Welcome Raman! Our first guest blogger! Here is Raman's post on her visit to Perth...enjoy!
Perth bound.
Having spent two weeks in Indonesia with Kat and Naomi and still having some free time, Perth seemed the most logical place to go - Naomi can't have had enough of my company yet!
Getting into Australia was meant to be the easy part, apparently not when you are stopped by border control wondering why on my first visit to Australia from the UK I had come via Indonesia. Good job Naomi was there to vouch for me otherwise I might be on border force. So once we had located the car (Chris - Naomi wasn't worried at all you may have forgotten to leave the ticket.......) we arrived in Subiaco.
On her penultimate day of the holiday Naomi showed me Perth botanical gardens, Subicao and the numerous beaches of Perth. Not being a beach person I have to say that I was impressed...beaches as they should be: clean, white sand, clear sea and not too many people! I'm a bit dubious over how much time Naomi spends in the hospital and how much time she spend in coffee shops as there were many a recommendations so we had to try some, it would have been rude not to. To finish the end of Naomi's holiday we went for wood fired pizza and some beers from 'Little Creatures' - a Perth institution, yum!
View of Swan River
Perth beaches........it's a hard life.
So left to my own devices whilst Naomi went to work I thought I would see what happens in Perth over the Easter weekend. Well, all the people had disappeared (we figured out where they had gone later) and not much was open on Easter so I had a wander round Perth. The following days I did a couple of road trips.
Day trip one: Caversham wildlife park: kangaroos, koalas and wombats! Then I headed to the pinnacles national park with its limestone rock formations which was the highlight of the day. On the way back I stopped at Lancelin sand dunes where the whole group I was with had a go at sandboarding, more sandfalling I think but fun nevertheless.
Koala at Caversham Wildlife Park
Pinnacles in Nambung National Park
Day trip two: road trip to wave rock. This is a big rock about 350km from Perth. I now have a new found appreciation for distances, this rock was far and after travelling through the wheat belt of Perth for a few hours I realised there is a lot of road and field in Western Australia. En route, bearing in mind there is a wedding in July 2015 I found Naomi a wedding dress (see below). Personally I thought the headpiece was the deal breaker but don't think she has gone back for it ....yet.
Driving through the wheat-belt, driving and driving
Wave Rock
My remaining days whist Naomi was at work involved getting better acquainted with Perth: back to the beaches for sunset, Perth mint, Fremantle - here I did a an underground tunnel tour (I may need to know escape routes for the future) which was pretty cool - an alternative view to convict life.
Back to Perth beaches
Did I mention it was a hard life?
Cottesloe Sunset
Fremantle Prison
Heading down into the tunnels
Down, down, down!
So Naomi finally finished work and I had a few days left, consequently we headed down to Margaret River. This was where all the Perth people had gone to this Easter and I can see why. This was probably my favourite part of Western Australia. We visited wineries and chocolate factory before sunset spot on the various beaches around Margaret River. The views were pretty spectacular. Afterwards we went to find dinner and sampled some of the Margaret River wines whilst putting the world to right. Good times!
At Margaret River
Chocolate!
Vasse Felix Winery
Wine!
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Contos Beach
Contos Beach Sunset
The following day after breakfast (as well as knowing many places for good coffee, Naomi also knows many places which are good breakfast spots) we went paddle boarding on the Margaret River. So if you hadn't guessed from Naomi's Indonesia post that wasn't my favourite activity in Indonesia however seeing as we brought the stand up paddles I had a go. Actually it was much more fun than I thought and we paddled up the river for a few hours - I was quite tired by the end but didn't fall into the river so that was a plus (editor..She didn't fall INTO the river but did manage a spectacular crash into a tree followed by face-planting her board!).
Margaret River prior to Paddle-boarding
When we got back to Perth Chris had returned from his travels so the next day the three of us went to Rottnest Island on the morning ferry. On arrival bikes were hired and Naomi and Chris gave me a tour of the island with stops at the beaches and viewpoints. So Chris and Naomi have a wildlife game, different animals get different points it turns out I don't have wildlife spotting eyes and lost ........ice-creams on me. Naomi wins with the pelican spot although Chris was close with the snake. It turns out when someone says there is a snake behind you it's not a joke in Australia, there really was - thanks Chris.
Rottnest Island
Making friends with a Quokka
Thanks for having me!
