Perth

I’ve been to Perth twice before, once years ago when my mum & I flew over – we hired a car & drove around WA for a while – it was a good trip. Then I’d come over when 3 friends & I hired a Maui campervan & drove across from Sydney, to go to the 1st game the Western Force played in the Super 14’s (it was against the Brumbies – and luckily the Brumbies won!!!) Therefore, I wasn’t all that worried about seeing too much in Perth.  But I do love Kings Park – and there was a thing in the Book of Big Things in the park – so it was on the list for a visit.

My first port of call was the 4wd show – which was a lot smaller than I thought it would be – but had enough things to keep people busy I guess.  I visited Darren from Travelander. I also visited the people who make the fridge I have – I got a number to call the next day to get someone to have a look at it. Because of that I didn’t look any further into getting a solar panel – but I do know I can get one cheaper on ebay than any on offer that day – so if I decide I need one, I’ll do that when I get home for Chrissie.  I had agreed with Darren, the camper maker, to bring back the leg from the camper that I had broken & he would try to fix it for me later in the day.  As I didn’t want to hang around until then, I took off & headed for Kings Park.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Heading for one of Perth’s most popular places on a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon may have been a slight mistake!!  But, in the end, I found somewhere to park & also found the staircase to nowhere – or the DNA Tower – that I was looking for.  It was lovely walking around the park – it truly is a beautiful place – if you ever go to Perth – its a must.

The stairway to no where

The stair way is supposed to look a bit like DNA – but it really is just there as a staircase to give people a good view – apparently on a clear day you can see Rottnest Island from up there – I could see the lights from Subiaco Oval!!

Kings Park has a lot of things going on – lots of different areas, lots of different gardens.  I didn’t have much time this day – as I needed to be back at the 4wd show – so I just walked along the elevated boardwalk that runs along the river – its a great walk.

the view from Kings Park

Back to the 4wd show & I had the leg swapped over instead of Darren trying to fix it – which was great of him to do -as I said – I broke it – but that was great of him to just replace it for me. It also means I can take the camper off the ute when & where I need to. Not that I have done very often – but its better to be able to if I can.

Next day I went down town Perth – drove around town for a fair bit – just looking around. Then I found a park & went to the shops. Obviously, I don’t have any spare cash at this stage in my life – but let’s face it – a girl’s gotta have SOME retail therapy!!! I was very reserved – only bought stuff I “needed”!!!!  The bad thing about being in a shopping area was that Perth already has their christmas decorations up – very depressing really. AND – christmas carols in the shops – already. Enough already!!!!  Perth is quite a nice city really. I had a bit of a picnic lunch in the park below the Supreme Court – only had to dodge one sad sack yelling about drugs and courts & stuff – he was just standing there yelling though – didn’t seem to be much of a problem – but somebody eventually told him to “shut the F..k up” – he didn’t – but it was a bit of entertainment for the afternoon.  No matter what sort of ugly is going on inside the Court Building – its a lovely building & the gardens are nice too.

Next day I took the ute to get serviced and then headed down to Fremantle to have a look around down there.  Its a nice town – but once again I’d been there – and its still a town. I went to the Maritime Museum – but in the end only saw the Shipwreck part of it – but that was enough museum for me for the day.

After looking around Fremantle – I had to get back to the ute to make sure I didn’t get a parking ticket – this is also something that hadn’t been a problem anywhere else in a long time. Probably a good thing, because I’d just found this lovely little art gallery with lots of photos and artwork that I really liked!!! The pocket was saved once again.

I headed south from there. I had thought I wouldn’t go far south of Perth – I’d been to Margaret River, Albany, the tall timber country, Esperance, etc, both times I’d been to WA. I thought I wouldn’t go that way again. But I do remember that neither time did I get to see all of the jetty at Busselton – so I decided to head down there – and from there I would go east to see the parts of the country just east/south east of Perth.  It was too late this day to get to Busselton – so I pulled into a caravan park in Rockingham.

I stayed in Perth on Saturday 19, Sunday 20 & Monday 21st November.