Perth , WA (Thurs 12th - Tues 17th Feb )

Arrived in Perth, capital of Western Australia after a 2.5 hour QANTAS flight from Alice Springs. (Bit of trivia for you QANTAS stands for Queensland and Northern Territories Air ? Services). This is the last stop on the Australasian leg of our trip. Perth is the most isolated capital city in the world with Adelaide over 2000k away, its nearest neighbour. It claims to be the second sunniest city in the world (average 8 hrs. sunshine per day) after Honolulu. It also has the largest number of millionaires per capita of any city in Oz.

This was my first visit to Perth and I was pleasantly surprised. It's a lovely clean city with a pleasant climate (well apart from the 40+ days) with a lot more things to see and do than I thought. We can't be the only Brits who are impressed by the place because we heard a lot of Scottish accents over the week of people who did not seem to be tourists. Two of our coach drivers also had English accents.

By accident we timed our arrival with the start of the Perth International Art Festival. I had visions of something like the one in Edinburgh but a quick look at the brochure made me realise it was more on the scale of the Leith or Glasgow rather than Edinburgh. There was only one show that appealed - Cirque du Soleil - which was excellent. If you ever go and see it look out for the trampolinists - absolutely incredible stuff.

We went on several organised tours -a bit expensive but probably the easiest way of getting to know a place. We started off with the usual hop-on, hop-of city centre bus tour. However as public transport in Perth is free with a good guide book we could have done that tour ourselves for free. Our next tour was an enjoyable if long one day trip to Fremantle,the main port for Perth. It involved a bus tour of Perth (again) including the beautiful Kings Park on the west side, Cottesloe Beach, a tram and walking tour of Fremantle (went to the Maritime Museum) returning to Perth by boat along the Swan River. Another half day tour heading east along the Swan Valley included some wine tasting (Sandalford Winery), Margaret River Chocolate factoryand Caversham Wildlife park - not so interesting as we had seen/done most of these things before.

One evening we went to a vegetarian Indian restaurant (Annalakshmi) near the jetty recommended by our bible the Lonely Planet. The staff are all volunteers and all profits go to charity. The restaurant's policy is that you can "eat to your hearts content and pay what the heart feels". It sounded a great idea but it was more like a soup kitchen than a restaurant. It was self service and the choice was incredibly limited -rice, curried vegetables and chilli beans -not a chappati or popadom in sight and no alcohol ! -all a bit of a disaster especially as it was Valentines Day ! For the record we paid AUS$20 for the meal. Speaking of food I can't leave Australia without mentioning their pies. Australia must have the best pies in the world. They have an amazing variety of delicious meat and vegetarian options and unfortunately they are all irresistible. Same can't be said for their bacon which is always undercooked and fatty.

On our final day in Oz we took the express ferry to Rottnest Island. It is about 20k from the mainland and takes about 90 minutes. It is a very popular tourist attraction. You can stay on the island but most people go for the day. It is called Rottnest because it was first discovered by a Dutchman who saw what he thought were giant rats and so named the island Nest of Rats. However they are not rats but small wallabies called quokkas. They are quite cute and can be found all over the island. Apart from Quokka spotting the other major activity is cycling round the island. Some people take their own but we hired bikes and had an enjoyable very relaxed 3 hour run in perfect weather conditions.

We enjoyed our stay in Perth, 3 days in a hotel (with a shared loo) and 3 in a hostel (with en-suite facilities). Gwen could have stayed longer but to be honest I think I've seen enough of Oz and am keen to try a few different cultures. Fortunately our passports and Indian visas have arrived to enable us to do that. Thanks again to Bob and Lorraine for helping us out of a muddle.