I spent the last five nights in Perth, the capital of Western Australia. The drive from Geraldton to Perth is not very long, and it pays to take the coastal route rather than going down the main highway. There are a few places along the way to visit, especially around a town called Cervantes, which is about half way. Just outside Cervantes is Lake Thetis, a small inland lake with a very high salt content. In it you can see stromatolites, which are formed by bacteria that are thought to have been one of the first organisms on earth and to have generated the oxygen in the atmosphere to support later life forms. I took a short walk around the lake to stretch the legs.
16 kilometres south of Cervantes I took a right turn into Nambung National Park, home of the Pinnacles Desert. This is an amazing place, a sandy desert littered with pointy limestone formations. From the information centre I learned that the scientists are not a hundred percent sure how this landscape was formed, but that they believe that in the sand were different types of mineral and that the limestone granules started to pack together underground, perhaps bonded by some water. When the dunes moved, the rest of the sand moved on, but the pinnacles remained. There is a short drive through the desert that is suited for any type of car and has stops along the way to take pictures. There is also a short walk that you can take. The whole thing is a major tourist attraction, so don't expect a solitary desert experience, but it is definitely worthwhile having a look.
Heading south from the pinnacles towards Perth there are some huge white sand dunes either side of the road. I stopped off for coffee at a town called Lancelin, which has a fantastic white sandy beach and a couple of beach front cafes, then I headed straight into Perth.
Perth is a large international city, with high rise in the central business district and all the shops and brand names that spread around the world and make every CBD look like the other. I stayed at The Murray Hotel in West Perth because a long time friend from Thredbo owns it. The hotel is on Murray Street, about a 30 minute walk from the CBD and not much to look at from the outside, but the rooms are newly renovated, large, very clean and comfortable, with linen of a quality that you usually find in top class hotels. But what really sets the hotel apart from others that I have stayed in on my trip is the friendly down to earth atmosphere that manager Kay and her staff maintain; they really make you feel very welcome.
There is no shortage of things to do in Perth. It has all the facilities that big cities have, museums, theatres, concerts, sporting events etc, but I think the main attraction of Perth is the water, both in form of the Swan River as well as in the many beaches along the Indian Ocean. A good introduction to the City is to take a ferry cruise from Barrack Street Jetty down the river to Freemantle. I went with Captain Cook Cruises, which drop you off right inside Freemantle Port. Along the way you get a running commentary on the different suburbs and properties that you pass by. There is no shortage of money along the banks of the Swan River; I guess the people who own the mines in the very arid parts of Western Australia like to have a water view. Anyway, the most expensive property that was pointed out to us last changed hands a couple of years ago at just under $ 60 million.
Just around the corner from the most expensive property is this little blue boat shed and jetty. Apparently this was built DIY by a couple of brothers who live in the house just behind it, but because all of the immediate foreshore is public land they were told by the council to remove it. They consulted a lawyer and found out that yacht clubs were allowed to have jetties on public land, so they registered a yacht club with themselves as two members. I am not sure how many members there are now, but apparently there are never more than two boats there...
The journey ended in Freemantle Port, where we saw some big container ships being loaded. Apparently the stevedores are so efficient that they can turn around one of these vessels in 24 hours. There were several other large container ships hanging around just outside the port, waiting to be loaded. There was also a cattle transporter, which got damaged in a fire and needed to be towed to Singapore for refurbishment. When we got there they just hooked up the tug and later in the day I saw it chug off out of the harbour.
I walked through town to the Freemantle Markets, which are only open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They are in an old market hall in the middle of town and offer a mix of fresh food, cooked food, arts, craft, massages and musical entertainment. They were packed and the day I was there was very hot, so I didn't stay too long before moving on down to the fishing boat harbour. The fishing boat harbour is surrounded by fish & chip restaurants, and the destination of my choosing, the Little Creatures Brewery. They don't just brew the beer there, they also sell it alongside some very nice food. There are two factory halls, one of them with the restaurant, the other with a smaller bar and an area for tasting. I had a pint of their White Ale in the smaller area. It was very refreshing (but also a bit expensive at $10.30).
