Back in Perth - Day 6

--
I never get tired of saying this but... another glorious day today!... 32C

Tomorrow we start the longest tour we are going to do in Australia, Perth to Broome, 10 days all throughout the Western Coast of Australia, mostly in the outback, so as always it is very likely there won't be any posts for the next 10-11 days although once back into civilization I'll endevour to post all the missing blog entries as soon as possible so to be up to day again.

This is the part of Australia we were both (Aída and myself) really looking forward to. It is also the whale shark season so apart from swimming with dolphins and giant turtles we may get the chance to swim with the very friendly whale sharks too!

So today is a packing and getting ready kind of day. Laundry day, since this is probably the last time we can use a washing machine and a drier within the next 2 weeks or so, last minute shopping and in my case the search for the missing road sign...yes I saw a new road sign I haven't got yet and I suspect I know where it is but it has eluded me so far...so today is the day, it's either today or never!

After the laundry duties we went to have lunch and then it was time for me to improve my powernap technique. I'm hoping it'll become an olympic discipline in London 2012, I'll be taking the gold medal without breaking a sweat!

We kinda had a small accident at the laundry which made a few of our T-shirts practically unwearable, hence Aída went to do some shopping and I went in search of the missing road sign. I suspected where it was so today I just went there, directly and...

I found it!!, now, you'll have to forgive the photographer...based on the angle of the photo you may think the photographer was one of Snowhite's dwarfs, not quite, as my usual photographer was trying to buy some close to replace what she lost in the laundry accident this morning, I was on my own and there was nobody around who could take the critical shot so I used the timer function on my camera, put it on the grass up-right, pressed the button, run to the sign, adopted the standard position and... Click! another road sign that joins my collection!

I know is difficult to imagine but finding a new road sign is the same feeling you get when you find a 20€ note in your pocket that you didn't know you had. :-) 

There was a nice pond and lots of waterbirds around

And a nice view from Perth. :-)

Some other interesting facts about Australia... if you are Australian you may think this is the most normal thing in the world, but for the rest of us...it is not! :-)

Did you know they do not have Burger King?
Nope... instead they have...

yep, it looks like Burger King, it smells like Burger King, they serve the same menus than in Burger King but it's Hungry Jacks!! for some reason in Australia decided to change the name from Burger King to Hungry Jacks...

Another interesting fact. If you wanna buy some alcohol in Australia you don't go to an off-license, nope...you go to a bottle shop but here comes the kicker. Most bottle shops are, get this: drive-in bottle shops

That's right you are encoraged to drive your car there to pick up all the alcohol you need...but hey! don't drink and drive mate!

Another fact...there is no...good morning, good afternoon, good evening...it's all:  G'Day!
and they use it a lot...if you walk about anywhere and think you can pass someone by without a G'day...you'll be disappointed. :-) I think it's a good thing what they have going here. :-)

And something that I've noticed while going through the roads in Australia, specially in the outback, all drivers greet each other when passing each other by, and kids on the road sign the truck drivers (specially road trains) to blow the horn and funny enough they usually do! it's great fun! but I suppose when you don't see any other car for miles and miles you are just happy to find one and if you stop in one of the very few road stations...everyone will be happy to have a chat with you, most people there have been driving for days without any human contact...at least not more than ordering a coffee or a red bull if it's a tour guide.

And tour guides seem to follow a highly strict diet of Red bull and M&Ms
They all do...

Well that's all for today, tomorrow we'll be leaving at 06:45 (I almost complained about the late start). ;-) After being used to getting up at 04:00... anyway, you all take care and hopefully I'll be back in 10 days with lots more photos and interesting stories about Western Australia. :-)

--

Back in Perth - Day 5

--
Today we got up without a plan. Aída told me she would never go back to Kings Park, mind you, nothing against the park itself, it's got to do with the distance and the climb to it (it's quite far from our accomodation), after doing it twice, she didn't feel like going back there yet again so when we checked the weather... 30 C, we stared at each other and said...Beach!  :-)

You can never go wrong with the beach, specially in a glorious day like  this one, and now that we know Cottlesloe as if we were born there it was the obvious choice.

I'm afraid this isn't going to be one of those posts with lots of pictures, however I am sure it will delight all of you wearing a coat today. :-)

Wish you were here!

I can honestly say we didn't do anything else apart from being on the beach, well Aída was on the beach all day (mostly in the water), after lunch I went to the park and layed down in the shade, it was way too hot for me on the beach. That was our day at the office today. :-)

Over the past 2 months or so I came across some things that really caught my eye...or my ear in some cases and here is one of them, probably the best one:

The most colorful missuse of a word in Australia.
Do you know how they call the flip-flops over here? you wouldn't guess so let me help you... Thongs!
yes, that's right!, like in bikini thong, not sure how they call the bikini thongs though.

You can imagine my surprise back when we were in Tasmania about to climb a mountain and the guide tell us.

"You cannot climb this mountain wearing thongs! If you are wearing thongs go back to the bus and get changed!"

I remember at the time thinking...wow!...that's a bit too personal, isn't it?
and then wondered about the possible reason why you wouldn't be able to climb a mountain wearing a thong... 

Then the penny dropped!! :-) Live and learn...

Nonetheless, I still crack up when someone asks me whether I'll be wearing thongs today...


--

Back in Perth - Day 4

--
It was no surprise to find out we would be having another glorious day today with blue sky and a shiny sun, so it was time to go and visit Freemantle.

So back to the train station to take the same train we took when we went to Cottlesloe (the beach), Freemantle is only a few stops further in the line. In fact, is the end of the line.

