Hello Perth!

The old music hall song proclaims that "Its a long way to Tipperary"...which may well be true...but its a longer way to Perth! Our flight from Manchester departed on time and we we well looked after by the Etihad cabin crew but with a total flying time of 18 hours and time in airports it took the best part of 24 hours to reach Perth. Access through Australian immigration and border controls was a breeze...I don't recall getting through an airport any faster. 

We hopped on a local bus from the airport and this went through some of Perth's suburbs before reaching the city centre. We have rented an apartment for our time in Perth and as we'd arrived a few minutes ahead of time we went into a nearby coffee shop recommended by our host Linda. We'd just ordered coffees and picked up a message from Linda to say she was running late so had asked her friend Mark to meet us when a voice behind me me said "Hello Chris and Jan, I'm Mark". That was super efficient I thought....whilst simultaneously  thinking how did he know who we were. I guess our backpacks were a bit of a giveaway! There were some problems with the key fob that gave entry to the apartment block so whilst waiting for Linda to arrive we chatted to Mark who was very friendly. I learnt that he was a consultant working in the mining industry (a chemist and geologist ) and had lived in Perth for 7 years. We swapped a few travel stories before finally getting into our apartment..spacious,, comfortable and air conditioned. 

The following morning was bright and sunny so we set off on foot to explore Perth passing some statues of kangaroos on the way. Mrs B was quite taken with them! Strolling down to the Barrack St jetty gave us our first proper view of the Swan River and the Bell Tower. 

The whole area was a construction site suggesting that despite a down turn in the mining industry Perth seemed to have a booming ecomony. Free buses operate in the central business area so deciding to avoid the construction works we hopped on a couple of buses and arrived before long at the Kings Park and Botanic Garden.  The views back towards Perth were stunning and as we sipped our first coffees a red wattle bird wandered by our table.

After our refreshments we started to explore the park. The war memorial was a poignant reminder of all the Australians who had lost their lives fighting in the first and second World Wars.

Then we headed through beautiful themed gardens showing all the different plants and trees of Western Australian. We spotted a cheeky looking Rainbow Lorikeet in one of the trees and our walk was surrounded by birdsong.  then followed a treetop walkway before meandering through bushland. Kings Park covers 1000 acres..so despite walking for about 2 miles we had only seem a glimpse of the different areas. 

We finally made our way back to the bus stop and found our way to the shopping malls. Mrs B's eyes lit up at the souvenir shops..whilst I sorted out a pre-paid sim card for my mobile. After 6 hours of exploring and 7 miles of walking we decided to call a halt to our explorations with the knowledge we still had two more days in this interesting and varied city.