From the fishing boat harbour I walked along to the round house, which was the first permanent building in the Western Australian colony, and of course a gaol. It seems that an historic gaol is a must for every town in this state. From the round house you get a good view of the port entrance on one side and back over the town on the other.
Freemantle has a lot of colonial style buildings and plenty of restaurants and cafes. It has a very pleasant and relaxed holiday feel about it and it would make a good place to stay on another visit. On the Sunday I went there it was packed with tourists and local people from Perth alike. I returned again on Monday, by train from the city centre, to pay a separate visit to the Maritime Museum and the Shipwreck Museum, which easily fill half a day. The Shipwreck Museum had a lot of artefacts from the various places that I visited on my drive down from Broome and really tied it all together for me by explaining the history of exploration, first by the Dutch and then by William Dampier, and I finally got to see a model of the Batavia, which I learned so much about in Geraldton.
A full day of my stay was devoted to a trip out to Rottnest Island. It got given its name by a Dutch explorer who mistook the local marsupial quokkas for rats and so named it rat nest island. The quokkas are larger than rats, but do have a similar hairless tail. They do tend to congregate around the places on the island where they can scavenge some food from the humans, so they are not that different from rats in that regard either, but they are very cute!
I had planned the whole day with Swiss military precision. The plan was to rent a bicycle and ride the 21 kilometres around the island in a clockwise direction in the morning and then do some snorkelling on the northern beaches in the afternoon. I picked up my pre-arranged bike at the jetty and headed off towards the south-west. Along the way I stopped at all the various coral-fringed beaches and took pictures. The ride was undulating all the way, but quite easy to do. It took me only about an hour to get to the west end of the island, despite all the photo stops.
On the way back it took me about 45 minutes to reach northern beaches, where I planned to snorkel. Unfortunately I was met by the following sign:
Disappointed I kept going back to the starting point and bought a meat pie with tomato sauce to console myself (my first one since returning to Oz). After that I headed off back around to the southern beaches. Unfortunately once I got there and donned my swimming gear the water and the wind were so cold that I simply couldn't get enthused about going snorkelling. I sat on a rock instead and watched out on the bay for a while. I got rewarded by seeing a pod of dolphins swimming by not far from the shore.
The other two Perth attractions that I visited where Kings Park and the Perth Zoo. Kings Park is up on a hill above the CBD and affords excellent views across the river. It also houses a brilliant botanic garden. It is very large and you can easily spend half a day, or more if you take a picnic. The lawns are perfectly manicured and the planting makes spectacular use of native flora. The zoo is across the river in South Perth. If you want a cheap experience of the river you can take the Transperth Ferry across for $2 each way. The zoo itself is quite large and it took me a good three hours to check out all the animals. One thing that I learned is that I was wrong in my post from Exmouth: it wasn't an emu mother with her chicks that bathed at Turquoise Bay, it must have been an emu father, because the emu eggs are incubated by the father and the chicks stay with him for another half a year after hatching. The other exhibit that fascinated me was a pond where they kept an alligator and some red slider turtles. The board said that the red slider turtles got their name from the fact that they could elegantly slide onto rocks. The following short video shows evidence of an attempt that didn't go so well:
I had dinner with Kate and her husband Mark a few times. Once at their massive house, which is freshly renovated and extended. It was an old cottage in an inner western suburb and they managed to extend it completely in style with the original building, ending up with a very tasteful and desirable abode, for which I envy them a lot! We sat by the pool and tasted several beers, wines and whisky until about 1.30 AM; that's why there are not many photos from my day at the maritime museum (they were all a bit blurry). Another night we went out for diner in the town centre of Leederville, which is a couple blocks worth of bars, restaurants and tapas places. It was a Wednesday night, but every place was packed. The Perth population clearly don't mind going out on a school night!
The next chapter on my journey will take me to the south west corner of Australia, namely the Margaret River region.
