Wednesday 9th July to Saturday 12th July – Perth and around
On the Wednesday Carol and Iris drove me into Perth to have a look around the city. We went to Kings’ Park which is a huge park on a hill overlooking the city. The views were amazing down over the cityscape and the lakes/ rivers of the city. There was also some really interesting plants and I found the boab trees in particular really funny. A boab is a kind of bulbous looking almost tuber like tree and, to me, they looked really bizarre. We walked around the park and then had lunch at the cafe prior to seeing a little more of Perth and the surrounding area.
The following day I went to Perth aquarium with Iris and Carol. I was tempted to go to the aquarium in Singapore but an Australian couple had advised me to wait until I got to Perth and I was glad that I did. The place was divided into sections of Australia and the respective marine life in each. The most spectacular display was a moving walkway which took you round underneath a huge tank full of fish, sharks, turtles and huge rays. The seals were also brilliant and one of them was very inquisitive almost playing with onlookers at the glass. There was a touch pool and I stroked a dogfish as well as picking up a starfish who didn’t seem to mind the attention.
On the Friday Carol was again a star and drove Iris and I to Freemantle, known to locals as Free-O. Freemantle was a very cool place with a lovely market selling all kinds of wares and was full of great streets with old architecture and shops. It reminded me very much of Woodbridge in Suffolk at home in parts as it had a similar quaint, old feel about it. We browsed through the market and bought some food for dinner before driving back along the coast. The coastline was amazing with views of beaches stretching as far as the eye could see.
On Saturday I had a bit of a lie in and went to pick-up my car that I had arranged to hire for a bit of a jolly North. I spent the night at Carol and Mike’s house rather than Iris and Jim’s. Carol took me to her daughter’s house where I also saw her horses and the general set-up of the place. In the evening Carol’s daughter and husband came over and her grand daughter was also there for dinner. The following morning Carol and Mike cooked the most amazing fry-up on the barbeque which was another very welcome feed reminding me of England. Iris had previously also cooked me the best fish and chips and had also fed me my first ever shark which was out of this World.