Any Excuse For A Holiday
31st August: Flight to Perth, WA.
Purpose? Work related conference. Real purpose? An excuse to fly to part of Australia I hadn't been to before and have a short holiday, of course!! =)
Accomodation: The Kingstone on Hay, Platinum 2 BR apartment.
Flatmate: Alison, from Wollongong.(Sitting in the main foyer of the Hyatt Regency on the last day of the conference having coffee)
The enormous foyer with enormous water fountain and exhibits at the conference...
An awesome sunset from our balcony at the Kingstone on Hay...
Now for the sights and tastes of Perth...
Remember the show "My Restaurant Rules"?...and how the Perth restaurant won?? We ended up eating there! =) *licks lips*
Ben enjoying the chocolate fondue!!
The Swan Bells...by day and by night.
Native WA Kangaroo Paw...
A bird I've only ever seen in WA... No, it's not a lorakeet, it's bigger,it's about the same size as a cockatoo.
A family of ducks after a swim
and some pretty flowers in Kings Park.
Mum flew in to join me, we hired a car and took off to see more of WA for a week...
First to Albany...
A visit to Whale World to start with (an old whaling staion turned museum)...
The baleen from a whale
Pygmy Blue whale skeleton
This was followed by a whale watching cruise. We had heard whilst at Whale World that there were 5 whales in the area so we tried our luck on the cruise in the afternoon...
and sure enough, we only saw one in the distance. (The whales seen by the morning cruise went right up to the boat and people could almost touch them!!!)
Sunset from Mt. Clarence...
The Wind farm in the distance.
We then left Albany along the coast, headed for the Margaret River region.
Elephant Rock in Denmark (if you can spot it!)
The Tall Tree Walk in Walpole. For some reason, this reminded me of LOTR...
The pretty rainbow we saw on the way to Margaret River, somewhere near Pemberton
The gorgeous B&B we stayed at in Margaret River...
Lake Cave in Augusta with the rest of the lights turned off. That island-looking pillar in the middle there is suspended in mid-air over water (which is the reflection you see)
The hole in the ground which contains the 300 steps you must walk down to get to the cave...then of course you have to climb back up!! (300 steps=VERY sore legs)
Cape Leeuwin Light House where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet! (Another 179 steps climbed on the same day to get to the top of the light house!)
Mum and I at the top
Karri trees, Boranup Forest
We then headed for Busselton...
Busselton Jetty is the longest jetty in the Southern Hemisphere
...on the train out to the end of the jetty...
and the start of our 1.8km windy and rainy walk BACK!!
Then we headed to Fremantle.
We started off with a tour of Fremantle Prison - a maximum security prison until 1991, the last person executed there was in 1944. A very sobering and eye opening tour.
The Round House where at 1pm everyday they fire the cannon so that ships in the area know exactly what time it is
We then visited the Maritime Museum, and the next day, Rottnest Island.
A shell I found on a beach that we think still had a live animal inside cos it seeped out purply-pinky Ribena coloured fluid when we washed the sand off it in the water.
One of the many bays in Rottnest Island...
A quokka. No, it's not a rat, it's a marsupial. This quokka and her joey then joined Mum and I at the Dome cafe where we had hot chocolate.
From Fremantle, we then headed back for Perth, but not without stopping at a beach for a West Australian sunset!
Surfie dudes...
at Cottesloe Beach. Sunset, 10/9/04.
We stayed another night in Perth, then on Saturday, took a day trip to Cervantes and the Pinnacles before flying home that night.
The Pinnacles are the weirdest thing - it's full on desert, on the coast, and almost meets the sea. There are just thousands and thousands of limestone rocks sticking out of sand in the middle of nowhere.
Canola field on the way back to Perth.
31st August: Flight to Perth, WA.
Purpose? Work related conference. Real purpose? An excuse to fly to part of Australia I hadn't been to before and have a short holiday, of course!! =)
Accomodation: The Kingstone on Hay, Platinum 2 BR apartment.
Flatmate: Alison, from Wollongong.(Sitting in the main foyer of the Hyatt Regency on the last day of the conference having coffee)
The enormous foyer with enormous water fountain and exhibits at the conference...
An awesome sunset from our balcony at the Kingstone on Hay...
Now for the sights and tastes of Perth...
Remember the show "My Restaurant Rules"?...and how the Perth restaurant won?? We ended up eating there! =) *licks lips*
Ben enjoying the chocolate fondue!!
Native WA Kangaroo Paw...
Mum flew in to join me, we hired a car and took off to see more of WA for a week...
First to Albany...
A visit to Whale World to start with (an old whaling staion turned museum)...
The baleen from a whale
Pygmy Blue whale skeleton
This was followed by a whale watching cruise. We had heard whilst at Whale World that there were 5 whales in the area so we tried our luck on the cruise in the afternoon...
and sure enough, we only saw one in the distance. (The whales seen by the morning cruise went right up to the boat and people could almost touch them!!!)
Sunset from Mt. Clarence...
The Wind farm in the distance.
We then left Albany along the coast, headed for the Margaret River region.
Elephant Rock in Denmark (if you can spot it!)
The Tall Tree Walk in Walpole. For some reason, this reminded me of LOTR...
The pretty rainbow we saw on the way to Margaret River, somewhere near Pemberton
The gorgeous B&B we stayed at in Margaret River...
Lake Cave in Augusta with the rest of the lights turned off. That island-looking pillar in the middle there is suspended in mid-air over water (which is the reflection you see)
The hole in the ground which contains the 300 steps you must walk down to get to the cave...then of course you have to climb back up!! (300 steps=VERY sore legs)
Cape Leeuwin Light House where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet! (Another 179 steps climbed on the same day to get to the top of the light house!)
Mum and I at the top
Karri trees, Boranup Forest
We then headed for Busselton...
Busselton Jetty is the longest jetty in the Southern Hemisphere
...on the train out to the end of the jetty...
and the start of our 1.8km windy and rainy walk BACK!!
Then we headed to Fremantle.
We started off with a tour of Fremantle Prison - a maximum security prison until 1991, the last person executed there was in 1944. A very sobering and eye opening tour.
The Round House where at 1pm everyday they fire the cannon so that ships in the area know exactly what time it is
We then visited the Maritime Museum, and the next day, Rottnest Island.
A shell I found on a beach that we think still had a live animal inside cos it seeped out purply-pinky Ribena coloured fluid when we washed the sand off it in the water.
One of the many bays in Rottnest Island...
A quokka. No, it's not a rat, it's a marsupial. This quokka and her joey then joined Mum and I at the Dome cafe where we had hot chocolate.
From Fremantle, we then headed back for Perth, but not without stopping at a beach for a West Australian sunset!
Surfie dudes...
at Cottesloe Beach. Sunset, 10/9/04.
We stayed another night in Perth, then on Saturday, took a day trip to Cervantes and the Pinnacles before flying home that night.
The Pinnacles are the weirdest thing - it's full on desert, on the coast, and almost meets the sea. There are just thousands and thousands of limestone rocks sticking out of sand in the middle of nowhere.
Canola field on the way back to Perth.
