4 and a bit weeks in Australia... (Perth and Ayers Rock)

Both very excited about our return to Australia, and I guess quite looking forward to the relative ease of travelling here, compared with other parts of the world.

This part of the trip will be slightly different, with Christine's mum joining us.

Also, the weather 'should' be good - not the tiring humidity of Asia, and with the start of summer around the corner, there'll be some great days....hopefully....

These short few weeks will see us in Perth, Ayers Rock, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney - lots to do and ground to cover in a very short time.

Perth

Aah, fond prior memories of Perth, and WA as a whole. Albeit a days broken-up travelling from Asia (Bangkok to Singapore to Perth), we get in to Perth Airport late evening on Friday 6th October and our chum, Billy Whitmarsh, meets the three of us at arrivals.

30 minutes later and we're 'home' and for the next 7 days staying with Bill at his lovely place in Mullaloo, just 10 minutes stroll from the beach.

Wow, how nice it is for the evening air to be fresh and cool, and a real bonus to benefit from snuggling up under a duvet. A great night's sleep had by all.

First morning the treats come thick and fast - not just a beautiful clear sky to kick off the day, but the best fryup in a long, long, time.

An easy day followed, with a drive down to the sea and a wander along the coast for our first cold beer (and a coffee for mum). Eek, $8 for a beer!

From the main cycle path we get a perfect view of the beach and the surf - unfortunately no swimming today, probably a bit chilly anyway...

No meal that night, making plenty of room for some expert Mojitos, and then some more Mojitos. And a beer or two. The cool evening air soon forgotten under the cover of beer jackets.

Day 2 and we drive over to 'Freo (Fremantle) via a couple of the small seaside spots along the way. Our long awaited fish and chips well worth it, though we probably spent more on one meal here than we spent on several days worth in Asia.

Other than a wander around the nice town, not a lot here - saw the Sunday market. Oh, and had some icecream, including my flavour of the month, Rum Raisin.

In the afternoon, joined Billy at a BBQ at a buddys house - wow, lovely place - pool, jacuzzi, games room. Good bunch of guys and girls (scousers!) and we didn't find the car mounted on bricks when we left.

Day 3 - first stop at King's Park, overlooking the city. Had a nice easy walk around, then made our way into town for a nibble, then more walking... Spent some time down on the beach - whilst a bit rough for swimming, managed to catch a couple of waves body-boarding. Didn't even 'nearly' drown. More refreshing beverages later that evening.

Day 4 - a little bit of exercise in the morning and Bill, Chris and I take a bike ride along the coast track, stopping for a coffee on the way. Avoided several Bobtail Lizards along the track, as well as various walkers, runners and other bikers. Fantastic views - what an amazing place to have on your doorstep. Caught up with mum who had taken a walk up the track in the other direction, towards Hillary's Boat Harbour.

In the 'arvo, drove up to Yanchep National Park, less than an hour's drive. A great time to go - hardly anyone there, and it's free after 4pm. Very lucky - saw several Koala's, including an 'active' one (they're usually snoozing), just a few feet away. Of course, there were plently wedged up in the trees, snoozing. Also, Kangaroos here, with their Joey's and along the edge of the lake we found some Long Necked Turtles.

Day 5 - boo hoo, weather not so good, so we seek some inside activities and make our way to the interesting, if not quite small, Western Australia Museum. Part of the old jail sits within the museum, also a pickled Megamouth Shark. The Art Gallery of WA is next door - the Aboriginal works, most interesting. Had hoped for a nice sunset from the beach - unfortunately got rained/blown off. Dinner at a local, and delicious, Thai restaurant.

Day 6 - what?, more drinking? - yep, a day out visiting the wineries of Swan Valley. Before getting to the wineries, we stopped off in Guildford - Heath Ledger was apparently born there, but a quick beer whilst the girls walked along the main street was the key attraction.

We visited a handful of wineries - some keen to offer free samples, others keen to charge a little here and there. Paul signed up as designated driver, on the basis that we could make a return visit to the Chocolate Factory, for plenty free samples. Aah, wine and chocolate....

Pub dinner to finish the day, and met up with another ex-Northwood-er, Gordy, and his wife Anne-Marie.

Last (full) day - no rushing about today, just the Aquarium on the agenda and we arrived just in time for the feeding of the sharks. The aquarium is very well done - the main exhibit is a 98m long moving tunnel, with, er, fish, turtles, sharks and stingrays swimming above you. Chris got very excited about touching a Cuttlefish and a Stingaree (a 'ray' type thing) in the petting pool. The seahorses were beautiful, but the 'Prettiest Underwater Thing Award' would need to go to the Leafy Dragons.

