Perth and 7 day trip down west coast

Bev in King's Park
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We got to the airport early and I had breakfast of tuna melt and hot chocolate, yum. Our Qantas flight was really good, the food was not so great but the entertainment was good because they had lots of films on and you could choose when you wanted them on and pause them when you want too! Yes, easily pleased! The flight took 5 hrs but the landing was horrendous and we were both really anxious, think the wind was really strong because the plane was being thrown in all directions and it was a mixture of 'I think I'm gonna die' and 'I feel sick'- but we landed so all fine. We got the airport shuttle to the Guest House and the bus driver was the friendliest driver we have ever met- he gave us a little tour on the way which was nice. The Hostel gave us a free room for the same price as the dorm because they didn't have any, bonus!

kookaburra
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The following day we went to see what the shopping centre and bought some better sunglasses, although liked my 'designer' ones from Bangkok, they weren't doing anything about protecting my eyes, so thought better do the right thing and invest in some proper ones. We also visited the museum of WA which was good, they had lots of wildlife (behind glass and stuffed, my favourite kind espectially spiders!) with spiders, snakes and bugs to look out for. There was also some sealife including poisonous octopuses and fish to avoid. We ate lunch afterwards and then got a bus to King's Park via the CAT bus, which is a free bus service around Perth. Perfect! The park was lovely. It was really big and the grass was immaculate, just like a golf course! We did a scenic walk and took some lovely pictures of views over Perth city. Fantastic!

view of perth from lookout
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The following day we headed to Fremantle on the train. The market wasn't as good as expected, so we walked around the shops and we got a hat each, you need one in this heat! We had lunch in a park and then walked around the harbour. On the way back we stopped at Cottesloe beach, which is beautiful. We watched the sunset. The beach is lovely but the sea is rough and very cold, so was not brave enough to venture in. Jamie had a swim though!

New Year in Perth wasn't so good as we expected it to be. For one thing we couldn't get in anywhere because they don't accept overseas driving licences over here, only Oz ones and for foreigners they expect you to carry around a passport as form of Id (yes, they are very strict over here), we thought they might be nicer because it was new year, but no! So one nice man let us in, because we clearly weren't aware and then we stayed for a drink but couldn't get in anywhere else. So we stayed around Northbridge and they had a few groups playing on the stage, which were a bit cheesy and we cringed at some of them! (Abba, Queen etc) but it was quite funny in the end. There were no fireworks at NY which was a bit rubbish-the one from someone's back garden doesn't count! Oh well was a cheap night and we still had fun!

fat crow!
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We spent New Year's Day on Cottesloe Beach which was lovely. Definately a long time before I spend NY day on a beach again! There are 2 german girls (twins) who have a car and they are travelling down the west coast, so we thought it would be a good idea to go with them to share travel costs, food etc and would be fun to do it with some other people. Not that we are sick of each other (!) it'll just make a nice change.

FREMANTLE

The first day of our 7 day trip down the coast was a stop in Fremantle because the girls, Alena and Selina hadn't been there. We were planning to do some camping, so our first task was to find a tent for a resonable price which took most of the day! Then we found a nice campsite in Freo which was quite reasonable but it started to rain so wasn't so fun camping and having to go to the loo with the rain lashing down!

Man juggling in Fremantle
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ROCKINGHAM/ PENGUIN ISLAND

The following day we visited Rockingham, for Penguin Island. But it was a bit grey and very windy so soon changed into my jeans and fleece (boo!). There wasn't much to do in Rockingham apart from visiting Penguin Island, so knew we couldn't really go without visiting the island even though the weather wasn't too good. The island itself wasn't that big, so we could easily walk around it in about half an hour! Because of the cold weather we only saw one wild penguin and he was moulting, thus very shy! We went to the Penguin Discovery Centre and there were some 10 penguins inside, they were called little penguins and have shiny blue feathers. They are called 'little penguins' because they only grow to a height of 30cm, so as you can imagine they are very cute! We also saw a sea lion asleep on the beach, he had a big ulcer on his back so he didn't look very nice!

