Perth's Delights

I thought after travelling through most of Australia's biggest cities, I would inevitably come across a few that I just couldn't wait to get out of. But, nope. So far I've loved them all! And Perth was no exception. But I do feel for poor ol' Perth. I guess it could get a little lonely for W.A's capital city, standing tall and trying to contribute a few sky scrappers to the city scape, in a state where long stretches of empty highway edged with red dirt out number the escalators and lifts in office buildings 20 to 1.

Perth has sooooo much going for it. And the best thing about the place, is that everything is within a 20-30 minute radius, so you can see a lot in just a few days. Here's a few touristy bits we thought were rave worthy.

The Swan Bell

Okay, not quite sure what the purpose of building this thing was, but I tell ya, when tourists pay $10 to climb the thing and ring the famous Swan Bells again and again... and again, I'd be taking ear plugs to work. It's down on the Swan River and there's a bunch of lovely little cafes overlooking the water close by for a lunch break or coffee stop. And word in the local news over here, is that the Swan Bell could be joined by a London Eye-type Ferris Wheel some time in the near future...

City Sights
The city of Perth kinda reminds me of Adelaide with its country charm and heritage churches and court houses squeezed in amongst new additions to the city business district. You can walk the shopping strip in an hour but there's plenty of quirky and fun art pieces and alleyways to discover that could see you easily spend a day or more exploring. One day when we caught the train into the city, what seemed like the whole of the Western Australian University were out in force, dressed up as anything from bumble bees to pirates, selling their Prosh newspaper (check out the website at http://www.prosh.guild.uwa.edu.au/) which is a satirical and hilarious report on current news events. Luke and I laughed out loud whilst reading it on the train back to Freo. This must be a common occurance though, as the suits and business-types, didn't look twice when passed by a hot pink bikepant wearing 21-year-old guy selling papers for charity.

Kings Park

This beautiful park and botanical gardens is the best place for amazing views across Perth, over the Swan River and surrounding waterfront suburbs. The gardens are gorgeous, the tree top walkway is excellent (and free!) and the water features, lush lawn and BBQ areas see this place resemble Sydney's Pitt Street Mall on weekends.

Perth Zoo

Not as impressive as Taronga in Sydney or Dubbo, but still full to the brim with interesting animals and great exhibits. The Orangutan enclosure is world class, with two new baby monkeys getting up to all sorts of trouble. Luke even managed to find himself a super-dooper sized numbat to ride - you don't see those in the wild!!

Hillary's Boat Harbour
You're best off heading back to Margaret River if you're after a wave in Perth, but the beaches are great for swimming and Hillary's Boat Harbour is a perfect little spot on the coast to kill a few hours. Marvel at the million dollar boats, swim in the protected beach, dine at one of the many restaurants or cafes or check out the markets. There's something for everyone.

We could have spent another few weeks in Perth, just checking out the laid back vibe of the city and we will definitely be back, maybe down the line when we have kids of our own because it's a great spot for little ones with so much to do.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Jamie Oliver Eat Your Heart Out... Again!

First it was pizza that husband Luke was whipping up on our kombi gas stove, and now its gourmet, mouth watering, lip smacking, can-hardly-get-your-mouth-around Aussie burgers. Get a load of this thing. (Please pay special attention to the super-cute kombi plates!)





If you want to try making this little baby in the privacy of your own home, you'll need BBQ burger patties or rissoles, onion, egg, bacon, pineapple, lettuce, tomato, beetroot, capsicum and BBQ sauce, all placed gently on a lightly toasted hamburger bun with melted cheese. Wow.



Who said camping meant eating two minute noodles and baked beans for dinner?

Yours seriously full and in need of a napkin,

Odette

Filling In The Days In Fremantle

There are so many ways to fill in time and enjoy the sights in beautiful Fremantle, just 25 minutes from the city of Perth. I managed to entertain myself on the streets of Freo for an entire week, while Luke worked to pay for all my purchases! Okay, not exactly true... I found tons of things to do for free, don't worry Luke!

1. Hit the Esplanade

First stop for any Fremantle first-timer should be the wharf or Esplanade. There are tons of fish and chip shops right on the water, that all claim to sell "The Best Fish and Chips in Western Australia!" Why not sample them all and let your taste buds be the real judge? Then check out the cool brass statues on the water and walk to the nearby swimming beach.

