Adelaide: Bound for South Australia

Sunday

Unfortunately, despite loving the city and enjoying the relaxed atmosphere, Perth had felt slightly rushed due to the accommodation issues. Still there was nothing we could do about that and we were preparing ourselves for our slightly confusing flight to Adelaide. Our email told us it would take 3 hours but the arrival time just didn't match up to what we thought it should be. Anyway, we were up early, waking everyone else in our room while we sorted our things out. We checked out and prepared ourselves for the short, yet sweaty walk to the CAT stop; it was due to hit 42 degrees in town over the next couple of days. We didn't have long to wait before the bus turned up and it was only a couple of stops to the main bus station, to connect with the bus to the airport. We changed platforms, hopped on the bus and, despite the initial confusion about which terminal everyone was going to, were soon on our way. Despite being a domestic flight, we needed the international terminal, as that is where all of Virgin Australia's flights depart from. We rattled through the suburbs and reached the airport in about half an hour. After checking in ourselves we still had an hour and a half until departure, so we treated ourselves to a cup of coffee in the departure lounge. The time flew by and before we knew it we were taking off into the clear blue sky. Normally, I would write about short journeys but the views from the plane were great (unfortunately, we didn't get any photos). It was so clear, we could see the yellow, sandy beaches and the incredibly clear sea washing up in them as we flew over the Great Australian Bight. We started seeing clouds as we approached Adelaide but they were fairly sporadic. As we were coming in to land we flew directly over the city centre and could easily pick out the Adelaide Oval sports ground from our window, before arriving safely at the airport. This was when our confusion about timings was finally cleared up. We had convinced ourselves that Adelaide was 1 and a half hours ahead of Perth, so +9.30 from UK time. The pilot announced the time was actually an hour later than what we thought it was, so in an instant, we lost an hour of our lives. But, the time issue was sorted out and we were +10.30 from UK time. We piled off the plane and headed out into the warm, sunny evening to find the bus that would take us into the city. It was fairly easy to find, however, the pricing system was rather complicated and the grumpy businessman standing st the bus stop did little to help us. We decided to leave the ticket purchasing for the bus and when it pulled up we asked the bus driver. She was just as grumpy as the businessman but we did manage to get a couple of tickets from her. So far, the hospitality of South Australia wasn't really holding up against the happiness of the people we had met in Western Australia. She didn't even tell us what stop we needed to get off at. Fortunately, Charlotte had done her research and could see the stop numbers as we passed. We hopped off and walked the short distance to our hostel. At first glance it seemed more like a pub, or it had at least been one in a previous life. We headed to our room and then wandered out to have a quick look around town. We did one large rectangle around our hostel, in the hope we would find somewhere to buy some dinner but everything was closed (we didn't find a supermarket but all the other shops we found were shut)  and the streets were deserted. It was 7 o'clock on a Sunday evening, so we weren't particularly surprised and suspected Australia might have similar Sunday trading laws to back home. We returned to the hostel defeated and resorted to asking at the reception to see if they could help us. They confirmed our suspicions that we would be able to find one open tonight but they did point us in the direction of a 24 hour petrol station that was just a block down the road. We walked down and were pretty pleased to find it contained a Subway, so we instantly decided to eat there for dinner. We walked back nice and full and spent a long evening Skyping home.

