Our last night with Gary / Jo & Perth City

G'day all!!

19/02/08
We last left you with us having a Thai red curry (which was really nice Lucy!!) and a couple of bottles of red wine that we chose ourselves from the wine regions of South West Australia. Rick and Matt chose a bottle that Gary quite liked so that we could all share it with the meal. It was a full bodied cabernet from the PeaceTree Winery. Gary also cracked open a bottle as the first disappeared quite quickly! That evening Gary went to bed early as we all had to be up at 4:45AM to drive up to Perth and he had to drive! So in the morning (blurry eyed from lack of sleep not excess wine) we set out on the 2 hour journey stopping briefly for a coffee and then heading into the centre. Gary knew of a hostel that he had stayed at many years ago when he himself was backpacking and we were very very fortunate to get a couple of beds!! (Over the last 3 nights there have been many people turned away because there is "no room at the inn") We arrived at about 7:30 so we hung around for someone to turn up. We couldn't check in until 10:00 so we had a wander into the city for some breakfast and a map of the local area. We got back to hostel and checked in and then used our map to have a more thorough walk around Perth. We were out for about 4 hours just wandering with no aim whatsoever, we just kept going! The only place we really wanted to see was King's Park but due to back weather there had been some rock slides and they had closed it off. We also managed to sort out with Quantas about bringing our flights to Adelaide forward in order to have more time travelling between Adelaide and Sydney. The whole thing only cost us 13 pounds each. This is good considering we were expecting at least at 25 pound admin charge!! Also we went into STA Travel to discuss arranging the second half of our trip (the one that would eventually bring us home). We managed to get some credit on an Australian sim card that Jo had given us and we got in touch with Mr Luke Edwards (for those who are confused by this, it's Eddy's twin brother). He finished work early that day and met us at about 17:00. We had a catch up chat and met his girlfriend. We then went back to his hostel for a couple of drinks but didn't stay long as we were both worn out from the early start.

20/02/08
Sporadic waking up between the hours of 6:00am and 10:00 due to people going out to work (oh yeah, because Perth is a working city, the majority of people staying in this hostel have been here for months like a second home and all work through the week). We had another general walk around town and arranged to meet up with Gary to have a quick chat about what his thoughts were on us joining him for his wedding. He suggested some things which gave us more to think about so we made him leave!! Ha ha. After Gary left we had a serious discussion about what we should do. We went into STA Travel and got a good price for the second half of our journey. However, another bombshell was thrown in!! We wanted to leave it open as to when we would return to the UK due to the fact that we would come home when we had just enough money left to get a flight home! We were warned,however, that the Canadian/US immigration would probably not let us in the counrty unless we had a flight that would tell them when we would be leaving (how selfish!!). We had a think about things and discussed our options. The final decision was that instead of travelling quickly across the States in a month, we would just do the whole West Coast at our own pace for the final month of travel. We paid a deposit and would return in the morning to pay the remaining balance. Upon returning to the hostel we also booked the flights for us both (and Charlie) to fly from Perth to Sydney (and back again) for Gary and Jo's wedding on the 13th April, and we would spend 5 days with them. We had an early night as the next morning we had to pay lots of money to STA and get the train to Fremantle!

21/02/08
Got up at 8:00am and got ready. We made our way to STA Travel and paid the remainder of the money we owed them (well Matt did because Rick has no credit card yet and his banks didn't want to give any money to STA from his debit cards!!) After Matt's serious financial blow (he he) we got on the train for the half hour trip down to Fremantle. Fremantle has a little more history than Perth due to the fact that it is a major harbour and has been for many many years! We had a walk around the lovely town and had a sandwich at a cafe. We continued our walk down to the fishing harbour and along the sea front to the motor museum. We spen over an hour looking at the car collection put together by Peter Briggs. It was a personal collection of his with cars dating back to the late 1800's all the way to the late 1970's, including Australia's oldest Volkswagen Beetle!! After we had a walk towards the lighthouse and saw a couple of real dolphins entering the harbour!! Not close enough for a picture so you'll have to take our word for it!! We went back to the hostel via a supermarket and cooked our tea (pasta and sauce. It is much cheaper to cook for yourself unlike in South East Asia where its cheaper to eat out!! I suppose we are back in the Western World) That evening we chilled out infront of the TV and got another early night.

22/02/08
We woke up early and fresh in order to start our long walk to South Perth. It's a good 45 minutes (which seems a lot longer in this heat. "Mad dogs and Englishmen"!!) over the bridge and we were heading for the South Perth Zoo!! We had no trouble finding it and hastlily made our way inside like school kids!!! We were in there for about 4 hours looking at a huge variety of animals and it wasn't too busy either!! The different areas were much like the way Crystal Maze was set up!! There are the Australian Walkabout, African Savannah, Asian Rainforest, Nocturnal Life and the Australian Wetlands. It was really cool and we had sandwiches in the outback! Matt's favourite animal was the giant Saltwater Crocodile (aka 'Salties') and Rick's favourite animals were the cheeky monkeys, this time they were Silvery Gibbons!! We then walked back to the hostel and again cooked for ourselves. We're having another chilled evening before departing in the morning for Rottnest Island where we're going to sit on a beach all day (but might do some snorkelling)!

Just to let you know the rest of our trip:
26th Feb we fly to Adelaide and spend a month travelling round. Then on the 12th April we fly from Sydney back over to Perth (with Charlie) for Gary's wedding! Then on the 17th April we fly back to Sydney for a couple of days before flying out to Auckland on the 19th April. We'll spend 2 months in NZ and then on the 15th June we fly to Vancouver and spend a almost a month travelling down the West coast of America. Then on the 10th July we fly back to London and arrive home on the 11th July. Then we'll arrange an internal flight to get us back to Manchester. We might have a couple of days in London (Matt idea as he has never been before!! It seemed fitting that we do it at the end of our world tour!!) but it's not fixed as Matt wants to be home for his birthday for lots of presents/MONEY and a welcome home party (hint hint Julie!!!). The weather will be perfect for a garden party/BBQ and we'll all show you (dad's especially) how to cook a "real barbie" (Aussie accents included!!).

Well we hope you are all well and me and Matt are really disappointed with the lack of commentary on this blog!! You all asked us to do it so you could have a good old nose at what we're doing so we want some recognition for doing it!! We want at least 3 comments in a week or the blog stops!! he he :-p

Take care all and don't forget to comment!!

Rick and Mattxx