2. Head Along To The Markets

There are more markets in Freo, then AFL fans in Perth. Okay, that would be impossible because AFL is like a religion over here. But you know what I mean! The weekend markets are on each...ah... weekend? Duh! Funny thing is, they actually run from Friday to Sunday at the old council building in the main street and have everything from fresh fruit and veges (get there late Sunday arvo where everything gets reduced to next to nothing), clothes, art, craft and food. The Art Markets are held every Thursday right near the info centre and actually were a little disappointing with not a lot of stores set up the day I chekced them out and you can find the eMarkets down at the old wool sheds near the train station every Saturday and Sunday - these are more like permanent Sydney-style Paddies Markets i.e there's a lot of junk like stuffed kangaroos and fake 'Crocs' for sale.

3. Sample An Ale At A Brewery

We managed to drag ourselves along to two local drinking spots that each had their own micro-brewery out back. Little Creatures is a Fremantle institution and a must for any visitor, regardless if you like beer or not. Ooooo but you really must sample the beer. It's really, really good. Sail and Anchor is another place we sipped a coldie at. Nice drop and a great place to people watch from the pub balcony but we almost had to put our drinks on layby with two beers setting us back $17.50.

4. Check Out The Local Boutiques

There are so many cool little shops to discover. In these cool shops, the shop assistants are cool. The things they sell are cool. The background music heard playing is cool. In fact, the only thing not so cool in these shops was Luke and I, both starting to resemble disheveled travellers in great need of a hair cut, sporting funny looking short and thong tans.

5. Admire The Locals In Their Native Environment

I don't know if it was a special weekend where a whole bunch of strange characters came out to play on the cappuccino strip of Fremantle, but in the space of two days we saw a Mohawk wearing, bagpipe tooting punk doing pelvic thrusts in the middle of a circle of quite a few people, all holding cameras to capture the moment....

...and a drunken Fremantie (I've coined this term to describe a person who resides in Fremantle permanently) who thought it would be hilarious to take off his shirt and pants, give himself a front wedgie and dance around in his undies in front of his drunk mates on the main street while we all watched on from the Mexican restaurant across the road (it was about 7:45pm at the time - click on the image to enlarge and laugh like we did). I've practiced a bit of self-censorship here and chose NOT to include the next pic which was taken about 5 seconds later, when this intoxicated fellow took his risky behaviour one step further and ripped off his undies as well. Yes, a dancing naked drunk man. And all his friends could do to save any last sceric of this guy's dignity was to take photos of him on their phones. Coming soon to Facebook, no doubt. The police arrived in record time.

So as you can see, Fremantle has something for the entire family to enjoy! Who knew?!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Living It Up In Freo!

I feel kinda awkward calling Perth's funky suburb of Fremantle 'Freo'. It's like when an international tourist visits Australia for a week and they're already saying "Wanna meet up Mondie arvo for a coldie at your local?" I mean, c'mon. At least give yourself a few weeks before you start throwing around words like 'breakie' and 'chucking a sickie.' These words are sacred Aussie slang!

But after trading in the kombi for a one bedroom apartment right in the heart of Fremantle last Wednesday and exploring the place for a few days, I accidentally said to Mum on the phone the other night, "Yeah, Freo's the best. I love it here." I realise I've only been here for a mere hours and I apologise! But in my defence, Fremantle is the kind of place where it's easy to fit in and feel like a local. Whether you're sipping your morning coffee on the cappuccino strip, wandering around the foreshore or lazing in the park with Sunday's paper, Fremantle has a great vibe about it that's really welcoming.

So here's some piccies of the place we've been staying at for the past few days. Much to his dismay, Luke's been doing some work over here for the software company he used to work for in Sydney and has been struggling with the 9-5 days of sitting at a computer. I, on the other hand, have been surprised at how easily I've adapted to this new lovely little existence of waking up late, doing yoga, going for walks near the beach and checking out the markets and shops around our new temporary home. Did I just say that out loud? All of that in between piles of freelance writing work and organising the next leg of our trip, I assure you. Cough.

The view from our unit - we booked it over the internet so we were stoked to see how close we ended up being to the city and the foreshore!

Look how excited Luke is to go to work... He even forgot to pack his proper work pants and had to wear jeans! Whoops!

I can't tell you how good it feels to have a shower without thongs on.

Yours hanging out in Freo (Darn! I did it again!),

Odette

The Boom

After travelling around Western Australia for a few weeks now, there's one thing that we just can't seem to get away from. No, it's not the infamous self titled 'Grey Nomads' that out number us 30-1 in all the camping grounds. It's not the constant fear of your clean clothes accidentally dropping off the tiny hooks in the caravan park showers, only to land in a pool of water that could have been there for as long as a week. And it's not even the annoying IGA supermarkets that want to charge us a bomb for a few BBQ rissoles that look like they could have been made pre-Christmas '07. Nope, the one thing we really haven't been able to avoid since crossing the border into the West, is talk of the W.A. 'mining boom'.

