Perth



Ruth, myself and Anna on Christmas Eve

 The first day I arrived in Perth, it rained. And it has rained a lot since. But it has been sunny, and it is a great place to live. The house I live in is in a suburb called Carlisle- about 10 minutes away from the centre of town on the train, south of the Swan River. The house is enormous considering there are 3 of us living in it- myself, Anna and Ruth. I have the peasant’s quarters, so named because I had no job when we moved in and inherited most of my furniture from other people. Now I have a job and have splashed out on a bedside table. Last year we had a housewarming BBQ and we hosted Christmas dinner for us and a couple of friends and their family who were over here visiting.





Perth city from King's Park



Perth is a massive city, divided into hundreds of suburbs, each big enough to be called a town. On the train it can take over 30 minutes to get from the outskirts of the city into the city centre. It is an odd place, a little backwards in some ways, like a lot of Australia. For example, most shops in Perth are not open on a Sunday- and 24 hour supermarkets are non-existent. You’d be lucky to find one that stays open until 9pm. The metro train system is designed specifically to irritate the commuter; you will often see your connecting train leaving the station a mere 20 seconds after you arrived train 3 platforms over with no hope of making the train on time. And you know your next train will be leaving in 30 minutes. Sometimes though Perth will astound you with something (nothing comes to mind right now) and you think ‘why on earth hasn’t anyone else thought of that yet?!!’.

  

The centre of the city often has street performers and has some very good shopping. Just a short walk away is the Swan River, running all the way out to the west to the coast. Perth is only about 20 minutes’ drive from the nearest beach, and has some spectacular beaches all in an easy drive (I say drive because you invariably need a car to get to anywhere you actually want to go to). Just down the road is the coastal town of Fremantle, which is a great place to go and eat and shop and just walk around. We often go and watch the many ships coming in to port- it recently hosted an international sailing competition like Cowes week.

The Pinnacles

 Over Christmas we did a bit of travelling around to see some more of the area. There’s Caversham Wildlife Park where we got to see all sorts of native Australian wildlife, and I saw my first kangaroos (I ate them before I got to see them, and very tasty they are too). We went to a beautiful park called Yanchep where there are wild kangaroos and I saw koalas for the first time. A few hours’ drive to the north is the Pinnacles national park, which are thought to be ancient fossilised trees or tree roots (nobody is quite sure), and the coastal town of Cervantes.

Feeding the 'roos at Caversham Wildlife Park

My favourite place in all of Australia so far though has to be Margaret River, 3 hours to the south. This is the premier wine growing region of Western Australia, and is very English countryside in its appearance. It is a beautiful part of the world, with sandy beaches, turquoise seas and plenty of wine and good places to eat. There are also caves and lighthouses to see. I have been twice so far with various friends, and can’t wait for my next trip down there (my wine cellar is getting a bit low!).

Sunset at Margaret River



Wine tasting in Margaret River

On the beach on Christmas Day