Perth Central Station

Freemantle station

Freemantle is a nice and small picturesque village where the swam river ends. It was created as a penal colony and it evolved from there. Today it still has most of the original buildings, or at least the style. It is a popular place to go and spend your Sunday as we found out. The place was crowded with people, specially families it is a nice family day out, specially because of the Market which only runs from Fridays to Sundays.

We walked about and visited the village, there even was a boat market there! Anyone thinking of buying a boat? we are still on time to make your bidding.

After lunch and after having visited the whole village we decided to go to Cottlesloe (the beach) which was on the way back to Perth and spend the afternoon there.

Inside the Freemantle station

Today it was quite windy on the beach but there were quite a few people around

and despite of the strong wind, the sea was fairly calmed, i.e. no great waves. Perfect weather for kitte-surfing

Unfortunatelly, the wind was so strong it was difficult to take the picture so this is the best shot I got...with no kitte. O:-)

Then back to the train. The train station is probably about 1Km or so from the beach which you have to walk although it's a nice and friendly area to walk through

This time we didn't have to rush to cross the railways when we got there

Back to Perth, compulsory visit to McDonalds' free Wifi and finally back to our accomodation to get ready for another hard day at the office. ;-)

No plans for tomorrow...I think we'll play it by ear depending on the weather...


--

Back in Perth - Day 3

--

If you remember, yesterday when the shuttle bus from the ferry was driving us all around town leaving people in their respective accomodations, I had the chance to spot a shop specialised in sending parcels abroad so this morning while Aída went to do some shopping, I went there to enquire about their prices...I could certainly unload a few more kilos from my rucksack... I've got too many T-shirts!

The price to send to Spain a couple of Kg was $235. I still can't understand how I managed to keep my jaw from dropping to the floor when the guy told me. I must have had my best poker face on because he then asked me if I wanted to know the price for 5 Kg! and I replied I had all the info I needed thankyouverymuch! and I was already out in the street before I finished my sentence.

$235!!! for 2 Kg!!! if it were gold...I could understand but for a few stinking t-shirts... quite pricey...

I'll probably have to get back to the post office to send some more stuff back home...but at a more reasonable rate...There is a strict limit of 15 Kg on the next excursion...

By shipping the stuff back home it will take about 3 months to get there... on the positive side...My summer clothes will be navigating all around the globe and I'll receive them just when the summer is about to start. Just when I need them. That'll free up quite a lot of space in my room. :-)

That's an idea for the future in case you're running out of space in your room... it may be interesting to check the price for extra storage space and for shipping your clothes around the globe.

After this jaw dropping experience, I met Aída for lunch at a local bakery and then we decided to go and find "Jacobs ladder" which apparently is a famous staircase to climb from the river all the way to  Kings Park.

We did not find it but we found this:

Another road sign joining my collection. :-)

So we decided to follow another track we found and just when we were about to start it we saw signs for Jacob's ladder which we were about 980 metres away so we decided to carry on with the one we found and perhaps try Jacob's ladder some other day. As it turned out, later on we found out Jacob's ladder was closed due to the floodings from the other day.

Anyway, the path going up to Kings Park was a nice one

When we reached the park we just walked around it and found a nice spot in the middle where we decided to stop and spend an hour or two.

After that we went to do our daily duties at one of the local McDonalds and as we were starting to come out of the park we saw what look like the preparations for a concert.

I got curious so I asked one of the guards around the area who was playing tonight and he said it would be "Harry Connick Jr" I obviously have no idea who he is but may be someone out there knows... he even has a fan club. Harry Connick Jr - fanclub

As in all good concerts, logistics are very important

When we got to our accomodation, there was something going on at the nearby stadium, you could hear people cheering and booing, never found out what it was, maybe a Ozy Rules match, a soccer match? I doubt it would be cricket thouth...people would be sleeping and not shouting...

Today we decided that if the weather is good tomorrow we'll go and visit Freemantle which is another ex-penal colony which nowadays is quite picturesque or so they say...we'll see.
 
--

Back in Perth - Day 2

--

They came to pick us up at 7:15 am which is a very reasonable time considering our past experiences. A shuttle bus delivered us to the harbour where the Rottness Express was waiting for us...an another few hundred passengers.

This excursion was included in the package together with the hotel and it also included the bike rental. :-) Apparently the island is fairly flat and not too big, maybe 20 Km all around so you can easily move around using a bike which is the prefered transport type on the island. Everyone rides a bike!!

We started from the south of the island where the best snorkling points are and made our way to the beaches to the North. The black spots you see in the water are corals.

There are some popular spots where everyone stops

And the island is known for the great number of quokkas it contains. They were everywhere!

and they were quite friendly and used to humans and I know of one such human who couldn't resist the temptation

Although had you seen feeding one of them you could be heavily fined!


The island is also known by its nice beaches which of course we tried...at least 3 or 4 of them until we settled for one in the end. :-) The weather was good, about 30C but with clouds coming and going which made the heat much more bearable.

There was also a lighthouse

And they also use renewable energies in the island. Javi, this one is dedicated to you!

There were school trips in the island, and also a course about the island biology where they take you snorkling around the island, you can see them below just about to start the snorkling.

The ferry back to Perth was leaving at 16:00 so we went back to the ferry and returned the bikes.

And at the harbour in Perth we found the shuttle bus waiting for us.

This time it took so long to get to our accomodation that it would have taking us less time to walk there...but we didn't know that so we endured the whole trip. Which allowed us to spot a couple of interesting places in town.

No plans for tomorrow so we'll see what we end up doing. :-)



--