The first real day...

So, today was my first day in Perth, and I went exploring. By exploring, I mean walking into the middle of the city, some 5km distant. It takes me roughly 90 minutes now, so I’m taking my assumptions on that. But what a walk, well worth it. It starts by going through the University of Western Australia, which like everything else here is huge! It sprawls along the side of the Swan River, and takes me 15 minutes to walk from one end of campus to the other, following the most direct route.

After that, I move into King’s Park which, once again, is huge. I read somewhere that it is 800ha overall, and I know I haven’t seen half of that. I eventually found the Cenotaph, the State War memorial, among all of the others that are around here. You get a great view of the centre of Perth, which I got one of my favourite pictures of the entire trip so far from. I don’t mind telling you though; it took me two hours to get here, as I was taking my time. As such, it took some 2 ½ hours to reach the centre – man, was I slow that day.

However, I knew my final destination without a doubt – the Perth Mint. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures from the inside, as they won’t allow it. Makes sense, considering the information I am about to impart. When you are watching the gold pouring, which takes about ten minutes and is well worth the trip, you are literally feet away from the presses. These presses and such are protected by roughly 6 inches of bullet-proof glass, and at any time you can be within seeing distance of up to $20 million!!!!! So, they don’t allow pictures for the security reasons. They also have a gold bar there that weighs in at 12.54 kilos, and there is a challenge to see if you can lift it with one hand. I am happy to say I can.

One final thing, they have a machine there that tells you your worth in gold. As it stands, I am worth $2,155,070 in Aussie dollars. That’s just under £1 million. So, quite pleased with that, but hell, I am not made of this precious metal.

As I walked back, I got a bit side-tracked, and thus took a little longer about returning. It was worth it though, because it gave me a chance to get thinking. I’ve realised that on this trip, I’ve discovered that I want to travel the world, and do as much as I can. I know it sounds clichéd, and it is, but I have actually started to write a list… it’s going to get pretty long, I can tell.