Perth to Adelaide

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After a brilliant trip up the West Coast the plan was to stay in Perth to relax. The best thing about our timing was that our arrival was on Australia Day (a celebration of the day the English arrived in Australia) and Perth was touting the evening's fireworks as the best in the whole of Australia. They started at 8pm, no problem we thought as we landed at 3:30pm. I wanted to get a new camera and we needed booze too. By the time we'd dropped our stuff at the hostel, everywhere had closed apart from a tiny camera shop who were rolling down their shutter at 4:55pm. Ten minutes later with a big mission accomplished smile on my face I left the camera shop, only finding out the next day that I'd been totally ripped off, having bought a 'special offer' camera that was actually $50 cheaper in three different high street stores. We walked across the road to Woolworths only to find that even the supermarkets were closing at 5pm! Argh! An hour later and we'd managed to find the only bottle shop in Perth that was still open, obviously charging twice the price for the privilege! Australia Day was becoming expensive! Our vision of leisurely afternoon drinks followed by a casual dinner were a bit far from the mark - ended up being takeaway fish and chips on our dash back to the hostel. Although, with half an hour to spare we didn't do too badly and made it in plenty of time to stake out a spot at the riverbank for the fireworks, not before stumbling through a drunken Aboriginal version of party in the park, with all eyes on us as the bewildered Brits clearly in the wrong place for watching fireworks.

The event started with a huge Ozzie flag trailed by a helicopter, accompanied by the national anthem. The fireworks were fired from the river and tops of skyscrapers and went on for half an hour, accompanied by music broadcast on the radio. At the end Andrew turned to me and said “so that's what ten million dollars of fireworks looks like!” It was impressive and such a party atmosphere with 300,000 watching from the riverbanks.

Afterwards we headed back to the hostel to drink some more before going out for some Australia Day celebrations. We found a bar and were enjoying ourselves but like everything else on Australia Day, it closed early at 12mid-night! We tried the local club and that was closed, being a Tuesday, so at the peak of the night we were heading home.

The following morning we were out exploring Perth. I had got it into my head sometime in Melbourne that I wanted a new tattoo to remind me of my time travelling and for some reason I decided this was the day to do it. In searing 40 odd degree heat we traipsed the streets to find an elusive tattoo shop. Ever since Perth I seem to see tattoo shops on every corner, but that day it took us two hours to find one. We both had hangovers and hadn't eaten and much to Andrew's dismay (belly rumbling in the waiting room), when we found a tattooist and he said I could go straight in the chair I did. After a grimace inducing 15 minutes we were off on the hunt for Antiseptic Cream and lunch. Mission accomplished two days running!

The rest of the week was pretty relaxed with a couple of outings to nearby coastal suburbs, Freemantle and Cottesloe. Freemantle was nice, but somewhere mum and dad would like more than me, lots of heritage, fishing boats and a world-renowned Fish & Chip shop, but not really a lot else. I spent most of the day on a park bench reading my book, although the 'Little Creatures' brewery was a highlight, with us enjoying a tasty pint at sunset overlooking the marina. We went to Cottelsloe with two girls we'd met on the West Coast who were from Belgium, they were heading off the following day to India and us on the Indian Pacific train to Adelaide. There are loads of permanent barbeques on the beaches in Australia so a farewell barbeque seemed fitting. We stocked up on Australia shaped Burgers, Sausages and decided to experiment with Kangaroo Steak. Following Andrew's terrible sense of direction we ended up walking over a golf course, us all picking up the pace as we noticed balls dropping not too far from us, then we saw the beach, but no-one dared talk, although we were all thinking the same thing as we struggled to keep hats on as we were sandblasted in near gale force winds, not ideal bbq conditions! Yes, it turns out Cottesloe Beach is one of the only places in Perth without Barbeques. Confirmed after we'd walked the length of the beach on the direction of some delusional local who'd said he thought there were some 'down there' vaguely waving at the other end of the beach. Luckily all wasn't lost, we'd spotted a barbeque in the grounds of the surf lifesavers club, so we sent the girls in to bat their eyelids and ask if we could come in and use it and true to the name of the club, they saved the day! Verdict on the Roo steak? Think I'd rather have the Beef!

We booked a sleeper train from Perth to Adelaide, deciding that it would be a nice way to see some of the country, but that we couldn't sleep in a seat for two nights. We'd have our own private luxury cabin with seats that changed into beds, our own sink, wardrobes, a private window. Sounded very glam, but what they don't tell you is that all of this fits into the space of one single bed!

We had a lot of fun though and really enjoyed the experience, it was hilarious manoevering around our little cabin. We couldn't both stand at the same time and the one day we tried to lower the two beds whilst we were both in the cabin lead to me being trapped in the corner. It was a novelty though, it feels so weird to be lying down and tucking yourself into bed on a train. Even weirder is taking a shower trying not to fall over as the train rocks from side to side.

Not a lot happened on the journey, it was more relaxing than anything else, we played a lot of cards and read books. There were two stops on the way, one at a place called Kalgoorlie which was at half ten at night, not really the best time for sightseeing when everywhere apart from the bar is closed! Our other stop was at a town called Cook, with a population of 4, sat right in the middle of the baron Nullabor plain. It took us all of five minutes in the baking heat to stretch our legs and explore the 'town.' As for seeing Australia, the view didn't really change the whole time we were on-board - just flat red sandy expanse, but, we can now claim to have rode the longest stretch of flat train track in the world - what an achievement! Ha ha. After two sleeps on boards, we woke up just as we were pulling into Adelaide, both of us thinking that it had actually gone pretty fast, as we dashed about brushing teeth and packing up. You'd think after two and a half days we'd have at least been ready to get off!

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Photos

Australia Day
"Ooh, aah"

Freemantle
Fish, Chips, Sunset and Beer. Lovely.

Perth
Viewed from King's Park

New Tattoo
(the one on the right)

Burgers
Australia shaped. What a novelty.

The Indian Pacific
Our Cabin in its daytime config

Top Bunk
Another novelty

Teeth Brushing
On the move

Bottom bunk
The bed with a view.