Farewell Perth

Perth city has amazing sculptures sprinkled across the city, they look beautiful lit up at night with the city- scape.  Enjoyed our time here but Perth city is very, very expensive for the average traveller....OK if you work for a mining or mineral company and your employer is picking up the tab ...for example a a bed in a backpacker cost AU$98 a night...cor blimey!   Farewell Perth and off to Bali.

South west Cape to Cape...beaches and birds

Explored Cape Naturaliste  to Cape Leeuwin.....the south western most tip of the Australian continent...where the southern ocean meets the Indian ocean. Great lighthouses....imagine how tough it must have been  for the early settlers...drove through amazing forests of Karri and Tuart with trees  300 and 400 years old.  Everywhere is great bird life. We even saw a musk duck in Busselton wetlands...incredible looking duck, at first we thought it was an otter or platypus... look it up on Google, the male has this big bulbous waddle under its chin. A wonderful few days of exploring this region, we have loved the relaxed pace and atmosphere here.

Beautiful Busselton

Thursday 12 July 2012

Picked up a rental car and decided to head south rather than north as originally planned. Great choice as the south west is gorgeous!  Took the old coast road and made our way gradually down to Busselton. Stopped at Coodgie beach, Bunbury, drove around the Peel inlet and ended up at the best B&B in the south west, Baudins of Busselton. The drive south was just lovely, gorgeous white sand beaches, small towns, lots of lush green spaces which surprised us...yes even sheep and dairy cattle. Busselton has the longest pier in the southern hemisphere.  Busselton is a great base to explore the Margaret River wine area. Its a great little town with fab beaches, gorgeous wetlands, amazing bird life and tonnes of history...great reading the books in the B&B about the early settlers lives. Very historic wee town great spot to live and only 2.5hrs from Perth city.

Perth

Tuesday/Wednesday 10/11 July 2012


Explored Perth city after a great flight on Qatar Airways....excellent legroom with their exit row seats.  Perth is a lovely wee city....easy to get around on the three free CAT loops buses which you can use pretty much to explore most of the sights and save a bit of shoe leather.
We  visited Kings Park which is just lovely...great views and pristine park grounds, beautiful sculptures and gardens....the garden team here have it looking gorgeous. Visited the  WACA, caught the train to Freemantle, had dinner in Northridge.  The city of Perth has lovely parks all around and it has a lovely relaxed feel. 

Farewell England..come in Dohar

After a wonderful time in the UK, time to head back down under before all the Olympic mania really kicks in. Flights out of London, even for short hops to mainstream Europe,  have jumped in price since we arrived. Lots of people going abroad to avoid the crowds and inevitable traffic chaos, also school and uni hols....so time to move on.  Qatar Airways have just opened a new route Dohar to Perth with some amazing specials so thats what we did. Dohar airport is huge....35degrees outside at midnight, people walking about in flowing robes.....Graham says he wants to be a shriek, whoops I mean Shiek, when we get home.

more figureheads

Greenwhich and figurheads

Visited the Royal Marine Musuem in Greenwhich after mooching about the Cuttysark and old Naval College.

I just loved all the figure heads that were in display, from the fine delicate ones to the chunky, brightly painted  ones.

Parks and Gardens

I love that wherever you are in London you can find beautiful parks with lakes, fountains and wonderful iron work.

London outdoor art

Lots of outdoor art along the banks of the Thames, Bart Simpson white sand beach, the traditional red phone box re-worked, the worlds largest printed photo of the royals for the jubilee....