Sunday 7th January

Arrived into Perth at 7.15 a.m. after a 5 hr uneventful flight from Singapore, Arthur and Bob were there to meet us. Spent the next few hours catching up with gossip, we hadn't seen Bob for over 8years and it had been 2 ½ years since Arthur had been over to the U.K., for Andy and Jemmas wedding. Later on Bob took us to Hillarys Boat Harbour, this is an area that is very popular with the locals and is full of restaurants and shops and a fantastic safe beach for kids to play. We had our first meal in Australia of "shark" and chips which went down very well. Then over to meet Bobs daughter Hayley and her fiancée Steve, they are due to get married on Feb 10th.

Monday 8th January

Arthur was on the doorstop to pick us up at 9.00 to take us on a guided tour as Bob has got to go to work all week. The city centre was about a 15 minute drive away and considering Arthur has not lived in Perth too long he knew his way around everywhere. Perth sits on the Swan River and many of the activities on offer are based around the river. Our first stop was at Barrack Square where you can visit the Swan Bells Tower. The tower houses the 12 bells of St. Martins which had been donated to the City of Perth from St. Martins in the fields Church at Trafalgar Square. From the observation deck you get really good views of the city skyline, Kings Park and the opposite shoreline of South Perth. We were lucky enough to be there whilst some of the bell ringers were demonstrating their skills in ringing the bells (sounded just like being back in Higham Ferrers on a Tuesday evening). Perth also offers free travel within the city on the (CAT) busses, there are 3 different routes that you can take and anybody can just get on and off at their leisure. Back to the car and took a short drive to Fremantle which is at the mouth of the Swan River and the Indian Ocean. As we could only get a limited time parking space for 1 hr we had a quick bite to eat and then back in the car to head North onto some of the many beaches. The beaches are endless, just miles and miles of white sand and turquoise sea. Later on that evening we went to visit Bobs other daughter Mandy and her boyfriend Van, they made us very welcome in their home which is only a short distance from Scarborough beach, we spent several hours just chatting.

Tuesday 9th January

Once again our chauffeur was there at 9.00 and Linda opted to drive this morning (oh no says Ron). Our first port of call was Kings Park, this is set on 400 hectares of land of which two thirds is still native bush. Since we were last in Perth a walkway has been constructed and part of it takes you through the treetops where you are face to face with the birds. It really is a most beautiful area and one of the centre pieces is the war memorial where a flame burns in memory of the unknown soldier. From there we drove over to South Perth and looked back at the city. Following our noses we travelled up the Swan valley looking for suitable wineries to have a few tasters, but to Linda's delight the first decent place we found was a chocolate tasting outlet where you are encouraged to taste "free" chocolate. Opposite this building was a winery offering wine & cheese tasting (a good marketing ploy to get the captive audience from the chocolate shop to visit their winery). The wine tasted good there so we bought a bottle to sample that evening. Back at Bobs, Linda cooked her first meal since leaving the UK in November, just spaghetti Bolognese but it went down well with the bottle of wine, it just shows that good skills are never forgotten. We drove to the beach at sundown to capture a glorious sunset, but unfortunately for us the cloud came down and it started to spot with rain.

Wednesday 10th January

Arthur (our tour guide) had previous engagements to sort so we took the local bus into town (about 20 mins journey). The tickets cost us A$7.70 (for both of us) and entitles you to travel on the bus, train and ferry within quite a large area as well as all the free transport that is already provided within the city centre. We just mooched around the shops and bought a few presents and as it got warmer thought we would head to the river and catch the ferry to the Southern side. On return we walked along the river bank for some way until we could see the W.A.C.A. stadium (cricket) and then headed back towards the city centre. The Perth Mint Museum was on route so we decided to pop in to see if there was any freebies on offer (no such luck). A guide told you about the gold mining history of Western Australia and then you were invited to the forge where you could watch a gold bar being made (security guards & surveillance cameras cover the whole area). The only thing we bought from the usual gift shop at the end of the tour was a silver charm for Linda's bracelet. Back to the bus station to find the correct bus to our suburb to prepare ourselves for our evening out at Hogs Breath Steakhouse. There we met us with Bobs daughters, boyfriends, Arthur and Colleen and Nancy, who is one of Bobs many dancing partners.

Thursday 11th January

On our own again so we took the bus into the city and then the train to Fremantle, once there we visited the City Prison which is now a museum. This prison was built by the convicts who arrived from the UK back in 1850 and was a maximum security prison until 1991. It was a really interesting tour where we were shown different cells dating from the 1800's to 1990's - Ron says that some of these cells are bigger than the ones that he had seen at Wellingborough Prisons new wing. The more gruesome spots were the whipping post, the cells used for solitary confinement where the prisoners were locked up for 23 hrs a day and the worst of all the gallows which were last used in 1964 (altogether there were 44 hangings which took place, one of which was a female). After a run around on the free bus around Fremantle we alighted at the Harbour and found ourselves at the Maritime Museum. Outside there was a submarine, steam exhibition and lots of statues that remember all the immigrants that had arrived into Fremantle over the years. Frustrating thing today was that we had left our camera in the back of Bob's car from the previous evening, so for the first time on our trip we have no photos. Arrived back at Nollamara (suburb where Bob lives) with time to sort out the birthday presents that we had to send back to the UK. Our destination tonight was Burswood Casino where we had a meal and then risked our usual A$10 on the slot machines - we came away with A$8, so we are not very big gamblers. It was fun though just to people watch and cringe when they lost a lot of money or cheered when they won.

Friday 12th January

Today we are meeting Arthur and Colleen at Lynwood (South of Perth) where Arthur has just moved into his new rented accommodation, from there we drove to Hyden (350 km west of Perth). On the drive there we stopped at the first main town of Brookton where we could stretch our legs, fill our water bottles and get something to eat, the café was called Stumpy's Roadhouse. After a 4 hour drive we arrived at Hyden Wave Rock Motel where we had booked in for the night. We relaxed in the Salmon Gums lounge drinking coffee and watching England getting beaten yet again by Australia in the cricket 1 day series, and later had dinner in the Bush Bistro. For dinner we just chose our steak (or other meat) and barbecued it ourselves on the communal barbecue at the back of the restaurant. Went for a walk after dinner around the town where you can see the "Living Art Sculptures" which were designed and built by locals, they are made of steel, motor parts and old machinery. The noisiest birds we have heard so far were in every tree, they were called Gallahs (a pink and grey parrot).

Saturday 13th January

Woken by the parrots we had breakfast and checked out of the motel. Hyden is home to Wave Rock which is an overhanging wall of a granite outcrop known as Hyden Rock, the "wave" is 15 metres high and 110 metres long. The shape has been formed by weathering and water erosion which has undercut the base and left a rounded overhang which forms the "wave", it is streaked with vertical bands of rusty red, ochre and sandy grey simulating the rolling movement of the sea. As the weather forecast for today was 40 degrees we wanted to climb the rock before it got too hot. We spent about an hour walking around and also saw "Hippos Yawn" which is another unusual shaped granite rock. By this time our clothes were just soaked in perspiration and we were badly in need of a "drink", naturally there is always a tourist café in these places. We started the drive back to Perth and drove a slightly different route through Beverley and stopped at York. The heat was unbelievable when we got out of the car, so we thought we would visit the Motor Museum - hoping that we could cool down in there. No such luck, at the entrance there was air conditioning (to fool you) but once inside, nothing. We saw some really old cars though, including a Vauxhall Viva - which happened to be the first car that we owned back in the 70's. Ron took over the driving and we arrived back at Bobs where thankfully he sat with the air conditioning on and all the blinds shut (bliss), we never moved from that spot for the rest of the day.