Monday

We'd had quite a late night on Skype and the 2 and a half hour time change hadn't helped with getting to sleep. To counteract that, we decided to skip the free breakfast for a morning and wake up naturally. We stirred around half 10 (which makes sense, as that would be around 8am where we had been) and freshened up ready to have a look around a hopefully livelier Adelaide. On the way out the door, we stopped by reception and got the receptionist to book an appointment for one final blood test for the following day. Just to make sure that the Dengue had cleared up completely. It may have been 42 degrees in Perth but it was pretty toasty where we were and we definitely didn't regret slapping the sun cream on before we left. We walked in the same direction we had the day before but saw a lot more life than we had done. We hit King William Street which seemed to be the main road of the city, with the tramline running along it. We were heading in the direction of the Adelaide Oval, which we had seen flying in, home to The state cricket team and the local Aussie Rules Football team. It was a pleasant walk in the sun, across the River Torrens. We found the stadium but it was in a similar state of closure we had found the WACA in back in Perth. The area was very quiet and there was obviously nothing happening in the stadium any time soon. We did notice a large statue of legendary South Australia and Australia cricketer Sir Donald Bradman, so I took the opportunity to get a snap with that. I bored Charlotte yet again with some cricketing trivia about Don Bradman as we moved  in through the park that surrounded the ground. Up next was a small statue/fountain in the shape of an Aussia football. The only thing marked on our map past the ground was St.Peters Cathedral, which was on the other side of a road just outside the park. It was an impressive building that wouldn't have looked out of place in Paris or Rome. That concluded our tour north of the river and we circled round the stadium past the practice pitches and crossed the river back into the city. As we were on the bridge, a large red Greyhound Australia bus chugged past us, something we would become very familiar with over the coming month or so. We turned on to Hindley Street, which our map told us was one of the main restaurant roads in town. It also seemed to be the seediest road in town thanks to the number of strip clubs down it. We walked on by and eventually hit Rundle Mall, which is a nice pedestrianised street with shops, souvenir places and cafes. It's only problem is that it runs East to West and gets so the sun all day during the summer, leaving very little shade to hide in. We went straight for the souvenir shops and picked up an Adelaide pin badge to stick on our ever growing piece of card. With that done it was time for some lunch and we found a Woolworths further down the mall. We picked up some wraps, cheese, ham and a cold drink, and found a precious piece of shade to relax and eat. We had gone for bulk buys of cheese and ham in the hope they would see us through numerous lunches for the rest of Adelaide. After lunch we popped back to the hostel to drop off the perishable foods and contemplated what to do for the remainder of the day. We had nothing on our list so wandered back into town in the hope of finding a cheap sleeping bag for a tour that was coming up but we had no luck. Everything we found was either unsuitable or far too expensive. With nothing left to do we picked up some dinner, which consisted of flavoured chicken fillets, rice and veg and walked back to our hostel for the evening. The kitchen was very busy and very small so we relaxed in the room until later in the evening and it quieted down a little bit. Dinner was still a nuisance to cook as the long termers seem to think they own the place and whinge when their pots are moved in order to make some space on the hob. Dinner was fantastic and a nice big portion to fill us up for the night.

Tuesday

We were up fairly early this morning as I had an appointment at a local clinic to have one final blood test. It was nice and easy apart from the doctor who seemed slightly sceptical about whether or not I needed one. The doctor, who was originally from the UK was very critical of the way we had been advised while receiving our jabs. Dengue had never really cropped up as a genuine threat and we had only been bug spraying for the evening, while the Dengue mosquito bites from dawn until dusk. It was pretty clear to see where we had gone wrong. We asked him about the risk in Australia but he told us it was very low and almost unheard of, which was a relief. We went downstairs and a slightly eccentric nurse took the blood sample, we left and awaited the results to come via email. We had a relaxing day around town for the rest of the day, picking up some food and just browsing, as Adelaide didn't have a huge amount to offer. We did however have a good evening as the hostel put on a free BBQ, along with large amounts of free salad and bread to go with it.

