Cheerio folks,
On Saturday after ANZAC Day it rained almost the whole day. It is quite weird because here in Perth in summer it sometimes doesn't rain for up to four months (which happended just this year) and then in winter it can rain for days and days at end. On Sunday it looked fairly nice in the morning with a bright blue sky and just a few clouds. So I decided quite spontaneously to head into the Perth Hills after lunch.
The Perth Hills start about 40km East of Perth and the main cities are Mundaring and Kalamunda. I headed for the Mundaring Visitor Information Center and got really helpful information about nice walks and lookouts and how to get there and where to park. So I set off towards the Mundaring Weir. At the carpark I was delighted to catch a picture of this beautiful little fella.
Lest we forget!
On ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day 2014 Maria and I decided to attend the traditional Dawn Service at the State War Memorial in King's Park. For this I got up at 4am (oh no...) and at 4:30am I picked up Maria. Actually Kyuwon wanted to join us as well but she overslept. Well, we arrived at 4:50am in the city center and took one of the many shuttle buses to King's Park and then made our way towards the memorial. Lots of screens were showing archive fottage of different wars.
Servus all together,
It had been forecasted to get over 30 degrees Celsius again and so I thought that is the perfect day to hit the Sunset Coast and do some beach-hopping again. Maria and Kyuwon were immediately hooked on the idea, so at 10am we drove first to Cottesloe Beach. This beach is famous for being close to the richer suburbs of Perth. It is certainly a very clean beach and although it was quite windy there weren't many waves but luckily also not too many people.
Greetings folks,
On Tuesday morning I picked up Maria who I got to know on the Southwest Tour and together we sat off to the 1.5-hour journey to Northam, about 100 km Northeast of Perth. We arrived at about 11:30am at the Visitor Information Center where in a nearby tree sat lots of cockatoos.
Hi there,
After all the sleeping I finally felt fit to sat out into Western Australia again. On Easter Monday I decided to drive to the Serpentine National Park near Jarrahdale to have a look at the "most touristic dam: Serpentine Dam". After a 40-minute drive I arrived here...
Heyho everybody,
On Saturday and Sunday (Easter Sunday) after the Southwest Tour I didn't do much except for sleeping a lot. I really needed two days to recover. Apart from sleeping I also watched some Australian movies. A few weeks ago I watched "The Japanese Story" together with Cécile and Sébastien (my host parents). It plays kind of in our time and a Japanese guy whose father is in a Joint Venture with an Australian mining company comes over to Australia and wants to be driven around. You see a bit of the mining industry, lots of landscape in the Pilbara, get an insight into the Japanese culture and a weird affair spans until a tragedy happens at a billabong and the whole story turns around. Not sure if I liked the movie, a bit too strange.
G'Day mates,
We were allowed to sleep in until 7am (still way too
early for me) before we packed the tents and swags one last time, had a shower
and breakfast and took off together with the other group to the NgILGI caves.
Josh who is half Aborigine and half Australian explained us how the Aborigine
see the area, the animal, the trees, plants and the caves.
Hallihallo friends and strangers,
You cannot possibly imagine how cold and tired and
miserable I was when we had to get up at 5am again on Thursday morning. This
time we had to pack our swags, tents and stuff away before we could have
breakfast. Nearly on time at 8:10am we sat off towards Albany, the first
settlement of Western Australia. On the way there Damian suddenly started to
break and as I looked to the front of the bus I saw a fairly big kangaroo
jumping across the road quite leisurely from right to left.
Good night everyone,
Honestly, I couldn’t believe it when Damian woke us
all up at 5am on Wednesday morning. We literally just put on our boots and jumped on
the bus to drive to the Frenchman Peak. In the middle of the night we walked
around it to the other side and started the 1km but VERY steep climb up to the
top. We had to use our hands as well therefore I only took pictures as we were
more than halfway up. A backpacker from Switzerland who we got to know at the
campground the evening before came with us and he was the first to reach the
top (typical...).
Cheerio folks,
The other group had to leave at 7am to get all their
visits done and to reach their next destination. As we used some of theircamping equipment we had to get up with them. I couldn’t sleep any longer than
5:45am, so I got up to take some pictures of the sunrise at Lucky Bay. And I finally got a picture of a jumping kangaroo!
The sunrise was quite nice, so I didn’t regret getting up so early.
Greeting to you all,
The next morning due to the sun shining into the
tent I got up at 7am (I HATE getting up early!!!) and I was one of the last
ones (no surprise to me). We got told that Damian had to take the bus to the
workshop half an hour walk away where it needs to stay for a few hours before
we could drive off. Damian left the trailer with us and we set down, had
breakfast, watched TV, talked, used the internet and waited.
