Perth - Feb 18 - 23, 2014

It was a long trip from Cape Town through Dubai to here - and 2 completely different worlds. Perth is wealthy - kind of like Calgary, because of the Iron Ore and several other minerals they ship to Asia and China. The train system is new and the road ways are well looked after. There are lots of new cars, especially BMWs and other such luxuries. The clothes and pretty much everything is very expensive. They also have the remnants of a wealthy city - hurried, stressed and not that friendly. I was 1 train stop outside of the downtown in a place called Leederville. There were lovely restaurants and shops. It is here I finally was able to have a proper hair cut and colour -a happy moment as my hair was a mop!

I went downtown on day 2 and found a Telstra store where a very lovely and clever girl helped me buying a modem….FINALLY I have proper internet service! I also realized the African bum and tourist outfits were not going to do here so I bought a few things - reluctantly as it is so expensive!

The time change - its 6 hours ahead so I spend a better part of 3 days adapting - which gave me time to catch up on emails, blogs and watch some Olympics which suited me just fine - Go Canada! I kind of miss skiing, cross country, snow shoeing - but not the other stuff - like cold cars & shovelling!

I managed to catch trains to Cottesloe and Freemantle beaches, mostly in time for dinner and a nice walk about. They were very nice but not spectacular - the weather was pretty good too - hot. it felt like I was just used to the time and it was time to go. This is very exhausting, especially now I have to figure out where I'm going and when. It was a lot easier in Africa with tours and friends to show me around.Now I'm really on my own - let's see what this will bring as it is a lot more work and a little intimidating!erth 'm really on my own - let's see what this will bring as it is a lot more work and a little intimidating!