Perth

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We flew into Perth from Sydney. Still in the same country, but the flight takes several hours and it is in a different time zone. Distances in this country are as vast, or even more so, than in America. My (Fran's) cousin, Richard, met us from the airport and brought us back to stay with him at his place in the hills just outside Perth. He has looked after us very very well throughout our stay. Richard lives in a very nice large bungalow with his son Graydon and 2 dogs Dusty and Diesal.

Our first day they brought us to meet his mum, Joan, (who lives about 10 mins drive away) and then we all 5 went out for lunch in the Perth hills. In the evening we sat out in the summerhouse overlooking the 'dam' (duck pond in english) with his mum in law, Sheila (who lives nextdoor) and 2 more friends as the sun went down. Some kangaroos came and hopped about just the other side of the dam!

Next day they brought us into the 'flatlands' of Perth to have breakfast where his daughter Taryn is working, with Corrine, my cousin Patti and her partner Clay. It is very exciting for me to meet the rest of the family, because Richard is the only one I have met before. Richard and Patti grew up in Zimbabwe and moved to Australia from there. Then he brought us on a tour of Perth city. We saw the wide Swan river, the tower near the ferry stops, the WACA cricket stadium, the new entertainment complex, various statues and Kings Park. We had a walk around Kings Park which is on high ground with a great view overlooking the river. There were loads of people out picnicing in Kings Park. There are gas barbecues there that are free for anyone to use. There are similar free gas barbecues at a lot of beaches and picnic spots in WA. There are several nice green spaces with grass trees and flowers in Perth, and it all looks new and modern. The odd bits of wasteland which are not getting watered are not at all green- already, early in summer, the grass is yellow. After this, we went to his friends' barbecue in the flatlands. There we met several very friendly people who had also come to Australia from Zimbabwe and South Africa.

We had booked to go to Coral Bay on the Ningaloo reef off he north west coast from Monday til Fri. As Coral Bay is pretty inaccessible, being in a desert, both Richard and Joan had advised us to fly there. Joan dropped us off at the airport on Monday, and Richard picked us up on Friday. (As I said....we have been really spoilt and well looked after). I will write about Coral Bay in a seperate blog.

The weekend after Coral Bay we were pretty exhausted. I spent the Saturday resting, while Fred Richard Graydon and 2 friends played golf. Sunday we went on a boat trip down the Swan river from Perth to Freo (Freemantle). Richard and Graydon drove down to meet us in Freo where we had a walk about and had dinner. Freo is a nice old town as well as being a port. There are lovely old italianesque buildings there and it has a relaxed holiday feel. On the way back from Freo we popped in to see Patti Clay and Joan at Patti's house in the flatlands. (There are hardly any pictures of Fremantle, since the camera was playing up - it had got a bit of sand stuck in the workings at the beach.)

During the next week we will be borrowing Taryn's car to visit a bit more of the coast. I will write a seperate blog about this.

Then, on our final weekend in Perth we will be visiting Rottnest Island, which I will also blog about seperately.

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