(I wrote this earlier, I'm now in Adelaide)

I'm just on a plane from Perth to Adelaide. The view out of the window is areas of dense dark green forest and yellow and brown fields cut in squares out of the forest. So many straight lines and geometric shapes. There is the occasional small town, also a perfect square.

I really enjoyed my time in Western Australia and I'd like to go back again as there is so much more to explore. I stayed in Fremantle which is Perth's port city and historical (by Australian standards). It is a nice compact city centre to walk round, with lots of colonial era buildings. I stayed in a hostel which was converted from part of the convict-built prison. The prison initially held convicts who had been transported to Western Australia, before they won their freedom. Once transportation stopped, it became a regular jail and was used up until 1991. The hostel was the old women's prison. Some of the rooms were old cells and the corridors felt very prison-like. There were a lot of displays about the history and the prisoners. Fortunately it also had a modern kitchen and bathrooms.

On the day I arrived, Fremantle was celebrating the end of their 10 day festival with a colourful parade and a party atmosphere. The city is popular with creative people and alternative lifestyles and there's a strong left wing political movement. The markets, open Friday-Sunday, showcase some of the crafts and also artisan and locally produced foods. There's a beach in the city centre next to the fishing harbour and another beach to the south, which is dog friendly. Around the fishing harbour there are restaurants and a craft brewery. My friend Damon took me to Cicerellos, a fish and chip restaurant with several large tropical fish tanks. I enjoyed watching the fish while waiting for my food - luckily I don't associate the fish swimming around in the tanks with the battered fillets of New Zealand hoki I was served. We sat outside, where gulls made it clear that they would help us finish our meals. Later in the evening I watched the sun set on the beach and then as I was walking past the back of the fish and chip restaurant I noticed that they had lights in the water and various fish were visible. I saw what I thought were small oil slicks on the surface of the water but then realised that they were tiny, almost transparent jellyfish, bodies about the size of my thumbnail with tentacles trailing out behind them. At that point I decided I definitely wasn't going in the sea.

Fremantle has a railway station near to the mouth of the Swan River. There is also a freight port there and a huge cruise ship was docked there during my stay - it made the TV news. I walked down to the river mouth along a sea wall to a green painted lighthouse. The wind was very strong but I saw some interesting sea birds. I used the train station to take trains into Perth city centre, it was a reliable service running every 15 minutes and taking about 25 minutes.

Perth is a much greener city than I had imagined. It has a lot of parks and a beautiful wide but calm river. I walked along the riverfront and then up to the huge Kings Park. It encorporates a botanic garden with no need for greenhouses. Having said that, the weather was cooler than I was expecting during my week in Perth - it was 35 degrees the day before I arrived but didn't get above 25 while I was there and at times the sea breeze made me feel cold. I saw a lot of birds along the river and in the parks - ducks with ducklings, wattle birds, parakeets, galahs, herons, cormorants, a spoonbill, a grebe, nesting coots & moorhens, an egret and the famous black swans after which the Swan River was named.

Some of the best places I visited in Perth are:

- Heirisson Island - part of this island is populated by free roaming kangaroos within a large enclosed area - much like a British deer park. I visited in the middle of the day so they were lazing around sunbathing. Also a good bird watching site.

- Queens Gardens - more beautiful than Croydon's Queens Gardens, this small but immaculately laid out park features several connected ponds with lots of bird life. It is beautiful, lush and green. It has a resident family of black swans.

- Shenton Park - close to one edge of Kings Park, I visited it because it has a "bird island" marked on the map on my phone. It didn't disappoint. I saw my first kookaburra, cackling at me from a tree. The lake is beautiful and popular with birds including black swans and ducks.

- Kings Park - great view from the top of the hill where the war memorial is, I spotted some dolphins in the Swan River from up there. The water garden in the botanical garden is lovely and I was visited by a curious troupe of ducklings. You can walk for kilometres on the paths without seeing another person. Good site for spotting non-water birds and lizards.

- Point Walter - beautiful peaceful sandy beach area at the south of the Swan River. We walked along a sandbar out into the river and saw oyster catchers, plovers and lots of black swans.

I'd like to go back because I had fun with my new friends and there's so much more to explore. I didn't make it far from Perth and didn't have time to explore Rottnest Island, Margaret River or other parts of the state. I would need to hire a car though I think, as public transport is limited outside of the Perth metropolitan area. I'd like to visit Albany because it is used as a location inspiration for some of Tim Winton's books. For those not familiar with Tim Winton, he is the author of Cloudstreet, Breath, An Open Swimmer, Dirt Music, the Lockie Leonard series and others and his books are inspired by his life in south west Western Australia. 

For now, I am moving on to Adelaide. I hope to see lots of wildlife there. Oddly, it's on a half hour time zone, so figuring out what time it is elsewhere will get even harder - thankfully I have an app on my phone to help. I have found myself confused a few times lately about where I am and what time of year it is. Seeing Christmas decorations in warm weather with new leaves on the trees is confusing.

I saw signs some places warning about snakes but I didn't see any and the only spiders I saw were tiny. Someone did have to be airlifted to hospital after a snakebite on Rottnest Island this week though.