get ready for our flight tomorrow.

We've really enjoyed our time in Perth, it was great to see Si, and to finally meet the girl who's making him so happy over here. Si's sister will be over here next year, followed by his parents maybe the year after that, so pretty soon the O'Neills' future will be mostly Australian!

We were very grateful for Si & Lisa's hospitality while we were here, and it was also good to meet up with some of Katie's distant family.

So that's our Western Australia adventure over, now we head for Uluru/Ayers Rock, then up to the north east coast (Cairns & Cape Tribulation), before driving all the way down to Sydney along the East coast, where most of the sights are. We then fly to Melbourne and drive along the south coast, and the famous Great Ocean Road, before doing some wine tasting in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide.

We're cramming a lot into our month here (possibly too much!) and we're trying to hook up with lots of friends as we make our way around, so it should be a pretty intense November!

Bring it on!!! ;)


Lots of love,


Al & Katie xx