We flew into Perth on a nerve racking flight on Friday 13th (ek!) This was quite a long flight of about 5 hours and we had to take our watches back 3 hours. The weather was lovely and warm here and we checked into i hostel called the Billabong which was more like a resort than a hostel with a pool and everything! We went up the coast a wee bit to a large beach called Scarbourgh (it was a touch nicer than the one back in blighty) and apparently was a bit of a surfing Mecca in west coast terms, the waves certainly looked very large and scarily powerful!

We took a day trip out on a ferry via Freemantle and did a 'tram tour' on a bus (don't ask!). From there we boarded a faster boat out to Rottnest Island, once i had retrieved my stomach from the main land we had a picnic in one of the campsites and then got on the coach that gave us a three hour tour round the island. We learnt that the Dutch first discovered this island (as seemed to be a common trend back in the day) and came across these wee rat looking marsupials that were the size of a cat and decided that the island was like a 'rats nest' aka the name. We were lucky enough to see one within 10 minutes of wondering around- i suspect it may have seen our picnic first because it came bounding up to us with out a care in the world (very cute- i'll up load some piccies on the the photo section of my site soon).

We visited the art gallery of Western Australia and saw some fabulous sculptures made out of wood and paper (again photos will follow!) Spent a night out in Freemantle and down the road in the party disrict of North Bridge (great nightlife) We both got a spray on booth tan which left me looking like i had Vitiligo and Carly came out in a nasty rash- joy more ailments! We were supposed to hitch a lift down to Cottslow beach south down the coast but stupid Ruthie developed a rather nasty hang over and lay in bed playing monopoly on her phone instead (doh!) Carly went though. We both spent the next day being driven around along with our room mate  by a lovely guy who emigrated over here after being in Iraq with the army only to be dumped by his Australian girlfiend a couple of months later! We had a fab day out going go carting (great fun) and went to an Elizabethan pub in the Swan River wine region south of Perth afterwards.

 Over all we agreed that Perth felt like a real holiday and we thought that people seemed alot more chilled out and freindly over there- really rated it 10 out of 10!