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Geo: -31.9554, 115.859

We arrived in Perth at 05:30 after a a journey of 4125 mls and a change of plane in Singapore.

Sophie had gone to a lot of trouble to make a copy of her passport for her favourite cuddly toy (Lola) which she took with her, as we approached the customs desk she presented Lola's passport and the young girl at the desk was taken back by the effort Sophie had put into making the passport and duly stamped the passport for her; Sophie was over the moon.

Having cleared customs we decide to have breakfast at the airport, after which we went to the car hire desk to pick up our car which was stated to be a Nissan X-Trail or similar, 9 months before making the booking I rang the company in the early hours of the morning and was assured it would be the Nissan but they also gave the names of the alternatives

I researched the other possible 4x4s listed and none of them were suitable due to the small
luggage space, bearing in mind we had 8 pieces of luggage as well as our carry-on bags. When talking to the agent it transpired the car we were allocated was Toyota Rav 4, which we knew wasn't going to accommodate all our luggage so off we all went to try and fit everything into the car; after a lot of shuffling everything around and removing the tonneau cover we managed to get the majority in but it meant that everything was on show, the only alternative being to upgrade to a Toyota Klugger for a reduced additional cost of $30 per day, after
a lot of deliberation we decided as the luggage would only be in the car for the journey up to Monkey Mia and the return trip to Perth we'd make do.

We were fortunate enough that we could drop everything off at the hotel and check in later on in the afternoon so that resolved the issue of things being on show if we left the car. We made our way to Kings Park which normally is lovely but as we turned into the entrance we were met with a queue of traffic, the footpaths all crowded with 100s of people and others wandering all over the grassed areas: what the hell's going, on? we had no idea until I realised that they're all looking at their mobiles, welcome to the world of Pokémon GO hunters

I've always been easy going and believe in each to their own but these followers need to get a life, when they've grown up and lived a bit they'll realise chasing fantasies in no way compensates for missing the natural things around them; it's only when they've gone they'll become aware of the time wasted and the opportunities missed.

We eventually managed to find a parking place and strolled around the park walking over the elevated 52 metre glass and steel arched bridge of the Lotterywest Federation Walkway to the Beedawong amphitheatre. Along the way, we enjoyed views of the Swan and Canning Rivers, Aboriginal art, the Water Garden and Marri woodland forest, it made for a really pleasant and relaxing morning.

In the evening, we visited Jake and Sophie's cousin Karen and her husband Dave along with their great aunt Carol, after which we returned back to the hotel for an early night.

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