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Published: November 23rd 2005
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Lirrle Koala
Caversham park, Perth Bloody Hell, Aus is top notch, mate!
Highlights so far:
* 1 week in & 4 Barbies = Sheer Heaven
* Watching the Socceroos obtain their place in the World Cup finals!
* Fed some Kangaroos and Cuddled a Wombat
* Day at Kings Park doing city bush treks and tree top walks
* Kite flying
* CONSTANT SUNSHINE!!!! Yeaaaah!
Low points so far:
* There’s only one - FLIES, aaarrrgghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First of all, we gotta tell you that Qantas staff have got to be THE smiley-est, friendliest and best fun flight attendants we have ever encountered. We were travelling from Singapore on Shaz’ birthday, and whilst the guys couldn’t give us a free upgrade into Business class (yes, we did ask) they were able to pass us extra bottles of fizz during the flight, making our trip that lirrrrrle bit more comfortable. Banjo!
In Perth we have the great fortune to be staying with a mate of Alan’s from when he used to work for RSA. Jesse’s his name, and he’s got to be awarded host of the year for picking us up at the airport on arrival, giving us a room, organizing outings and meets
with friends and family, and tracking down great bargains on excursions, meals and other entertainment. Yer a top boy Jesse - we luv ya! Jesse also has a cute wee 4 yr old daughter Zahra who has been keeping us on our toes while we are here. Very bright & energetic young lady she is, and lots of fun! The burb we’re staying in is a mere ten minutes on the bus to get into the center, which is ideal for us as it means that we haven’t yet needed to hire a car, although we plan to pick up our Toyota Corolla hatch from Bayswater Perth @ 13 poond a day this coming Friday to take us down South toward the Margaret River area & beyond, for a couple of weeks. Margaret River has loads of wineries and chocolate factories and we plan to do a couple of vineyard tours while we are there. Well…..it would be rude not to!
So anyway, Perth is a cool place - and we’ve settled right in. Although it’s a city, to us it seems more like a big town as you can walk round the main parts in just a few
Perth's flag
Featuring the Black Swan of Swan River, which runs through Perth to the ocean at Freemantle. hours. We’ve been on one of those tours on the open top bus, so now we have a good feel for the place and have identified most of the places we want to visit. First area we headed for was the Kings Park - which sits high above the bay and commands most excellent views over Perth, and the Swan River. Within the park are some gorgeous Botanic gardens, a tree top walk high above the ground, and some interesting bush walks where you can see all sorts of wild flowers, trees and plants. We spent nearly a whole day there - it was so relaxing - and there’s a couple of cafes there too for refuels.
Next up is the Belgian Beer Company who have a brilliant pub in the centre where you can get 4 beer samples and frites for $11.50 - that’s about 4.75 pounds. We naturally had to try this out, and had a good laugh as we tried to anticipate the tasting notes. Wharra load of bollocks they are - probably written by that Jilly Goulding wifey, but the beers were great. Our fav so far is Hoegarden, which doesn’t have as much alchohol
content as the variety back home, and is a bit more fruity. Delishamundo!
Last week we jumped around and screamed at a very exciting fitba game (on telly, natch), where Australia’s Socceroos beat Uruguay on penalties to land their spot in the World Cup. We are chuffed to have a team to support next year in Germany - we’ll prob be back in Aus when its happening so bring on the yellow and green jumpers, and grab those tinnies, mate!
On Saturday we chummed Jesse & Zahra to the Caversham Wildlife park where we spent ages feeding the kangaroos little pellets of unidentifiable grass stuff. It was mega fab. It was the middle of the day and very very hot, so the Roos were laying around having a big chillout in the shade of the trees. What we had to do was grab some pellets in our hand, then go over to them and feed them where they lay. They are so soft and incredibly gentle at feeding from your hand - like little velvet purses nuzzling away contentedly. We also petted some Koalas and got to hold a Wombat. Shaz loved the wombat - its name was
Swan Brewery
Thee are lods of micro breweries in Perth & surounding area. Swan Draught is very thirst quenching and tasty, and so far is sheila Shaz's fav. ‘Big Bubba’ and weighed about 30kilos. Wombats sleep quite a lot through the day and Big Bubba didn’t move at all as she was shifted from the handlers knee. Ever heard the expression “Big Store Dug” - well that sprung to mind. We also saw wallabies, lizards, Black Cockatoos - which live wild in the Perth area and feed in flocks of up to 200 on the ground in some park areas. We haven’t seen any though, so maybe that’s a lie.
We’re really glad that we came to Aus early. The weather here has been truly fabulous. There is constant sunshine as its now their summer time, and although the temperature is pretty high, it’s a fairly dry heat with an amazingly cooling breeze, which turns up every day about 2pm, known locally as the Fremantle Doctor. This name is actually a bastardisation of the historical reference to the wind which was first known as the Fremantle Docker - called such because the sailors used to have to wait every day until mid afternoon in Freemantle Port for the wind to arrive & blow them on their way. Whatever - historical references apart - its MAGIC. Really keeps
us from burning up and that’s the main point.
OK folks - that’ll do for now - we gotta get back out into that sunshine, naturally donning our slip slap slop attire of hats, sunnies, t-shirts and factor fifty lotion. Hope all you guys at home are not feeling too miserable with the darkness at 4pm malarkey which has no doubt now arrived. If you’re harbouring any sort of resentment of the sunshine we’re experiencing, then there’s one way to comfort yourself. We are demented with the flies. Honest to buggery - they are such a total nightmare. Picture us walking along the road swatting constantly, swearing and flailing widly at thin air as the little bustards zip around our heads and ears. We reckon we must look like we have Turretts syndrome. At one point the other day we looked that kid Linus from the Charlie Brown cartoon with our own personal fly entourage following us around. Its terrible - we’ve actually found ourselves having to go into a PUB to escape them! Can you imagine?!!. If you think we’re joking, then check the photo below of Alan’s bag one day as we walked along the Esplanade on
Kangaroo Paws
Beautiful flowers abound in Kings Park the Swan river.
OK then, bye for now from Bushman McCabe & Sheila Shaz. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PS: Vegemite and cheese bread swirls. THE BEST snack in the entire world, bar none!!!!!!!!! You get them from the Bakers Delight bread shops. They should sell them in Scotland - they’d be more popular than Greggs cheese n onion pasties / sausage rolls.
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Amanda
non-member comment
G'day
I love reading your blog - Perth looks great, and yes, I want a wallaby too!! I'm so glad you two are having a fantastic time and that I am along for the ride, albeit vicariously. I will be thinking of that blue sky and endless sunshine this coming Friday, known here in the States as "Black Friday".