Slow Lane Home

Perth was our second capital city visit after Darwin. After almost five months on the road, we were finally going to be in the thick of people. We’d timed our visit for Christmas, partly a fluke, but partly intentionally to spend time with some friends.

Honestly though, we didn’t really do Perth justice. We spent our time there (almost two weeks) with our friends and celebrating Christmas. We left a huge number of the touristy things untouched, we never even made it into the Perth CBD.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and have absolutely no regrets. It is however our pick of all capital cities to live in. That was almost immediately clear.

Swan Valley

We were on the fence about the Swan Valley. It’s most famous for its wine and food. We’d pretty much stopped drinking at the start of this trip (saves us $) and could hardly be described as foodies. The Lyons encouraged us to give it a go and we’re glad we did.

We planned our day around the Swan Valley Chase. It’s a mobile phone-based chase type game that gives you a guided tour around the valley. You solve the clues to get your next directions, rinse and repeat. We found it fun and a great highlights reel. It mixed some beautiful scenery with a little bit of food, history and play.

The Swan Valley reminded us a lot of the Wairarapa in New Zealand, although it was an whole lot warmer. We could certainly see the appeal of the valley, particularly during an event and if you were child free. It could be a very different visit.

Fremantle

After spending a night getting all the hot Fremantle tips from our friend Rob, we ventured out to Fremantle. It’s a very cool, old port part of the Perth area, on the coast and retaining a lot of its history and buildings.

We drove into central Fremantle first, a slight navigational error meant we missed our desired beach stop. It was fortunate as we realised parking in Fremantle is a bit of a nightmare. We backtracked to Leighton Beach and hit the water. We could deal with the parking later. We’ve found the Western Australian beaches pretty damn good and this was no exception. We spent the morning relaxing before coming up with a plan to attack the parking.

We knew we wanted to be centred around the Shipwreck Museum area. With probably all our parking luck ever, we jagged a street park around the corner. We had three hours to explore before we needed to think about it again.

We toured the Ship Wreck Museum (amazing, the WA maritime history is so interesting), lunched in the park, walked the streets of beautiful old buildings, visited the old round jail, waterfront and debated if we returned again to experience even more. We’d run out of parking and decided to call it quits. In the end we never returned, with other things to do and the one attraction we really wanted (the Maritime Museum) being a bit pricey for the bits we wanted to see.

Beaches

One of the reasons Perth is the pick of capital cities is its proximity to the ocean. It’s just there and the beaches run the length of the urban areas. We visited quite a few of the popular ones; Cottesloe – twice, Leightons, Scarborough and Trigg. They were all a bit different but very enjoyable in their own ways. Cottesloe is cool in its sheltered little corner, Leightons was huge and great for a casual dip. Scarborough had one of the best foreshore precincts we’ve seen and Trigg gave us our body surfing fix. Best of all there are so many choices that we never felt crowded and if we did five minutes drive gave us another option. What other city can offer you that?

Rottnest Island

Saving the best for last, we spent a wonderful day on Rottnest Island. With a substantially greater bank balance we could have made it a few nights. The concept of a stunning island a short boat ride of from a capital city is pretty rare. An island that is effectively a giant nature reserve and home to some rare and endangered critters is even better. The fact that the whole place can be explored by bike and foot, with no private vehicles made it so much more relaxed.

Selina, Rob and Clark joined us for a day of riding, swimming, nature, Quokkas and relaxing. We pretty much had no real plan, just start riding, stop where we saw something good and be back for the boat. It was the best way to see it.

We swam at Little Armstrong Beach, checking out the underwater life and enjoying the view. We lunched at another beach, stopped for lookouts, Quokkas and salt lakes. Some of us headed out to the very tip of the island, Cape Vlamingh. There we walked to see the seals at Cathederal Rocks (and saw a solitary seal enjoying itself). We watched the swell crash into Fish Hook Bay and looked towards Madagascar. It was a long, undulating ride to get to that part of the island but well worth the effort.

Finally, we headed back to the Main Settlement to grab a snack, get some more Quokka pictures and relax at the beach before the boat took us home. It was a full day, but it flew by. Another day or two would be best to explore the island at a more leisurely pace, but that’s a first world problem.