Day 6

We had used up all our perishable food from the camper, except for a couple of oranges picked on the side of the road in Mary Valley. Dave thought there wouldn't be a problem taking them interstate so shoved them in the luggage. But as we landed in Perth, there was someone asking us to give up any fruit or nuts(AU$2000 fine), so we confessed that we had some in a suitcase. After the plane was empty she brought her sniffer dog (a beagle (girl)) in to the terminal and went round bags. She came over to us and we thought the fruit was in Dave's case but it turned out to be in mine and the dog plunged her nose in and started inhaling noisily. Wish I'd thought to get the camera out. We might get a photo of her in action on the way back.

Well, we arrived at the accommodation we had booked to find that it was not at all of the standard it appeared on the website and they had booked us into a twin room, rather than a double. Dave was in no frame to accept that, so we got a refund and booked out with no idea of where the accommodation was. So the first lesson on doing a reccy is that you should print out a map of the suburbs that interest you and mark a couple of houses you like from the real estate sites, so you can check how the areas measure up. The second lesson is that you should have a plan B, or take an accomodation guide. Eventually, (1.30am)(tired and grumpy and lagged) we found a hotel open on City Beach and booked in. In the light of day there were other options, but at night the street lighting out of the city is quite poor and it's hard to find your way around if you don't know where you're going. We were surprised at how little traffic there was around between 11pm and 1.30am. That was a bonus as doing a u turn on a major road was becoming a habit.

In the light of day, Perth is neat and clean. The parks look cared for and the suburbs are trimmed and paved. The beaches are here. In the north they are mostly surf beaches and in the evenings from City beach to North beach the water is packed with surfers and the beach walkways are busy with walkers, joggers and skateboarders from about 4pm.
yeah standing in the Indian ocean. Its not as warm as I expected. But maybe its that I am getting old and am starting to feel it more.Nice Expensive housing. Lots around the 700,000 - 1,000,000 mark.
We went up to Quinn's Rocks looked around that area and Clarkson, Merriwa. All very nice, but the thing I liked about Brisbane is that they only seem to clear what bush they need for the new subdivisions and leave tracts of bush around, which means you still get the birds and it breaks up the new look. In Perth, the new subdivisions seem to be pretty much leveled. We dropped into Mindarie to have a look at the show homes. A nice way to spend an afternoon if you have a spare million.

Dave had a job interview in Joondalup (june-dar-lup), so we went to Joondalup shopping centre for lunch. It's massive with new stages planned for later this year. We're starting to find our way round, after getting on to the motorway in the wrong direction a couple of times. The traffic's not too bad if it's not rush hour.

Today we're looking around a bit more and hopefully doing a cruise on the river later and looking round the city and King's Park.The end of another beaut day. In Perth you can get home and have dinner and wine every night and watch the sun set in the west. You cant do that in Brisbane.

So far, doing comparisons, I think I'd like to "move Hervey Bay and its beaches", to within 30 minutes of either Brisbane or Perth. HB's beaches and also those of Redcliffe/Scarborough in Brisbane, are calm and get deep slowly so are ideal for kids to use kayaks, paddle on surf boards, learn to sailboats etc and jet ski. The surf beaches may be more exciting but also more dangerous and there is less a child can do safely. Still it's all very pretty here and we'll hopefully post some more photos of the city tonight.