Perth (again)

Day 206

A day of rest in and around the campsite today and a chance to catch up on a few chores.  Both take a stroll up to the book exchange and whilst we are browsing the magazines and books what do we see but a jigsaw. Not just any old jigsaw either it’s a religious scene (two of our favourite things, Religion and Jigsaws!).

Both being highly religious people we jump at the chance and rush back to the van to get started. Soon enough the air is filled with cries of “Piece” and we are well on our way and we carry on into the evening before calling it a night and stashing the (half complete) puzzle in the tent for the night.

Day 207

After a day of rest we are up early and decide to head up into the Perth hills for a walk. Drive up to the town of Kalamunda and park at the visitors centre in the hope of getting a map or some directions to the National park. Approach the door and it must be just past midday and what shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been following this blog is that the bloody thing closes at 12! Back to the van and after some creative map reading (and with the help of Mr Google) head off on a short drive to Lesmurdie National Park.

Arrive in the heat of the day and after a spot of lunch head off into the bush and start descending towards Lesmurdie falls. We are right on the edge of the Darling Range here and this is where (a few years back) Australia broke away from India and floated off through the Indian Ocean to its current position.

The falls themselves are quite nice although there is not much water flowing at this time of year but we also get great views back towards Perth and you can really appreciate just how small the CBD is from here as it literally seems to be made up of a half a dozen large buildings surrounded by miles and miles of (flat) suburbia.

After continuing to the bottom of the falls your only option is to turn around and climb all the way back up to the top again.

We manage to break up the climb by having several stops along the way and looking at some lovely wildflowers growing along the track and make it back to Polly hot and sweaty.

Head home and time for some more jigging but a couple of hours later and still unfinished back it goes into the tent to fight another day.

Day 208

Another lovely day and so we head off in the van to visit Hilary’s boat harbour just up the coast.

Have a good look round all of the shops and walk up along the boat harbour where, amongst the multimillion dollar yachts we see a strange sight, a lighthouse with no house!

Stop for a fish and chip lunch and are served an absolute mountain of chips. I have never seen so many chips and although we do our best (stuff ourselves silly) there is no way we are going to finish them all and so (reluctantly) have to throw about half of them out. Feeling a bit sick we retire to the beach and after a lie on the sand (and a chance for those chips to go down a bit) head in for a swim.

The water is lovely and we both enjoy splashing about and cooling off for a bit and lying in the sun warming up again. As we are lounging about, a plane flies overhead advertising our local shopping centre (Karinyup), letting the whole of Perth know that it is open tomorrow (Sunday trading is a new thing in Perth!).

Back at the campsite and it’s time to put in the final few pieces of the jigsaw together and complete our religious experience, which we do and marvel at our handiwork for a while before packing the whole thing back away in its box and taking it back up to the book exchange for someone else to enjoy.

Day 209 sun

Another lovely day and so we decide to take the bikes out and have a ride along the banks of the Swan River. Stick the bikes on the back of Polly and drive into the city to our starting point in Burswood, right next to the casino.

Cross the Causeway Bridge to the North bank of the river before riding (into the wind) along the bank and right past the city where we stop for some lunch and a much needed rest (hard going into the wind). 

Restbite complete we continue along the river to Kings Park and cross back over at the Narrows Bridge.

From here all the way back to the van the wind is behind us and so we fly along, only stopping briefly when we see some sail boats for hire on the banks.

I am all excited as I have been looking for this since we left Sydney and we vow to return to have a go later in the week. As we are on the home straight the same plane as yesterday flies over telling us that the shopping centre is open today (business must be slow)!

Complete the ride and hitch the bikes back onto Polly before driving back to the campsite for a well-earned beer (we didn’t bother with the shopping centre despite all the advertising) and to start on our Christmas chocolates and sweets.

Day 210

The sun has got his hat on again today and so we plan a day at the beach. As we are sitting around having breakfast I check the news on my phone (as I often do) only to find that most of Perth’s beaches have been closed (including the one we were at the other day!) due to multiple shark sightings, some as little as 10M offshore!!

Its rent day and so we book in for our final week at the campsite, realising we will have been here a month next week (no wonder were getting bored)! Decide to head into the Perth hills for a couple of days after Christmas and do a wine tour, so we book a campsite close to the bus pick up so there will be no driving involved and I will be able to sample some (all) of the 45+ wines and boutique beers on offer :-p Also book ourselves into a campsite in Fremantle for a couple of days over the New Year for our final bit of Perth before getting back on the road again.