It felt like we had reached civilisation for the first time in weeks. We walked into a shopping centre and it almost felt nostalgic. We also did washing (finally!) and caught a train, simple things we hadn’t done since leaving Adelaide. It was also nice to get to know a few people at our campsite because we actually stayed in the same place longer than a night. One night I even put on some makeup for the first time on the trip as we decided to have a date night in the city (dinner in Chinatown that was). I was quite surprised my mascara hadn’t dried up by this point. It was certainly a weird feeling being around the hustle and bustle of a large city again, but we really liked it, it felt a little like home.
Unlike the past month where we’ve stayed in very ’un-urban’ and quiet places, we wanted to make the most of what we had had on our doorstep for the next two weeks. Our camp was a considerably cheap campsite near Perth airport, for just $25 a night, with a train station just 15 minutes walk away. It was really cool to see planes flying low over our heads as I couldn’t help but wonder where they were off to.
One of our first places to visit was Kings Park where we took the train into the city and walked around the botanic gardens. It had the most incredible view of the city and the weather was perfect. We would say it’s up there with the best botanical gardens we have ever seen.
We wasted no time and took off to see Perth’s neighbouring town, Fremantle, or ‘Freo’ as the locals like to call it. We made sure we went on a Friday when the famous markets were on and indulged ourselves with yummy foods including a Gozleme Turkish lunch. I just about got a look in! We then washed it down with a couple of chai lattes on the Cappuccino Strip just up the road from the markets.
We returned to Freo a couple of days later to catch the ferry over to Rottnest Island. The island sits just offshore from the city and is home to the quokka, a small wallaby like marsupial. We hired bikes as soon as we got there and spent the day cycling around the entire island, stopping at the white sand secluded beaches and taking a dip in the ocean to do some snorkelling. We spotted a cute quokka on the side of the path and then found lots near the picnic area by the Ferry Port. They were extremely cute and not at all shy when it came to having a selfie with us. I’m pretty sure they were the reason for our rise in Insta likes!
With sore bums and legs (we must have cycled at-least 20km that day) we headed back to the city for some well-earned carbs. We were craving for pizza and the fact that you can get 2 Dominos pizzas for $10 is a no-brainer! I would be lying if I said we hadn’t had any more since…
So back to the campsite, we met a guy who had cycled here from Sydney! Now if that’s not going to make me feel guilty about those pizzas I just wrote about, I don’t know what is! His name was Johan and if I remember correctly, he was from Austria (or near thereabouts) but has been living in Australia for a number of years. At a guess, he would have been in his mid-50s. With a passion for travel and fitness, he took to the road on his bike, a tent and minimal camping equipment plus food and water supplies. He was fascinating to talk to but I couldn’t help feeling very lazy after hearing he had been travelling on his bike for over 5 months. We completely admired him.
Back to the sightseeing, we spent a lot of time simply exploring the city, window shopping, spotting dolphins in the huge river that runs through the city and playing in some water fountains. Basically being typical tourists!
We had a more relaxing day at Cottesmore beach which is one of the most popular beaches in Perth. It wasn’t busy when we went mind, as we are in Autumn after all, but you could see why it was such a hit with the locals and holidaymakers with the soft white sands and big waves.
We then found ourselves quickly in the last week of May (where has the time gone)! But this meant it was Tom’s working week which was why we decided to stay in Perth for another week so he had good signal and phone coverage he could rely on. The weather turned pretty bad in this week so I’m glad we got to see most of the sites in the sunshine the week before. The bad weather did, however, give us the excuse to relax and watch a ridiculous amount of Game Of Thrones episodes. Before this trip, I hadn’t seen any, and by the time we left Perth I had seen the lot!
We couldn’t quite believe how quick our 2 weeks went in Perth as before we knew it we were hitting the road again. Not before we took a quick drive up to the Perth Hills. We may be biased but they had nothing on the Adelaide Hills, but despite the rain, the views of the city were pretty amazing from the zigzag scenic drive and we stopped at the very impressive Lesmerdie Falls for a quick photo as the sun came out.
We loved civilisation again, but we were surprisingly ready and super excited to head out of the city and enjoy the very long barren roads again. Our epic road trip up the Western Coastline continues…
Gemma.