The local television news runs daily stories on it, all the people at the petrol stations ask us if that's why we've made the trek cross country and the job section in The Western Australian newspaper is twice as thick, filled with jobs because of it!

But while there may be plenty of work for Uni graduates, new opportunities for small towns and a whole heap of money being poured into the hands of Western Australians, I can't help but wonder what impact this economic boom is having on the environment.

From untouched stretches of coastline near Cape Le Grand National Park in the state's far south, the closer you get to the city of Perth, the more obvious the urban sprawl - with its new canal developments and sub-divisions on show. And check the size of the places that are popping up in towns like in Mandurah, some 74km south of Perth.

Hmmm... I'm a little worried all this new money might be helping people make quick decisions without too much thought about sustainability (in both paying off loans when the boom finally subsides and protecting our natural resources for the generations to come).

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

PS Speaking of the job boom, even all the way over here in W.A, over 3000km from home, we managed to bump into one of Luke's old school friends Shawn Simpson and his girlfriend Jenna, who have taken the plunge and set off from Taree, NSW to work in Perth for 12months. I can't tell you how nice it was to camp with some familiar faces! We plan to drive up to Exmouth together before Simo and Jenna return to start work in Bunbury. Yay!

Go Fish!

Our fishing exploits haven't been very rewarding since we crossed into W.A, with no fish for dinner, even after several attempts (and Luke getting more and more frustrated with catching nothing but herring and toad fish). So driving into the beautiful town of Busselton, we decided that the only way to see some serious fish without going to the deli section of Coles, was to visit the Underwater Observatory at the Busselton Jetty.

One of the most popular eco-tourism icons in Western Australia, the Underwater Observatory lets you descend eight metres below sea level to see a huge range of amazing sea creatures. It's like scuba diving without getting wet. There is one catch though. The Observatory is built at the very end of the jetty. And the jetty is 1.7km long. The longest wooden jetty in the Southern Hemisphere (haven't I read that somewhere before?). So to see the fish, you get a nice little dose of exercise thrown into your admission fare.

Tours depart on the tour and the guide we had to take us down into the Observatory was so passionate about marine life, I swear she may have had a few scales hidden under her uniform. But this passion, mixed with an amazing facility that clearly lets you see the waterworld below the jetty and an array of fish that call the jetty their home, makes for a pretty special experience.

The Observatory from the outside. The nine metre round room was dropped into the ocean

as a whole and filled with water to sink it into place, then drained to create the facility.

Pretty cool, huh?

We saw so many fish, Luke was salivating but the Observatory has a 50metre fishing exclusion zone around it and is petitioning for more, so you'll find no dinner here. The community is also rallying the local council for a million dollar upgrade because the wharf is pretty old and unstable in parts. Our guide said they rarely see sharks in the calm waters of Geographe Bay but regularly spot manta rays, gropa, tuna, star fish and a huge range of spawning coral. It really is another world down there and definitely worth a look. The most impressive part is that unlike a normal aquarium, the fish and coral in the Busselton Jetty Observatory are all 100% natural - so fingers crossed the fish feel like making an appearance on the day you visit!

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette

Dollars In Dunsborough

Anyone that visits the Margaret River region is assured of one thing - there's plenty of money in the West and a lot of it has congregated down South. And about a 25minute drive from the center of Margaret River is the coastal town of Dunsborough and it comes with a golden price tag. It's a must-visit on your drive back up to Perth, with it's white sandy beaches, sheltered Geographe Bay and the beautiful Cape Naturalise National Park just a 10 minute drive away. The walk from the lighthouse is breath-taking.

But if you want to extend your stay in the town of Dunsborough, then you better get your credit card out, because the restaurants, cafes and boutique shops are very fancy... and pricey. We found a lovely little spot for a coffee called Food Farmacy that wouldn't have looked out of place in Surry Hills, Sydney - it oozed style and flare. With a pharmacy theme, even the coffees had a chocolate medical cross on top, while all the extras you may need (sugar cubes, salt, pepper, chili) were displayed in test tubes on each table. The best bit? You don't need a science degree to appreciate the beautiful food here.

Food Farmacy
Shop 9, Dunsborough Park Shopping Centre,
Dunn Bay Rd, Dunsborough
Phone: 9759 1877
Open: 7 days a week

And if you decide you could get used to the designer fare in this little coastal town, you might need to get a second or even third job because the average house looks just like the one below and comes with a price tag of about $1.5 million. If you prefer to build you're own dream home, we had a peak in the local real estates (which were on every corner in town) and found you can nab an acre of land for as little as $700,000. Jeepas! Or like us, stay in the caravan park near the inlet for $28 a night.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette