Finally back in the western world, though Singapore was almost there.

There are finally some recognisable things in what I eat and drink. I can also finally drink the tap water which tastes a lot like swimming pool water oddly. Those are probably the biggest things I have missed from westernisation.

The 3 weeks I have spent in Perth have been great, not only because I am in one place, get to wash all my clothes in a machine and even iron them! but because I have wanted to come to Australia for such a long time.

As you can imagine I have been busy seeing as much of Western Australia as possible. To start I visited the city of Perth. This is one of the growing cities of Australia and one of the newest. It is a very modern area on a great bit of the coast.

It, like most of Australia is very British due to the colonisation of the country.

After a few days of doing the tourist destinations I was ready to experience the different things here. This included going up to a place called Lancelin and sand boarding (awesome), before getting a ride in a monster truck across sand dunes.

One of the most interesting things I did was twilight sailing which I was lucky enough to get involved with. This involved me helping out on a yacht while in a race around the harbour in Perth as the sun went down. Thanks to my relatively small sailing skills I could help out and we didn't do half bad.

I then took a ferry out to one of the islands off the coast called Rottnest to do some snorkelling in the reef. Wow, my first real Australian snorkelling was fantastic!! So much colour and life and with the water being so clear I was out there for quite some time.

After the snorkelling I spent the day cycling across the island which was good fun.

The next big thing I got involved with was the tunnels tour of Freemantle Prison. That was interesting - I am not all that keen on heights but having to climb down 30 metres in darkness on a slippery metal ladder was 'fun' (harnessed in of course). This tour took us on a sort of underground gondola trip underneath Freemantle.

A trip to Australia would not of course be complete without a pre test match for the Ashes (cricket for those of you who don't know) England v WA which was a pretty good day out.

Heading to Adelaide next on the Indian pacific rail. A two day, two night experience across the Nulabor desert. Should be an experience.