What can I say about Perth other than its pretty amazing!!! Only planned to be here for a couple of days before heading out to find work but found myself stuck here (again) soaking up the endless hours of sun and day-long clear blue skies!!! 40 degrees isn't uncommon here and summer has just finished. I'd hate to see what peak summer is like!!!

Well my first night here was - proudly - on the airport lounge floor, tucked away behind Thrifty and Hertz car rentals!!! I arrived with Jen and Sue from Cairns at 2am so it wasnt worth paying for a hostel that night - we were greeted 'nicely' by the car hire workers when they started around 5am...SMASH CRASH BANG! Later that day once in Perth I met up with none ofther than Desmond!!! Long time no see! One of my best mates from Uni.

Couple of days later I headed up to Cervantes and the Pinnacles Desert with the girls from Cairns which was amazing!!! We knew that the Pinnacles were best viewed at sunset so we timed it perfectly to get there (well...it wasn't exactly timed...the fact that we got lost driving kinda helped us get there a bit later!). The Pinnacles are a vast desert of upright rocks, stood like 10,000 sentries ready to march to war! There's literally thousands of these things dotted all over, different shapes and sizes - short, long, fat, thin! At sunset, their shadows eerily appear to grow as the sun sinks over the desert until the skies glows with a deep purple before the sun dissappears! It was pretty impressive! As the sky grew darker, everything slowly changes, the animals come out to play (including an inquisitive wild emu!!) and the place gets creepier! We drove round a bit more and took some amazing photos of the Pinnacles silhouetted against the glowing sunlit backdrop before being plunged into darkness! We sat there and and just admired the clear, star-lit sky - telling spooky stories to Sue! We were probably the only people in the desert at that time and it wasn't until the "What if's...?" that we headed back (what if we ran out of fuel here? what if we were attacked by a gang of vicious red kangaroos? what if we took a wrong turn?). Back at the hostel we just kind of sat there amazed with what we'd seen - oh yeah i forgot the many kangaroos we saw on the drive back, passing in front of us and not forgetting the drunken one that could barely stand!

Back in Perth, I went off and booked a day-trip to Rottnest Island with Adam my room mate. I didnt really know what was on the island but what the hell, its a day out! We hired bikes for the day and set off on the 25km around the island. Almost straight away we saw our first Quokka!!! A strange wallaby/rat-like animal found only on Rottnest Island - looks like a big rat, hops like a wallaby/kangaroo. Heading round we came across fantastic bays and coves, perfect for swimming with clear turquoise waters and completely surrounded by reefs - perfect snorkelling opportunities...if you had a snorkel mask with you! Everytime we saw gorgeous bay, we would always be amazed by the next which was even better!

After a lunch and swim stop at Mary Cove we headed onto Parakeet Bay where we found a wicked photos stop (which i'll put online) and then carried on round to 'The Basin' another awesome little beach where the reef was so close and loads of fish everywhere - to Adam's disgust! He's not a big fan of fishy things! And to my huge amusement has a complete hatred of dolphins!!! A little old woman lent me her snokelling stuff so i could go and see what was under there! It was wicked - right where we'd been 'paddling' there were these pretty big fish, angelfish and apparently a stingray but i didnt see that. What I was really looking for was Manta rays which apparently will swim right up to you and let you stroke them - but i saw none!

Bikes back and wandering around, we felt a little demeritted that we didnt take a picture of the ONLY Quokka seen on the entire island - but then...a little b***** runs (well hops) right past us near the cafe! Photos! Gotcha!

Back to the mainland, some Fremantle fish and chips and headed back for our last Goon night with us all together - Adam, Jen and Sue all left the next day! :( An eventful night (pretty ...no...very drunk), woke up in the ladies toilet (dont ask!) and found most ppl had disappeared!

Next day, phone call and job offered for going working on sheep station at Rawlinna in the Nullarbor Plains. So booked my train and just killing time now until Sunday when I go. Nothing of interest from there on really! See you back here in 3 months!