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Published: March 4th 2008
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We arrived in Perth Western Australia at the start of November following our 2 months in South East Asia, where we finally got to unpack our bags for awhile as we stayed for about 3 months in total. We rented out an apartment in the city, perfect location only problem was having to share it with the cockroaches, but that’s nearly a given in Australia, at least there were no bed bugs, another common complaint! We also picked up jobs easily enough, Monday to Friday so leaving us the weekends to tour around.
We tried to do something each weekend but in true style we spent a lot of weekends lounging on the beaches and then spent the last month cramming trips in each weekend. We managed to get a lot done but you'd need a year just to scratch the surface there is so much to do. We tried our hand at surfing with a surf lessons at Scarborough beach, which we nearly didn't bother going to as it was probably the only day it lashed rain in the 3 months we were in Perth. Glad we went after though as it was really good, another new hobby to
try at home, hopefully get more practice on the East Coast too.
Our first big trip was hiring a campervan and heading up north over Christmas. We did about 4000km overall in a week! The roads are something else, long stretches with nothing but bush for hours and lots of kangaroos either jumping in front of the campervan or at various stages of decay on the side of the road. Just avoided killing skippy twice, which is just as well because they make a fair dent if you hit one! We drove up as far as Exmouth and then worked our way back stopping at loads of places on the way back. There is a great reef in Exmouth which is right beside the beautiful beaches so some really good snorkeling spots. We visited Yardie creek too which was pretty nice except the million flies that followed us around for the trek! We also visited the Australian Fungi or Fungi's in this case as several come right into the beach at Monkey Mia everyday to be hand feed by the tourists. We met up with Louise's family who were holidaying in Kalbarri were we rang in the New Year
in good style! Last stop was to the Pinnacles, don't know how to describe this area, never seen anything like it, its a sight to behold.
Our second big trip was down south to Margaret river, made famous by it wineries. We hired a car for the weekend (a luxury to drive after the campervan) and headed south where we booked into a kind of farm stay for something different, it was pretty nice and relaxing, a change from the city, it was surrounded by bush, kangaroos and not forgetting the 60 year old donkey! We did a wine tour one day to see what all the fuss was about. As per our last wine tour in the Swan Valley we learned a bit more about the various wines and then forgot it all again as we got pissed on all the samples throughout the day. We visited lake cave the next day which was well worth a look, before stopping off at a couple of beaches and seaside towns for a dip to cool off and breakup the trip back to Perth.
We also visited Rottnest Island, just off Perth for a weekend, which had some of
the best beaches I've seen and had a real holiday laid back atmosphere, as well as being famous for its Quokka's. From which the island gets its name because basically they look just like giant rats! They are a protected species and the Perth Rugby team got themselves in a bit of trouble for playing "Quokka Soccer" after a few beers one night. For our last weekend in Perth we managed to squeeze in our Advanced dive course which was also on Rottnest. Wasn't the best timing though as we had to get up a 6am the morning after Australia Day (Paddy's Day Oz style) to go diving.
We managed to see a fair bit of WA in the 3 months and do a bit of work too to keep us in beer money, before it was time to quit the jobs again and hit the road, next stop Cairns and the coast road to Sydney!
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