Wednesday

Our plan for today had been to rent bikes for free from our hostel and cycle along the river to the beach. A quick look at the bikes did put us off though. Like the ones we rented in Siem Reap, they weren't in the best repair. Most of them had flat tyres, leaving only a couple of rickety ones available. We decided to rely on ourselves instead and walk the river. We prepared our packed lunch in our newly purchased insular Coles (Aussie supermarket) bag. A couple of wraps, some grapes, carrot sticks and a cold orange juice each. We had to pass through town and walk up to the cricket stadium in order to reach the park running alongside the river. It was a pleasant walk that runs for about 12 and a half kilometres from Adelaide city centre all the way to the beach at a place called West Beach. We didn't go the entire way as it was a very hot day. Just before we were going to stop for lunch, work on a bridge meant we had to make a rather large diversion through a residential area and join back up with the river further along. After only a few hundred metres we found a park that had a number of shaded benches under which to eat our lunch. We ate pretty well despite dropping half of it on the floor and attracting a huge colony of ants that came to claim the food. The park we were in was part of the residential area we had walked through earlier and was a great little spot to relax. Our only worry was the deadly spiders that we were convinced were loitering up in the rafters of the shaded areas. We didn't get attacked fortunately and returned to the river to wander the 4-5 miles back into Adelaide. We were absolutely gasping by the time we made it back to the city and found a supermarket where we could buy a small supply of cold refreshing drinks. We'd seen on our map that there was an independent map shop in town and we were in need of a Tasmania road map to plan our trip there at he end of March. We found one by Lonely Planet that had more information and was much clearer than one we had found in a bookshop the day before so we picked it up for a similar price. We had one more stop for the day which was Adelaide Central Market a few blocks down. The fruit was hard to resist at such a good price, so we picked up some Plums, Mandarines and a couple of Nectarines to cover us for the next couple of days. After  that, it was a short walk back to our hostel for a relaxing evening. To miss the chaotic kitchen, we got there early and had a fairly easy time of it, although it meant we had a fairly early dinner. We couldn't complain though, the rice and veg was simple but really good and the fruit afterwards topped it all off.

Thursday

This was our final day in Adelaide, from 5 nights that seemed to have flown by. Having not made it to the beach the day before, we were determined to get there today. We decided to make use of the tramline which goes all the way to the town of Glenelg, located on the coast. It was a 20 minute trip and we were dropped off along the Main Street of the town. It was lined with shops either side and Charlotte managed to pick up up a new pair of pineapple emblazoned flip flops to replace her worn out old ones that she ditched in a bin along the street. In a matter of moments we hit the beach that had turquoise blue waters and bright yellow sands. We wandered along the short pier, where a few people were fishing but not catching a great deal. To our right the planes were taking off every 5 minutes from Adelaide airport. The noise was a bit of a nuisance but it's hard not to find aeroplanes taking off fascinating. We walked along the prom for a while to pass the time before lunchtime came around. Being by the seaside there were a few fish and chip shops to choose from, so we picked one out, found a shady seat and tucked in to a not great but acceptable portion of fish and chip. It was nice but compared to what we can get back home it didn't hold up. After lunch we treated ourselves to a big, fat ice cream and took it down to the beach to enjoy the view while we ate it. For the afternoon we decided to test out the water, trying to avoid the large group of Japanese people screaming, like they had never been swimming before. The water was much warmer than our quick dip in the Indian Ocean at the West Coast and we walked up and down the beach a few times, enjoying the gentle waves lapping against our feet. I tried to go in fully but it did get slightly chilly and with no towel it didn't seem like the best idea. The afternoon had flown by and we wandered back into town and had a casual nose through some of the souvenir shops looking for a wide brimmed hat for a tour that was coming up but we left empty handed. The time had come to head back to Adelaide, so we hopped back on the tram and went all the way to Rundle Mall in order to do a small amount of hat hunting and finally a quick bit of supermarket shopping for dinner. We had a little treat tonight, a curry with some poppadoms to have on the side. We were watched like Hawks while we were eating outside by a large group of colourful Australian Ringneck Parrots.

That was our time for Adelaide. It had been nice and relaxing but it was a fairly quiet city, with not a great deal to see. We were ready for a hefty coach ride the next day into the outback to the town of Alice Springs.

James and Charlotte

Perth: Antipodean Adventures

Wednesday

We were up early in order to squeeze in a quick visit to Raffles Hospital before our flight. We ate breakfast around the huge group of overweight schoolchildren that had checked into the hostel the night before and were putting Nutella on their bread and putting it in the toaster, despite the large sign above the toaster informing them not to. The first bit was just to take some more of my blood. We popped back to our hostel while the test was being done in order to make sure all our things were together and we were ready to go. We weren't only going to the hospital for the blood test results but for the key blood pressure results too. If it turned out to be too low, the doctor had said he would recommend me not flying. Our preference was to fly either way however, we both don't enjoy it and wanted to get our longest one so far out of the way sooner rather than later. We wandered back to the hospital, fairly confident we'd be in the Southern Hemisphere by day's end. We saw a different doctor this morning, we assumed our normal one had the day off. The results were heading back in the right direction, albeit rather slowly, and he said we would be okay to fly. He did tell us that if it had been the day before, he would have told us not to due to low blood pressure. It was a big relief and we could finally start to get excited about heading to Australia. We sped back to the hostel to collect our things and flagged a taxi down to get us to the airport. Fortunately, with Singapore being such a dinky country, the airport was only a 20 minute drive away, so we made it with plenty of time to spare. We joined the relatively short queue at the 'Scoot' desk ready to check in our bags. This had been the flight we had been dreading since we'd booked it, before we had left the UK. 15kg of checked baggage is not much when travelling the world and we weren't confident that atleast mine would be under that limit. Despite the queues short length, everyone seemed to be in huge groups and checking their lives possessions on to the plane and it dragged. Eventually, we made it to the desk and Charlotte went first, as we were pretty confident her bag would be fine. The result was 14.2kg, pretty good but still close to the mark. With Charlotte's bag whisked off it was my turn to step up to the plate. To say I was pleased when the small screen stopped on 15kg dead was an understatement. It took a good while for the huge grins to disappear from our faces. We'd achieved the weight limit with very little loss of our belongings, only almost empty smellies and Charlotte's 7 month old, well worn, rather smelly Sketchers trainers bit the dust. We finished checking in and headed through passport control to hunt down out departure gate. As ever it was a long trek away from passport control but time was on our hands. We sat around by the gate until it opened and joined the queue to board our plane to the Southern Hemisphere. As I regularly mention, neither of us enjoy flying. It didn't fill us with confidence when we were sat on an aeroplane of a company neither of us had ever heard of and the pilot says "let's Scoot on out of here", (Scoot is the name of the company, so he probably gets a bonus for saying it". It was a really good flight though and the 5 hours absolutely flew by, if you'll excuse the pun. At about quarter past 6 in the evening, we landed in Australia. We were really excited despite the fact we still had to get through Australia's tough border control (Charlotte used to watch 'Nothing to Declare' so much back home we were pretty much experts on the process!), however, we had no fruit, no vegetables, no excess cash, no wooden items and were only visiting on a tourist visa, so we were slightly disappointed to absolutely fly through with no problems at all. We still managed to get an Australian passport stam though, despite a man trying to get us through the e-passport gates. Where's the fun in that! We didn't come all this way to not get a passport stamp!! Anyway, we were off into the big bad world of Australia and hunted down the stop for the shuttle bus into Perth. After a short wait it pulled up, we chucked our luggage in the trailer and started into the city. We had only been in the country for a matter of minutes but were already amazed by what we were seeing. The sun was setting and the sky had turned a beautiful green colour. We had read that the shuttle does drop offs at accommodation upon request but when we asked ours she was adamant that they hadn't been doing that for a long time. She was still very nice and when she dropped us off at her designated stop she gave us very clear directions and even walked with us for the first small part. We found the place relatively easily, despite it being down a dark road in what looked, through the night, like a residential neighbourhood. We tried the door but found it locked and with no bell in sight, were left wondering how to gain access. Eventually, the receptionist appeared from nowhere and let us in. He looked like an interesting chap, not in keeping with what we expect a hostel receptionist to look like. Let's just say he would look more at home driving around a small Australian town in a pick up, or ute as it is known colloquially. He didn't seem overly interested when showing us around and dumped us in the messiest, most unappealing room we had seen in 7 months of travelling. We went down to the kitchen to fill our water bottles up and had to walk through the stares of the entire hostel population (all long termers, who were living there and working in Perth) and visit the filthiest kitchen we had seen in 7 months. We got our water and returned to our room, far from convinced by our Perth digs. I was still exhausted and recovering from Dengue, so Charlotte started looking for a different place to stay there and then. We found somewhere fairly close by but decided to walk there the next morning to have a look before we made any quick decisions. While we were browsing, 2 of our roommates came into the room and one was anything but welcoming. Charlotte was standing by my bed and his was below me. He ushered Charlotte out they way saying "this is my bed, where's yours?", as if she had no right to even be in the room. This was the final nail in the coffin for this particular hostel and we couldn't wait to get this night over and done with and get out.

Thursday

We had hoped to be out and about in Perth today enjoying the city but instead were fairly preoccupied by trying to move hostels. Charlotte had found one just down the road, so, after waking up at half past 10, we skipped breakfast and walked to the new hostel. It was only a 10 minute walk and despite the scaffolding next door, pretty easy to find and fairly quiet. The receptionist was really welcoming and nice and confirmed our suspicions that they had 2 beds remaining. Despite our desperation to move we took her up on her offer to have a look at the room first. It looked like a palace compared to our current one, so we snapped up the 2 beds before it was too late. We returned to the horrible hostel with the intention of collecting our bags and checking out. The first part was the easy part. We packed away the very few items we had used the night before and headed for the reception. The problem was that there was nobody there to speak to about checking out. To save hanging around for ages we took our bags to the new hostel and checked in to our room. It was quiet, the kitchen was sparkling and everyone seemed nice. It was also time for lunch and we were starving having missed breakfast. We wandered down a road near our new hostel and found some life in the otherwise quiet area. There were a few shops, a park and more importantly and couple of cafes. We picked one called 'Dôme' (which so far on our travels seem to be exclusively located in Western Australia), which sort of looked like a Toby Carvery/Harvester sort of place and went in. It was more cafe than Gastro pub but it was fine. This was our first foray into Australian pricing and it was a little bit of a shock as to how expensive things were. We had to eat though and got a huge sandwich each, as well as a large bowl of chips to share. We were pretty full by the time we had finished and were almost ready to get into the city. After a quick stop off at the new hostel it was time to ditch the old one. We were struggling to come up with a way of telling them that we were leaving, without causing too much of an issue. The one we decided to roll with was that we were flying to Adelaide early. The only problem we had was that we had already moved our bags and if we both went back to check out it might look slightly strange. Charlotte was the brave one to go while I "stayed with the bags". She managed to find the odd receptionist and asked to check out. He then shouted round the corner to a colleague, "Bob! That British couple want to check out". We had obviously been spoken about. Charlotte said Bob was much nicer, easier to speak to and understanding. He enquired as to why we were checking out and if there was any problems but Charlotte just told him we were moving on to Adelaide earlier than planned. What we didn't expect was a full refund bar the night we had already had, which was an added bonus. With the deed done, Charlotte returned triumphant. It was time to get into Perth. By this time it was creeping into mid afternoon so we didn't have a great deal of time to do anything. We walked to the train station, which took about 15 minutes at a leisurely pace and picked up a CAT bus, which stands for Central Area Transit. They have 4 lines, which cover most places within the city and the best part is, they are absolutely free. We hopped on the green CAT and headed for a place that interested me slightly more than it did Charlotte, the WACA. It stands for Western Australia Cricket Association but the name also applies to the cricket ground and is where England have a habit of losing test matches when they play for the Ashes in Australia. We were the only ones to get off the bus at this stop and it was pretty quiet around the ground. We walked round the entire stadium but it was boarded off and there wasn't really much to see. It gave me the opportunity to bore Charlotte to death with facts like the wind called the Fremantle Doctor which cools the city of Perth down during the afternoon and is so strong it can effect play at the WACA. It blows in from the Indian Ocean and is so called as it seems to come from the nearby coastal city of Fremantle (see, now I'm boring you with it!). We took a snap with the stadium badge and wandered off back in the direction of the CAT. It was free so we thought we would make the most of it. We had nothing else planned for our day but stopped off at a shopping area to buy a fruity drink to refresh ourselves. We sat on a bench in the shade and watched the world go by, still having to pinch ourselves that we were actually in Australia. After our pit stop it was back onto the CAT  to the train station. On the way we spied a souvenir shop outside but had to wait all the way to the train stations that was the next stop. It was only a 5 minute walk round the corner. We managed to find the obligatory pin badge and snapped it up so we didn't have to worry about it. It was early evening, so we decided to walk back to the hostel and hope there would be a supermarket nearby where we could pick up some dinner. We were informed by reception that we'd have to return to town as that's where the big supermarkets were, otherwise, we would have to make do with a petrol station. We walked the 20 minutes back into the city and visited Woolworths (completely different from our Woolworths but with exactly the same name) and picked up dinner. We returned once more to the hostel but held off cooking for a while as it was rather busy. Eventually, we managed to squeeze ourselves on to a hob and cook up our chicken and pasta. Before hitting the hay, we booked a ferry for the next day that would take us to Rottnest Island, about 20km off the coast in the Indian Ocean.

