Experiencing Perth, the Gateway to Western Australia!

Sometimes when I close my eyes, I could almost see Perth’s blue skies in my mind.

It was also a specific time and place when I could pinpoint the exact moment when I felt like I could stay in Perth forever and not leave. The last month of winter, my last day in Perth. A lush green park, just one of the many in the city. A little past mid-noon, amazingly blue skies dotted with cottony white clouds. A grandfather and his two young wards taking a leisurely stroll, a vision right out of an Enid Blyton story.

Perth - Queen's Park - Grandfather with grandchildren

It was also where I fulfilled an unexplainable desire to see a black swan in the flesh. For unknown reasons, it almost became an obsession for me to see a black swan in Perth, perhaps for its significance in and association with Western Australia.

“What do you want to do?”
“I want to see a black swan!”

And so we hopped on one of the CAT buses in search of a promising sounding stop where we would then hop off and then venture on foot in our search for the black swan. We found them and there were so many of them! I was glad.

Perth - Queen's Park - Black swans

I had an entire day to spend with Val who had arrived at Perth a week earlier to further her studies. By now she’s the Perthian, having been there for 3 years now. But back in July 2007 we were newbies to the city, so to speak and wished to explore. So we went to see The Swan Bells.

Perth - On the way to the Bell Tower
That’s the Bell Tower on the far right! Walking all this way around Perth City before I started working out was a feat by itself

The Swan Bells are a set of 18 bells hanging in a specially built tower. Twelve of them date back to before the 14th century (from a church in Trafalgar Sq in London) whereas the rest were cast in recent times. I don’t remember if we managed to be part of the bell ringing demonstration (it was many months ago…) but I remember the scenic view of the city from the top of the tower.

Perth - Suanie and Val at The Bell Tower
Val had a fear of heights, would not venture past the more steady observation deck

Perth - Suanie and Val at the Swan Bells
Taken by the kindly-looking guard at the Bell Tower’s observation deck

We also made it to the Perth Zoo. Looking back, the admission price was more than worth it as we ended up spending so many hours there and had a great deal of a time (both people and animal watching πŸ˜› )

Perth - Suanie at the Perth Zoo
Haha, I love this shot!

Perth - Perth Zoo - Suanie and Val
Spot the animals

Other random or not so random memories of Perth:

Kings Park. By the time I could get there, it was after 6pm and rather dark. I remember it being a chilly evening – then again I cannot take even slightly colder weather than usual. As I wrapped my jacket tighter to my body, I saw a guy in a tank top and shorts running past us. My first thought was, β€œARE YOU NUTS?!?!” Heh but now that I’m slightly, uh fitter ( πŸ˜› ) I’d like to try that some day. You know, jogging in Kings Park on a winter evening.. sounds whimsical in a way, doesn’t it?

Perth - City night view from Kings Park
Perth city night view from Kings Park

Swan Valley.

Perth - Swan Valley - empty vines

Empty vines because it was… uh, winter, heh. I think we stopped by more than a few wineries and got rather tipsy. Well there are so many along the Swan Valley, we couldn’t be biased and just visit one or two, right??

Perth - Swan Valley - Suanie with wine
Look what I found!

Fremantle. The seagull that tried to steal our fish and chips dinner.

Perth - Fremantle - Seagull

The highlight of my Perth trip was going to see the Wave Rock in Hyden, about 200++km from the city. It was not the destination but the journey for we crossed through the Wheatbelt region. The road we were on looked pretty much like this for 200++ km…

Perth - Road to Hyden

… and it was one of the most exciting road trips I’d ever gone on πŸ™‚ You tend to notice and appreciate every other little details that pop up like a bare tree on the side of the road. Or a lone sheep separated from the flock. Or patches of rusty brown intermingled with fields of green. Finding a kiosk after miles of driving to share a piping hot sausage and cheese stick. A steak and onion burger that was fried up last century but still tasted good because… well, there was nothing else. But it was still good πŸ™‚ Discoveries like these makes this my preferred mode of traveling.

Perth - Suanie in Corrigin
I made my friend turn around so I could have this photo taken

Perth - Hyden - The Wave Rock
Say hi to the Wave Rock. Sorry but it can’t say hi back.

Perth - Hyden - on top of the Wave Rock
Literally on top of the Wave Rock

Perth - Hyden - Park at The Wave Rock
My favourite photo so far. Makes me think of The Shire in LOTR and I was there

As the Hippo’s Yawn, another famous rock formation was just nearby, we decided to drop by and check it out. It is all very literal, actually. It’s a massive rock that looks like a hippopotamus yawning.

Perth - Hyden - Hippo's Yawn

Well I’d like to return, especially after reading about The Extraordinary Taxi Ride.It is a journey that embraces all the attractions and to-dos in Western Australia, a 9-week adventure by taxi that includes World Heritage Listed locations and the largest fringing reef in the world.

Driven by taxi driver Doug Slater, the more than 10,000km ride sees 11 couples from Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Germany taking part in the journey. The Malaysian winner of the Extraordinary Taxi Ride, Dr Ling recently explored the Great Southern Explorer route which took him and his brother Shaun through the deep South West of Western Australia.

I can see myself doing just that. Really, I could. Get on the off the beaten paths, you know, backpacks and all.

Now, who wants to go with me? πŸ˜€
(You may have to know how to change a 4WD tyre, I can’t do that yet)

more photos from perth

If the photo is linked, it will take you to the 800×600 version on my Flickr.

A couple more photos taken at Wave Rock. This was my laptop wallpaper for a couple of days…

Scenic photo at Wave Rock

This road reminded me of the forest in LOTR. Sort of.

Scenic photo at Wave Rock (2)

Me returning from one of the many wineries along Swan Valley, yay!

Suanie with a bottle of wine

Was at Subiaco, looked up and saw this.. I just like it πŸ™‚

Random photo at Subiaco

From left to right: me, buckie, Dabs, Kian and Cynthia.

Bloggers! (some at least)

Perth city at night from King’s Park.

Perth city from King's Park

I like this one… grandpa with his grandkids at Queen’s Garden.

Grandpa with grandkids at Queen's Garden

Black swans at Queen’s Garden… they looked mean πŸ™

Black swans at Queen's Garden

Buckie at Mends Jetty.

Buckie at Mends Jetty

Looked up and took this along Mends Street… also my current laptop wallpaper.

Random scenic photo

Perth city from Mends Jetty.

Perth city photo from Mends jetty

Sekian.