Jamie eating fish and chips on Cottesloe beach
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BUNBURY

We stayed the night in Bunbury and headed to the Dolphin Discovery Centre in the morning. Got there about 10 am and was told that they had a visit from a mother and her calf at 8.30 that morning, so we waited for a while, but nothing so we left. Were a little disappointed we didn't see any but apparently it is mating season so you only see mothers with their calves, which they don't tell you before you pay the fee to enter! We then headed to Bussleton, which is famous for it's jetty and took some photos, but it cost quite a bit (about 25 dollars each!) and you didn't really see much but we did see some herring, an octopus, angel fish and a few different fish I haven't seen before. We decided to head to Margaret River and found a campsite called Big Valley, which was camping in the middle of a farmer's field!

bev and sunset at cottesloe
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MARGARET RIVER

The following day we visited the chocolate factory, disappointed that we were only offered chocolate drops to taste- Jamie made the most of it though and went up about 5 times! He said it was ok because others were taking the piss more. Oh well, that's ok then! We then went to the fudge factory, there was only a few bits of fudge to try there, but at the 'Candy Cow' it was brilliant because there were so many different types to try including double choc caramel, choc cheesecake and irish coffee, yum! Jamie then offered to drive us to one of the wineries and after me and the girls trying a few we decided on a bottle for 16 dollars between us, which was not too bad.

pissed picture at new year!
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PEMBERTON/ AUGUSTA

The following day on the way to Pemberton we stopped off at the Lake Cave, which was amazing and they have all lights inside and he turned all of them out so we could see what it was like pitch black which was quite eerie! We stopped at Hamelin Bay hoping to see some stingray but we didn't have any luck unfortunately. We then stopped at the Lighthouse in Augusta and had our photo taken 'between 2 oceans'. We stayed the night in Pemby and there were some really colourful parrots (28s) and a nice lady gave us some bird seed and we got some really nice photos which was quite good.  The next day we stopped at the Gloucester Tree (61m high) and went to climb it and tried really hard but I got a few metres us and my hands started to sweat and looked down and realised how high I was- I decided to stop before I got too high and froze. The best thing to do I thought, shame I couldn't climb it but my vertigo got the better of me. Jamie took a few photos from the top so still got to see the view. We then went to the Big Brook Dam and had lunch and then we headed to the Valley of the Giants for the Tree Top Walk which was really good being amongst really tall trees and then went for a walk after to some trees damaged by fire and some of them were hollow inside which was quite cool.

Happy New Year!
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DENMARK (no danes in sight!)

We saw so much wildlife here, especially where we camped. Apparently there are also wild kangaroos which we were a bit worried about but didn't see any. We saw 28s (parrots) and galahs so took lots of photos. There were also some annoying crows in the morning, grr! We went to the toffee factory and there were loads of kookaburras around making a really loud noise which can only be described as a monkey in hysterics! It's really funny to listen to and now whenever we hear them we can't help but laugh! Got a nice strawberry ice-cream with belgian chocolate pieces, yum! We then headed to Denmark maze which was quite good, just very easy (you could see through the other side which kind of spoiled the fun!) but we still enjoyed it. We made a stop as greens pool which looked beautiful and the beach was really nice too. Too cold to go in the water though. We also went to see the elephant rocks which were meant to look like them but I couldn't see it myself!

Bev at Bell Tower in Perth
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ALBANY

Unfortunately the weather wasn't too great, it rained all day so it was quite miserable. We went to the library and Jamie got talking to an aussie hammer whose family was from dagenham and mum is from hornchurch so that was quite weird. Had pizza and chips for dinner which was nice, the campsite we stayed in had an oven which was a bonus but it took about an hour to cook them (think that's why no-one was using it!) but was worth the wait, made a nice change from pasta or rice. The following day we headed back to Perth. We said goodbye to Alena and Selina and said we would try and keep in touch because they were really nice. The bus journey took 9 hours altogether, which was a long time! When we got back to Perth we stayed at One world backpackers, it was quite nice, the staff are nice and friendly it is just always booked out so changed the following day to Backpackers International which we thought was much better because it was smaller, so you could speak to people more and was a lot cheaper, we also had a double bed in the dorm which was a bonus!