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Published: January 3rd 2008
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Well well you lucky readers, after a month of no blogs you get 3 in 4 days!!
We returned to Perth with a week and a half left before Emily was getting on the plane to fly back to sunny England. Unfortunately Perth decided to get Emily accustomed to the the British climate by giving her pretty crap weather for her remaining time!! She had a list of things she wanted to do before she left, going to the beach was on it 3 times - I think we only managed it once! Nevermind, we had a lot of Christmas shopping to do and we managed to find some rainy day activities. Ironically, the day after Emily left, the sun came out, the sea was calm and the temperatures were back in the kind of range us poms can only dream about!
Wombats and Wheels
One of our rainy day activities was to visit the Caversham Wildlife Park in the Swan Valley. We had some money off vouchers and had heard rumours that there would be wombats that needed cuddling! There was certainly a lot of wildlife from all over Oz, including a walk through enclosure full of every
size, shape and colour of kangaroo, including white ones! You could stroke the kangaroos, but you know, we'd been there, done that, and got the photos - and ours were wild! It was still pretty cool though, they had a lot of space which is always good to see. (Except for the birds, that may as well have been dead for all the space they were allowed. I'll be revisiting with a pair of wire cutters soon - Ben) Emily and I had a ride on a camel, which was, er, bumpy! Then for the finale, we eventually got to (not quite) cuddle a wombat!! We met two different wombats, a Southern Hairy Nosed Wombat called Big Bubba and Common Wombat whose name escapes me! They both sat on a keepers lap and nodded off while we stroked their bellies and posed for photos like the tourists that we are!! They are now officially my favourite Australian animal!!
We also went for a cycle ride round Kings Park and the Swan River, me and Emily alternating on Alex's BMX (I think?)- it was fun going down hills but not so fun going up!! It was nice to see the
views and stop off in the city for a smoothie and some chips and gravy to keep our strength up!
Cocktails and Catamarans
by Ben The evening after our trip to Penguin Island that was misplaced in a previous blog, we visited David and Ita's friend's cocktail party, where we were plied with constant cocktails, beer and wine. We had a great night and have a strange photo of Sarah excitedly holding a plate that she can't remember being taken or indeed what the excitement was about. Anyway it was a fun night but we over-indulged slightly and were paying for it the next day. And although it wasn't exactly blazing sunshine it was pretty hot, and it hurt our heads. Indeed Sarah and Emily befell the terrible fate of a follow-up visit from their breakfasts. So after a morning of sobriety pledges we, along with David and Alexander headed off to Fremantle marina for a day on Barry's boat (it isn't a catamaran, i just wanted a snappy title). We headed up the swan river and before long had dropped anchor and were enjoying the peace and the cool water. We jumped off the boat into the
surprisingly salty water, then noticed the many jellyfish swimming around with us, however none stung us, they must have been the people-friendly type. it was strange swimming and every now and then feeling like you've grabbed a plastic bag but it's actually a jellyfish! There were also fish down in the depths that enjoyed nibbling on my feet, and we were even accompanied by dolphins swimming in our wake as we headed off.
Their was a cliff that we were stopped by that was a good jumper-offer. Alexander, Barry's son John, Emily, Sarah and I all scrambled up the rock and jumped off into the clear water below, aiming to jump far enough out to miss the rocks visible in the clear river water at the foot of the cliff!
We enjoyed a day there, with occasional visits by other boats (including one that held loads of beer-swilling blokes and two naked ladies - not sure what was going on on that boat!). Later, from another boat, some bloked did the jump but one bottled it and lost his nerve up on the edge. He was stood up their for a while so Sarah and I went up
there and gave him some motivational boost (including not looking bad by me and particularly Sarah rubbing his face in it and going before him), and i like to believe we helped as i jumped, then he did, and he thanked me with a big hi-five in the water.
Next up was my turn to look foolish. I had to attempt the higher jump, another 2 metres up and a metre or so back, as i would probably never return. I climbed up and found the jumping platform was a few square inches of jagged rock, not the best surface for balancing, especially when you're violently shivering from the cold (and a little bit fear, maybe). So after a very long time i managed the two-footed jump out over the lower jump platform and into the water, somehow landing very badly and deadening my bum and thighs. It was great though. Ok, enough of that. here's Sarah.
Earlier that week we'd all gone out for a delicious meal at a local restaurant too see Emily off in fine cuisine style! (Thanks David and Ita!)
We took Emily to the airport later that night and saw her off
- we hope she had a good time and it's certainly very strange without her here now! It's only 4 1/2 months until we are home now which is scary and exciting at the same time, although I dont ever want this trip to end, it will be nice to see everyone!
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