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| Stromatolites, the oldest life form on earth |
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| Lake Thetis |
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| Lots of sand |
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| Pinnacles are about two metres tall |
Perth is a large international city, with high rise in the central business district and all the shops and brand names that spread around the world and make every CBD look like the other. I stayed at The Murray Hotel in West Perth because a long time friend from Thredbo owns it. The hotel is on Murray Street, about a 30 minute walk from the CBD and not much to look at from the outside, but the rooms are newly renovated, large, very clean and comfortable, with linen of a quality that you usually find in top class hotels. But what really sets the hotel apart from others that I have stayed in on my trip is the friendly down to earth atmosphere that manager Kay and her staff maintain; they really make you feel very welcome.
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| Perth CBD viewed from Kings Park |
There is no shortage of things to do in Perth. It has all the facilities that big cities have, museums, theatres, concerts, sporting events etc, but I think the main attraction of Perth is the water, both in form of the Swan River as well as in the many beaches along the Indian Ocean. A good introduction to the City is to take a ferry cruise from Barrack Street Jetty down the river to Freemantle. I went with Captain Cook Cruises, which drop you off right inside Freemantle Port. Along the way you get a running commentary on the different suburbs and properties that you pass by. There is no shortage of money along the banks of the Swan River; I guess the people who own the mines in the very arid parts of Western Australia like to have a water view. Anyway, the most expensive property that was pointed out to us last changed hands a couple of years ago at just under $ 60 million.
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| The most expensive property |
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| The smallest yacht club |
The journey ended in Freemantle Port, where we saw some big container ships being loaded. Apparently the stevedores are so efficient that they can turn around one of these vessels in 24 hours. There were several other large container ships hanging around just outside the port, waiting to be loaded. There was also a cattle transporter, which got damaged in a fire and needed to be towed to Singapore for refurbishment. When we got there they just hooked up the tug and later in the day I saw it chug off out of the harbour.
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| Off on a slow journey to Singapore |
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| The market halls |
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| A precious pint of Little Creatures White Ale |
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| A Freemantle Street seen from the round house |
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| Model of the ill-fated Batavia at the Shipwreck Museum |
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| Quokka under my lunch table (note the second tail hanging from its pouch) |
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| Coral-fringed bays and beaches all the way |
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| The western tip of Rottnest Island |
On the way back it took me about 45 minutes to reach northern beaches, where I planned to snorkel. Unfortunately I was met by the following sign:
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| Not a sign that I wanted to overlook |
The other two Perth attractions that I visited where Kings Park and the Perth Zoo. Kings Park is up on a hill above the CBD and affords excellent views across the river. It also houses a brilliant botanic garden. It is very large and you can easily spend half a day, or more if you take a picnic. The lawns are perfectly manicured and the planting makes spectacular use of native flora. The zoo is across the river in South Perth. If you want a cheap experience of the river you can take the Transperth Ferry across for $2 each way. The zoo itself is quite large and it took me a good three hours to check out all the animals. One thing that I learned is that I was wrong in my post from Exmouth: it wasn't an emu mother with her chicks that bathed at Turquoise Bay, it must have been an emu father, because the emu eggs are incubated by the father and the chicks stay with him for another half a year after hatching. The other exhibit that fascinated me was a pond where they kept an alligator and some red slider turtles. The board said that the red slider turtles got their name from the fact that they could elegantly slide onto rocks. The following short video shows evidence of an attempt that didn't go so well:
I had dinner with Kate and her husband Mark a few times. Once at their massive house, which is freshly renovated and extended. It was an old cottage in an inner western suburb and they managed to extend it completely in style with the original building, ending up with a very tasteful and desirable abode, for which I envy them a lot! We sat by the pool and tasted several beers, wines and whisky until about 1.30 AM; that's why there are not many photos from my day at the maritime museum (they were all a bit blurry). Another night we went out for diner in the town centre of Leederville, which is a couple blocks worth of bars, restaurants and tapas places. It was a Wednesday night, but every place was packed. The Perth population clearly don't mind going out on a school night!
The next chapter on my journey will take me to the south west corner of Australia, namely the Margaret River region.
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