Friday

We had an early start in order to catch the CAT to the Barrack Street Jetty, where we would then catch our ferry to Rottnest Island. We found a seat on one of the sun decks and settled down for the ride. We started off along the Swan River, which gave us good views of Perth on either side. After an hour or so of passing through the affluent suburbs, which previously contained Australia's most expensive house, which sold for Aus$57.5 million (or not far off £30 million), we hit the coastal city of Fremantle. The ferry made a stop here where it picked up a horde of locals who were after a day out on the island.  When we were pretty much full to sinking, we picked up some speed and shot across the calm ocean and arrived in about 45 minutes. We had the option to rent bikes and explore the island that way but I was still suffering from Dengue, which had the tendency to make me really tired, so we stuck with walking and wouldn't go too far. The cruise to the island had taken a couple of hours, so by the time we arrived we fancied something to eat. We found the local supermarket in the centre of the main settlement, which as far as we could tell, was called Settlement but is near Thomson Bay, so it might be called that too. After our slap up lunch of cheese and ham rolls we walked around the island in search of the kangaroo like animal called the Quokka. We found a viewing point looking across the see first and we took some time to admire the incredibly clear waters and a woman passing offered to take photo for us. In the distance, we could just about make out the hazy skyscrapers of Perth jutting upfront the ocean. On the next stretch we found a lighthouse but it was the beach behind that lighthouse that was worth the hot walk up the hill. It was tucked away in a cove and crescent shaped. As perfect beaches go it was almost a clichė but to us Brits who are used to pebbles caked in smelly seaweed, it was pretty special. We picked up our flip flops and walked along the edge of the water. We may not find the beach at home but the water temperature wasn't far off from a cold winters night in the English Channel, it was freezing. We didn't fancy climbing over the rocks at the end, so we turned around and walked along the beach again. Somehow, on the return leg, I missed a rock in the sand and caught my foot on it, bringing up a nice cut in an awkward place. We climbed back up the steps to the lighthouse and cleaned our feet off with some seawater we had bottled up before ascending. It was blowing a hoolie at the top of the hill and it was actually quite hard to keep our things together. With the wound and our feet cleaned we walked back to town. I was already struggling with fatigue by now and when we got back to town, we picked up a cold drink and some food in the hope it would give me some energy. It didn't and after wandering around the port area for a little while, we found a shaded bench on which to rest. I decided to rest my eyes for a few minutes and unsurprisingly, fell asleep while Charlotte kept me from falling off the bench. It was annoying to still be suffering from something I had picked up almost 3 weeks earlier but atleast we could get out the room, unlike in Singapore. The sleep didn't really help how I felt and it didn't help in convincing Charlotte that I would be fit enough to complete a 3 day trip in the Australian outback in a couple of weeks time. Despite her best efforts to cancel it and get a full refund, she was being told that they could only refund 50% of what was quite an expensive trip. I was sure I would be fine though and knew we would have time to relax in Adelaide. We wandered around a little bit more and were in the right place at the right time to spy an elusive Quokka shading himself under a tree. It was clear now why the Dutch explorers who had found the island had called it Rottnest, which means Rats Neat. The Quokka looked like a tiny Kangaroo and had a long rat like tail. We had read the island was covered with the animals but we only saw the one, as they are nocturnal. We had also heard the fashion is to take a selfie with the Quokka but we left the little guy alone (as we had also heard that they are a little bit flea infested). We still had the 2 hour ferry back to Perth, which was due to leave at about half past 4, so we were lingering around the harbour area for a reason. We wandered along the jetty and along with a few other people who had had their fill of Rottnest Island, managed to get onboard our boat and secure ourselves a seat inside with the air conditioning. The boat quickly filled up and we started back across the ocean to Fremantle. For the entire journey we eavesdropped on a painful conversation between an elderly English couple and a group of female Chinese tourists. They could understand basic English but hit a wall when the man started talking about the use of Cod and Haddock in British fish and chips compared to Barramundi in Australian fish and chips. We did chuckle. We made a couple of stops dropping the masses off in Fremantle and then chugged on to Perth.

