13th March 2009

Yet another early start as we are faced with a 670 kilometres journey to Perth. We decided to cut out the scenic route and make it a direct trip back. All went well until we were nearly at the hotel and Les who was driving followed the satnav's directions which unfortunately took us slightly wrong and left us having to negotiate Perth's tricky one-way system. We finally arrived at the hotel and having booked in decided to take a walk to stretch our legs. Although it was 5 pm it was still very warm.


Today we walked along Hay Street which is the main shopping area of Perth. We discovered some really nice shops and I eventually prised Rosalyn away and caught one of the three free buses which circulates the central areas of Perth seeing various different parts of the city. We alighted at what we thought was Kings Park only to find that to get to it we had to climb what is known as Jacobs Ladder all 221 steps to get there. There was much of the flora of Western Australia including a 750 year old tree Gija Jumulu ( Boab Tree) which had been transported from the Kimberleys and transplanted in the park. Within the park was a memorial to the many Western Australians who had died in the various wars starting with the Great War, there was a separate memorial to the Jewish Fallen. Many of the trees around the park had been dedicated to the memory of different individuals by their family. The views of Perth and her river were simply stunning. Kings Park and Botanic Garden is 1004 acres in size and overlooks the city of Perth from Mount Eliza which is 62m above sea level. We stopped for an ice cream and started talking to a local lady who told us that this was her favourite visiting place. With a temperature in the middle 30s we were pleased when a light breeze sprung up. The lady told us that it is called 'The Freemantle Doctor' because it makes people feel better!