Last night spent at the pub (after a great meal courtesy of Billy), looking across the sea - a great finish to a great week in Perth. A big thanks to Billy for looking after us - geezer!

Next morning, off to the Domestic Airport for the plane ride into the Red centre....

Ayers Rock

It's amazing when you consider the size of Australia - it's a 3 hour plane ride over to the centre from Perth. 'Spose it beats driving!

Also, with the centre being so far from anywhere else, you'd think that maybe the weather doesn't even bother to go there. Wrong, shortly after leaving the clear skies of Perth, cloud surrounds and covers the barren land underneath, though we get some breaks as we descend into Uluru and get a good view of both Uluru and The Olgas whilst in the air. That'll save paying to go on a separate plane excursion around the rocks! Cheapskates!

Pleasantly unhelpful carhire agents at the airport advise that they're fully booked, so the freebie shuttle bus into the Uluru resort for the 15 minute ride is snapped up.

The YHA accomodation is a good set up, with good facilities and located near the supermarket and info centre. Whilst there are hotels within the resort area, it's pretty expensive - though the YHA isn't cheap either but the only budget option - cost about $30 a night in a dorm. Glad we booked months in advance, and we're not yet in high season.

A combination of the journey here itself, as well as having to put the watch forward 90 minutes, we don't have a great deal of daylight left, so have a walk around the site and to one of the lookout points, towards the 'rock'. Shame about the clouds, doesn't help the view, though we can see Uluru, some 20 kms away.

Christine and Mum enjoyed a bottle of cider and no doubt tapped their toes to the onsite 'man with guitar and drum machine'. Referred to as a 'good, old sing-song'.

Managed to sort out a hire car for the next morning, though can't pick it up till 10, which becomes 11. Thanks Thrifty, and sorry we had to trouble you to record all the dents and scratches that you missed, and would no doubt have blamed on us.

Uluru is a formidable sight as you drive closer and closer - a real oddity on a generally flat landscape. Again, weather not much of a help today, so the red of the rock not getting much contrast against the grey sky. At least it's dry....

Being 'nice' travellers, we opt for the walk around the base of the rock, rather than up it, and just under 3 hours later (9.4kms) we return to the carpark. Paul kicking himself that he didn't wear appropriate footwear, but was rewarded with a perfect circle of worn-away skin on his right foot.

As well as various birds along the way, we came across a lone Dingo who took a wide path around us - not sure if he was scared, or stalking. Also, another Dingo who seemed quite comfortable in the company of the Aboriginal kids who were clambering around the rock and playing in one of the pools.

I mentioned that it had been dry, well.... a bit of a downpour came as we walked the final 500 metres.

Quite glad that there's the compassionate option not to climb up the rock - it looks pretty steep in parts, and there's only a chain rope to get you up there. With the rock as smooth as a pebble, there wouldn't be much to stop you tumbling all the way back down to the bottom, probably dead. And the Aboriginal people get upset when folks die, or are injured, on their land.

Whilst we enjoyed the walk very much, and clearly Uluru is equally an impressive as it is an odd sight, I reckon that the view was less good down to the amount of cloud. As our time in the red centre is very limited, we'll keep our chubby fingers crossed for better conditions tomorrow.

Making the most of our hirecar, we next zoom over to The Olgas (aka Kata Tjuta) to see (bits of) the 36 steep-sided domes, covering an area of 3500 hectares! Also, fact fans, the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is the world's only twice listed site in the UNESCO World Heritage list. I got this off the internet, so it must be true.

It started to pour with rain so I stayed nice and dry in the car and played Backgammon whilst Chris and Mum went for a 2 hour walk into the valley, aptly named the Valley of the Winds. Apparently the scenery was stunning but Chris got rather anxious a few times as her Mum tackled the slippery terrain. The three rainbows were pretty cool - didn't expect to see those in the red centre.

Next, and final, morning up at 5.30 am and drove to Ayers Rock in the hope of seeing a spectacular sunrise. Unfortunately it wasn't a great one but at least it was dry and we saw a pack of Dingo's, though they ran in the opposite direction to the crowds of folk up for the sunrise view. Whilst the sunrise itself not all that impressive, the sun shining against the rock was and the different shades of red/orange stood out magnificently.

After a sniff around the cultural centre, we met up at the base of the rock to join a 'free' walk'n'talk from one of the Aborignal Park Rangers.

Sadly not much time to spare, so we buzz down to the airport for our lunchtime flight on to Melbourne.

We've changed our plans slightly - rather than the arduous (nigh on 2 days, and still quite expensive) coach journey to Adelaide, we'll fly to Melbourne, and take a hire car from their towards Adelaide, and back again. Shame we'll miss out on the underground world that is Coober Pedy.