Our time in Perth has come to an end and we've had a great time in this very chilled city!

On Thursday we headed over to Kings Park and the Botanic Gardens. This is the biggest inner-city park in the world - bigger than Central Park - and is built on a hill which has stunning views of the Perth city and Swan River. The Botanic Gardens were beautiful and we spent the whole afternoon there. Highlights include a board walk through the trees, a fountain which shoots powerful jets of water into the air every few minutes (great fun for all the kids standing at the side waiting to get wet!) and the DNA tower. That evening we headed to a restaurant overlooking Swan River called Annalakshmi. The restaurant is unusual in that it is run by volunteers and the food is buffet style vegetarian curry with all the accompanyments and even more unusually... you can eat as much as you want and you pay what you want at the end of it! The place was set up by a Hindu monk and all the proceeds go to the poor in Malaysia. For obvious reasons, we felt compelled to give it a try! The food was delicious and although alcohol is prohibited (they provide tea, water and this amazing watermelon juice drink), it is a guilt-free backpackers paradise!! Unfortunately, although we are constantly trying to scrimp and save our money where we can, we are not guilt-free, but fortunately we were sat by the exit so I could see how much people were handing over to get an idea of the going rate! We paid $20 for the meal (around 12 pounds) which seemed to be about average - a real bargain!!

On Friday we decided to catch a train to Cottesloe, just south of Perth. We took our bodyboard with the intention of selling it to Cash Convertors in Perth, but they only offered us $10, so we continued on to Cottesloe with it instead. Once there, we headed straight to a surf shop to try our luck and the guy offered us $30....sold!! As a result, we got a total of $230 for both boards, and it only cost us $270 to buy them and a pair of boardshorts in the first place! We then spent the afternoon on Cottesloe Beach. The weather was great but as the afternoon wore on the wind picked up and, fed-up with being covered in sand, we moved to lie on the grass area above the beach - joining everyone else who had also got fed-up on the beach! Before heading back to Perth we stopped at a hotel opposite the sea-front for a well-deserved drink - bliss!

We decided to go to Perth's aquarium, Aqwa, yesterday. This is in Hillary's Harbour, north of the city. We got a train and a bus to get there and were very impressed when we arrived - it's a lovely little harbour with a great sheltered beach. The aquarium was great - showcasing all of the marine life of West Australia, split into regions so great fun for us to identify what we may have already seen and what we've yet to see as we travel up the 'coral coast' towards Broome. The underwater tunnel was particularly impressive - it contained, amongst other things, several sharks and some huge rays. Whilst at Hillary's Harbour, we received fantastic news from home... that two of our closest friends, Will and Vickie, have got engaged!! Once back in Perth, after going to a Japanese restaurant for a tasty chicken katsu curry and some sushi, we headed to a liquor store to buy a bottle of bubbly to celebrate! Because the hostel has its own liquor license, people staying there are not allowed to bring any alcohol into the hostel, so we had to sneak our bottle in and then celebrate quietly in our room with the door locked! Huge congratulations again to Will and Vickie - we can't wait to celebrate properly (i.e. with you there too!) when we're back home!

Today has been our last day in Perth and again we decided to catch a train out of the city - this time to Rockingham, south of Perth. We spent this afternoon on the beach there before using some of our hard-earned cash to buy a couple of snorkels to use on the next part of the trip!

It's an early start for us tomorrow - our Greyhound coach leaves Perth bus station at 7.30am. We've got a long trip ahead of us as it gets into Kalbarri - our first stop and where we intend to spend a couple of nights - at around 4.30pm!

And so on to the final leg of our Australian adventure...