We chose to walk back into the city as we needed to swing by the supermarket for some provisions before heading home. As frugal as ever, we still had some pasta sauce left over from our previous evening, so dinner was the same as the night before.

Saturday

Already, we had reached our final day in our first destination in Australia. After a tiring day the day before we were in no hurry to get up and out. When we did, we took advantage of the free breakfast offered by the hostel. After some toast and cereal we wandered out into Saturday morning Perth. I can't actually remember if we walked or caught the bus but somehow, we made it down to Barrack Street Jetty again, which is where we caught the ferry to Rottnest Island the day before. This area was buzzing with families enjoying the riverside area. It all seemed quite clean and fresh, so it may have been newly renovated. For the next 2 hours we walked along the Swan River, making use of the parkland that covers 90% of its banks. A couple of time we sat down on a bench and simply enjoyed the views across the wide river to South Perth. When we turned back on ourselves we felt the full force of the Fremantle Doctor hitting us in the face. It really was cooling but not to the point of being unpleasant and it just meant we had to be extra careful not to burn in the sun. We spied a hill just beyond the city and were curious as to what the statue on it was but by the time we moved on we had forgotten all about it. By now we had reached lunch and we did briefly look for a Starbucks but there wasn't any around. We went to Woolworths instead and picked up a cold drink, some ready made sandwiches and I splashed out on a sausage roll. The sandwiches were a little disappointing and the sausage roll was very bland (they clearly haven't mastered them down under yet!) but we were full and fairly happy. We had exhausted things to do in the city by now and wandered back to our hostel in the hope of finding something else to do. We had a place called Kings Park written down on our to do list and it was also visible on our map but we had somehow so far missed it. We walked in the parks direction, through the light industry suburbs of Perth and found the park just past some roadworks. It seemed rather plain and boring when we first reached it but after following the pathway a little bit it really became worth the walk. The Swan River slowly came into view above some trees and then when those trees broke, the city of Perth emerged looking resplendent in the setting Saturday sun. We carried on a short distance and found a viewing platform that provided an even better angle. We sat here for a short while, I was still slightly effected from exhaustion, but it was mainly for the peaceful, outstanding views of the city of Perth. While we were sat there, an elderly gentleman strode on to the platform in his Khaki shorts snapped a photo and strolled off as quickly as he arrived. We assumed he did this everyday and took the same photo everyday and we really couldn't blame him, we both agreed we could happily see that view everyday. The time came to move on and it was quickly becoming clear that sooner or later we would bump into the statue we had seen from the riverside earlier. Turns out, it was the city's cenotaph, looking out across the whole of Perth. Again there were people of all ages using the green space, enjoying the views, having barbecues and sunbathing, even as the sun was dipping into the Indian Ocean. We only had a couple of hours in the park, as we needed to get back to pack our bags for our flight the next day, which was a little disappointing. It finished off our visit to Perth nicely and when we got back to our hostel we did a little bit of reading up on the park. Apparently it is one of the biggest parks in the world and contains botanical gardens and a reservoir, so we had only seen a tiny bit of it. We couldn't help but be envious of the locals who get to enjoy it every weekend. Dinner turned out to be a bit of a disaster as I somehow managed to burn the pizza and the garlic bread. I blame it on not having used an oven for months though.

In a flash, Perth was done and dusted. We had loved it, as I hope the blog made clear. Dengue was still effecting operations but I was becoming fitter by the day so it was nothing to worry about. The city of Adelaide was our next destination, in the state of South Australia.

James and Charlotte