Hey all

On Thursday evening, after 2 very long flights from Tanzania via Dubai we arrived in Perth! I was very very excited to be in Australia, after so many years of wanting to visit the country, and Phil was looking forward to it too.

We flew from Tanzania and arrived at Dubai airport, complete with fake palm trees at midnight. We only saw the skyline and airport in Dubai but it was pretty cool to be there, especially as it meant we were able to add another continent to our world tour! We wandered round the 'middle eastern' shops but due to my 2 mini bottles of wine on the plane I was banned from shopping (by Phil, not a security guard I might add!), so we just enjoyed the atmosphere. It was crazy to think that whilst i was wearing a jumper inside the airport due to the aircon, it was 32 degrees at midnight outside!

We have just spent 4 days in Perth, and stayed at a family firends. It's been really nice to stay with friends and have some 'home comforts' - namely a hot shower and a washing machine! The family we are staying with have a two year old so we have spent time at the beach sunbathing and building sandcastles, playing games in the park and watching cartoons, and we have also explored the city centre and Freemantle, a nearby port town. Both Phil and I were really impressed with Perth - maybe it has something to do with the fact that it's the first western city we've been to since Africa, but it just feels so modern and trendy and is unbelievably clean. As the city is relatively new, it has been designed so that everything feels as though it functions and fits - nothing really looks out of place here. The city is also really pretty, on one side are sky scrapers and the shopping and business district, and on the other side is the water front where people sail and jetski. The park we went to was high on a hill above Perth and had some stunning views of the city, and was also a really nice park with lots of plants and wildlife. While we were there we even saw a wedding taking place!

Perth also has a lot of beaches and a real surfy vibe to it, which I felt was like the 'real oz' I had expected. We spent one day at the beach having a picnic, sunbathing and building sandcastles in amongst all the teenagers bodyboarding and adults kitesurfing - although neither I nor Phil were brave anough to have a go at it myself!

Today was our last day and we went to Freemantle - a small but really quirky port town. The town is famous for it's 'cappuccino strip', a street full of cafes with outside eating areas, so we spent a good part of the day sipping coffee, playing cards and watching the world go by. We also had a walk round the town and were lucky enough to see a cannon being set off as a reinactment of what used to happen in the past to warn the sailors that it was 1pm, but watching the reinactment may meen we set off the security alarms at the airport tomorrow as there is a chance we could have traces of explosives on us (according to the woman who was settling off the cannon, as it has happened to her before!) we'll see what happens though. We had a look in the nice surf shops and book stores which Freemantle has too, before going for yet more coffee and heading home!

We fly to Alice Springs tomorrow to start our tour of Ayres Rock (sorry Grandma, Uluru), Kings Canyon and the outback which we're really looking forward to. We've stocked up on the sunblock and hats, so hopefully won't get burnt this time!

Will write another post after the tour, hope to hear from you all soonlots of love Cat and Phil xxxxxxxxxxxxx

ps we have uploaded some photos of Phils time in malawi, and will be gradually adding more of Tanzania and then Oz, so keep checking!