1 Week On

So 1 week in Oz done!

So last time I wrote we had decided to take a few days off  the masses of paperwork to do some touristy stuff. First on the list was a visit to Kings Park. This time we headed to the south east corner which contained the botanical gardens. At the entrance to the park is a large war memorial which provides a great lookout point with views across the river and Perth skyline. Not a bad place to start!

 

Next we wandered round the botanicals, which had been divided up into plants from the different regions of Australia. There was also an elevated walkway so you could view the gardens from within the canopy. My favourite spot was the Giant Boab. This is a tree 14m high and 2.5m wide. It was a gift to the park from the Gija people, an indigenous group for the Kimberley region of WA. The tree was transported 3200km on the back of a lorry before being replanted in Kings Park. Pretty cool!

Later on we planned on going for a bike ride into the Perth Hills. Unfortunately Chris's bike did not survive the 14000km journey from Preston. The tip of the brake level snapped off, an annoyingly expensive and difficult fix! Rather than waste the day, we hired a bike and set off in search of some hills! We did a nice gentle 60km into the Kalamunda national park. Not quite in training mode yet... So we enjoyed a sneaky coffee and cookie stop! We then cycled back to Perth along the river the sun was out and so were all the tourists! We stopped off at the old port for an ice-cream (definitely not in training mode yet!) and this is where we has our first deadly encounter....jellyfish! I wondered why no one was paddling?!

 

 

Ice cream was later followed by our first Aussie BBQ and second deadly encounter under the bin... a great western killer snake... or maybe just a harmless large worm!