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Published: January 27th 2007
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Fish n Chips and a perfect Sunset
The only way to spend your evenings in Freo Our Asian adventure nearly over, we spent 2 nights in a very busy Bangkok before heading to the new and slightly clinical Bangkok airport where we had a flight to Singapore and a connection to Perth. After some 18 hours we finally arrived at the YHA in Fremantle.
Our first stop in Perth (Fremantle or Freo to the locals who shorten everything and/or stick an o on the end) is about 30 minutes on the train from Perth city, it's a really quaint town with trendy bars, restaurants (surprisingly a huge amount here are BYO so no alcohol costs), shops and a great deal of colonial architecture making it feel as though it has far more history than it does (about 150 years). It felt good to arrive in a place so starkly different from Asia (though we loved Asia), on our first Saturday we spent the day wandering round a food market and delis to get food for dinner, we went on a three hour walking tour of the main sights and ate fish and chips by the harbour.
In an attempt to recapture our youth, in addition to the fact that we booked our Round The World
The soppy shot
Scarborough beach, Perth tickets with STA (Student Travel Ass) we have now become fully paid up card-carrying members of the YHA (Youth Hostel Ass).....and it's obviously paying off as I got asked for ID one night in an over 18's bar despite being 27.
We have been spolit by travelling Asia first, we rarely paid over a tenner and got to stay in pretty decent places, now 20 quid (at the very minimum) gets us a room with no bathroom, similarly food, drink and travel costs have all shot up dramatically for us.
Our first taste of hostel living seemed to go OK, the overall feel is very student house and many of the guests actually stay in them longterm whilst they are working. The first place was pretty big with two big kitchens which enabled us to cook for ourselves and in doing so we got to meet other backpackers, including some real characters:
Eric: a 23 year old farm boy from Australia who had quit the family business to travel and kept us entertained with stories of herding cattle in groups over a km wide whilst he was on horseback and having a farm so big he could
Perth Skyline
Australias mini Manhattan drive for two hours without reaching the end as well as introducing us to the term 'bogan' which is sort of the Australian chav.
Chris: a strange guy who liked to think of himself as the hostel's night watchman and seemed to turn up wherever we went in Fremantle. Chris loved to make sure people were in bed on time to get up for work the next day despite never seeming to sleep himself.
The Japanese gang: each hostel we have stayed at so far had a Japanese group who kept themselves apart from everyone else and seemed to spend all of their time cooking or cleaning.
Our introduction to Australia's beaches began with a trip to Scarborough, though it was nothing like it's English namesake. A huge white sand beach and beautifully clear waters greeted us and despite it being the school holidays here and a Sunday it wasn't too busy. The strange thing about Perth is the huge skies, they seem to go on forever, are always brilliant blue and usually completely cloudless (less so in the city where there are high rise buildings!).
We spent a day on Rottnest island, so called because
Not A bad little beach, eh!
Little Parakeet Bay, Rotnest island the Dutch man who discovered it though that the resident Quokkas looked like rats (Rottnest = Rat's nest in Dutch). There are no cars on the island so we hired bikes and cycled the 14km around the edge stopping at gorgeous bays along the way to snorkel. Being skinflints we picked gearless biked and saved a few quid but the island had more hills than we anticipated and we were pretty saddle sore the following day, the bike's standard gear was so low at times after speeding downhill we had to practically come to a standstill before we could peddle! We even managed to see a few Quokkas, they are like mini Kangaroos with a bit of Beaver thrown in.
Our time in Perth was fairly limited but we managed to squeeze in 2 days in the Margaret River region. After a 4 hour bus journey we (along with Ana, a German we met along the way) arrived at YHA number 2 set right on the beach just outside Dunsborough, we must have looked a little lost as the bus sped away as one guy on a bike turned back on himself to check we were ok and an
Nice headgear!
Matts is back to front, but its a 50bucks fine if caught without one on Rotnest island old guy actually drove up to us to see if we needed a lift anywhere....so far this has been typical of the friendly Austalians we have encountered.
Margaret River is famous for its wine and after 4 months of barely any (except for Asia and its cold red) we booked onto a Bush Tucker day visiting 4 wineries for tasting, as well as a chocolate and cheese factory. The day was fantastic, the wine great and we had a huge lunch of bushtucker which included Kangaroo meat, I ate it (surprisingly) but found it to be a little bit strong tasting. We met a lovely couple Paul (Stockport, UK) and Nerida (Melbourne, Austalia), Nerida was the only one of our group brave enough to eat the witchety grub, though she did win a bottle of wine for her troubles!
Back at the beach at the end of the Bushtucker day we saw a Sting Ray in the shallow waters as we sat on the sand, Matt ran in to take a close look until a girl sitting near us shouted "Remember Steve Irwin" causing him to back off, apparantly they are pretty shy and will retreat when approached
A Rotnest Quokka
This is what happens when a Kangaroo and Beaver have too much to drink at the office party so they don't cause too many problems. There is a huge amount of bird life in Margaret River, certainly enough to please a lapsed twitcher (a.k.a. Matt), pelicans swoop over the sea looking for fish and the hostel we stayed at even had nesting Ospreys in certain seasons.
A BBQ at the Dunsborough hostel on our final night prepared us for the Ozzy way of celebrating Australia Day (26th Jan), we actually travelled back to Perth on the big day but arrived just in time to see the huge fireworks display, the whole country seemed to stop for the day and it was good to see a kind of country pride that I don't think we often see in England (unless it's sport connected).
Our last full day in Perth was spent daytime drinking along with Jolene who we met during our slow boat trip through Laos, and who is currently living in Perth before returning to England in March, before heading to a Vietnamese restaurant for noodle soup whilst slurping on our BYO wine!!
It's been a quick introduction to Australia and I wish we had more time to see the rest of this coast. The
Old meets New
A Perth Colonial hotel with its modern mirrored extension in the background area of Western Australia is so big that England, Germany and Japan could all fit into the same space with room to spare so it's been impossible to see everything. We have met some great people and had loads of tips to help us on the East coast. Our next stop is Ayers Rock (now called Uluru, the original Aboriginal name) where we hope to learn a bit more about the original inhabitants as well as see what we hope is going to be an amazing sight.
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winn et mozza
non-member comment
a little bit of cheeese!!
Well you both look fab!! how well and bronzed you both look (carla never seen you so brown) you are making us very envious as we sit in with 4 inches of snow around us(does look like a pic postcard though) Glad yu tried kangaroo, but as the title says we guess you stuck with a little bit of cheeese!!! The YHA looks so different to the one we stayed in, in our youth it looks cool. Glad to hear your cooking at last, bet yu misssed that. the beaches are lovely and what a blast to be there on Aussie Day (oops slipping into the local twang...) continue on saflelyand can't wait for shots from Uluru . Have a fab time our intrepid travellers, remember wants and needs..... love always weener and mozza xxxxx