Moin Moin guys,
On Sunday the 13th of April 2014 my host mother Cécile
was so friendly as to drive me into the city of Perth at 6:30am in the morning
as there was no public transport possibility for me to get there. She dropped
me off at the YHA Perth on Wellington Street where I asked another waiting
backpacker if he is waiting for the Esperance Tour and he was! Andre, a German
backpacker and I spoke a little bit about the usual stuff (where are you from,
how long are you here, if and what did you work, what will the tour be like
etc.) while another old guy joined us. At 7am a bus with a trailer approached,
the tour guide Damian stuffed our bags into the trailer and we hopped onboard
together with three other girls.
Hello world,
On Saturday afternoon my host family drove in their newly accquired Holden Jackaroo (a 4-wheel-drive 7-seater) to King's Park for a Easter egg hunt for children organised by the French community.
Cheerio folks,
On Friday it was forecasted to get over 30 degrees Celsius again, so I booked the ferry to get to the holiday island of Perth: Rottnest Island! At 8am in the morning I arrived at the Barrack Street Jetty to the ferry of Rottnest Express.
But because boarding wasn't opened yet and I was so happy to have this camera, I took some quick pictures of the Bell Tower and the skyline of Perth.
Moin Moin everyone!
Today is Thursday the 10th of April 2014. On Saturday the 8th of March 2014 my camera broke down in Adelaide. As it couldn't be repaired in Adelaide, I took it to Melbourne a few days later where I found out that it would probably cost 300 AUD (or more) and several weeks to get it repaired. After a few days when I calmed down about this and spoke to my dear friend Carly. She ordered a camera on the internet for me. Unfortunately it arrived three days later than expected just one day after I left Melbourne to fly to Perth. So Carly had to get it send to Perth and it took 9 days to arrive. But it is here now! (Hmm, that mirror is a little bit dusty...)
Welcome ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,
After my visit to Penguin Island in the morning I set
off to Mandurah which is another 30 km South of Rockingham, so in total about
80 km South of Perth. This town is famous for its cruises: dolphin / lunch /
dinner / twilight / torchlight / wedding / party cruises. Everything is
available. As I have already seen dolphins in Adelaide (that was the day when
my camera broke down, so you cannot see any pictures in this blog entry,
sorry! ) I decided against a dolphin
cruise and went around the marina shore for a walk towards the park of
Mandurah.
Cheerio friends and strangers,
It is Sunday and that means my day off! WUHU! And
this time I took the second car of my host family to drive to Rockingham. After
I cleaned the back window and got the satnav running I set off to this 50 km
journey along the Kwinana Freeway. I arrived at 9:45am at the ferry departure
point where I got a ticket to set over to Penguin Island. It is literally a 5
minute drive across and we even saw two people walk over the sand bank. But it
is considered dangerous and people even lost their lives due to the strong
currents.
Howdy partners,
It is Friday and this means it is my first day off
for the week. HURRAY!
The evening before Cécile went to a get-together of
French mothers from around Perth. A friend of hers needed a babysitter for this
evening, so I stayed there for four hours while the kids were sleeping as the
father was away for work. The money I got for the babysitting suited me very
well for my daytrip to Fremantle, the harbor city of Perth. In the morning
Cécile dropped me off at the Canning Bridge Station where I took a bus to
Fremantle. It took about 35 minutes to get there. I arrived at 9am and went
into the city center, past this Town Hall and into the Visitor Information
Center.
I got a map and some more information of what is
worth visiting and then I headed for the Fremantle Market which is only open
from Friday to Sunday.
Hello world,
On Sunday is my second day off and as it was still
very cloudy and quite cold (at 21 degrees Celsius) I went into the city of Perth again. This time I aimed for the arts precinct. I first entered the
Western Australia Museum which is FREE.
G’Day mates,
On Friday I had the day off and took the chance to
sprint to the city center of Perth. It is a 20-minute drive by bus to the
Southern end of the CBD (Central Business District). There I took the FREE Blue
CAT (I love it when public transport is free, very environmentally friendly) to
the first sightseeing spot: The Bell Tower with the Swan Bells at the Barrack
St Jetty. I took the pictures with the old digital camera of my host mother Cecile.
Luckily I was just in time for the interactive
demonstration of the bells.
Hi there,
On Wednesday it was cloudy, so I stayed in the
apartment of Carly until I had to leave to get to the airport on time for my
flight to Perth. I didn’t consider the rush hour, so the trams were packed and
I had my big black suitcase with me. On the third tram I managed to squeeze in.
I changed on Flinder Street Station and said Good-Bye to Melbourne :-( as the
train drove North where I had to change into a bus.
