Visting Perth

We have never been much of a touristy sort of travellers. So far, we havent really paid to do things tourists would do. Partly coz we dont like to pay for them, the other we prefer to do what the locals do. And the latter means we should be paying less at the less expensive places? I could be wrong, but well, if only money grow on trees in my backyard - if I have one in the 1st place, when I stay in a public housing, "pocket in the sky", as my friend would say.


If you ever get to Perth, some considerations for you:

Perth City - King's Park is a nice and peaceful place. Lots of green for the kids to run around. Maybe its peculiar just to my family. We love huge space and green lawn. Very good for the soul. The Swan River goes into the heart of the city. Nice place to walk along. Breezy in the evening. In 2008, I went for a light jog and came upon a school of dolphins swimming in the river, very close to the side. Absolutely breathtaking! Wild dolphins! My family missed out on the sighting. Returned in the evening and was hoping to catch them. Failed miserably.

Rockingham - Drove there to visit Penguin Island. To get to the island, we have to take a 10min ferry across. The thing is, the locals walk the sand bar to get to the island because you can actually wade through. But the authorities discourage it because of the unpredictable waves and current. Apparently, there have been people who walked and drowned. Not sure how true. I have seen it and I think waist deep is not to be fooled around with. Penguin supposedly to have 2000 of the smallest specie of penguine. Sadly, as you walk around, you wont be able to see any. Supposedly very shy creatures and gets startled very easily. There is a penguin feeding area with couple of "shows". 10 of them still very wild because the management believed in keeping them this way. Although, they would not be able to survive in the open sea because the acquaintance with human beings have been too long.

We stayed along Scarborough Beach, in a private apartment called Sandcastles. It is coast fronting and the wind and sunset was absolutely gorgeous. The horizon - which my daughter asked me, "whats so great about a straight line?" and I have no answer for - was clean and the colours of dusk was simply romantic. The beach is not suitable for swimming coz the waves and winds are really strong. Its a beach that the locals sail and parasurf at. A very long beach indeed.






Margaret River - We stayed at Losari. Big property and quiet. 5km drive away from the town. Owners are very nice and warm people. Villas are modern and nicely decorated. Comes with outdoor jacuzzi that opens up to the property. And not to worry, it was really private because the villas are very far apart from one another.


We are not exactly into wines. But we went to a few wineries with very nice views. One that we visited in 2008 was Laurance. Distinctive was its lady on a pole in its lake.

This year we visited another beautiful winery with a nice eating place - Watershed. Food was priced within reason. I had a special order of plain pasta only because the ironman race was the next day.


My kids on both ironman holidays, went for 2 hour horse riding experience with Horse Resort. Just slightly further up from Losari. The main compound, according to my kids, was the better of the 2 because of the sheer size of it. They went through the different paddocks and forested areas.

Prevelly - Short windy road. Use to have a cafe at beach end called White Elephant. This year we went back but the place was under construction. My wife liked the place. And yes, a good looking young man use to work there then...

Albany - We drove down south in 2009. A long long drive and of course back up again. The place we stayed in was called Seven Oaks. It actually is a local's residence but they rent it out as they had other properties. Away from the main road, it was really quiet at night. And not to mention absolute darkness outside. But its really cost and nice. Albany being very far south, the weather is much cooler than Perth city. And the fireplace made it cosy at night. Traditional fireplace - we absolutely enjoy it.

We visited the last whaling place while in Albany. Ok, one of the touristy thing we did. But hey, unless we drive out of the town, there was really very little to do within 20 - 30km. And my wife was not in favour of doing any more driving out anymore then. The next nearest attraction was like almost 200km away. We did visit the rock formations and the windmill farm nearby.


Pemberton - Just south of Margaret River. About 2 hours drive away. A very small town but offers much of nature. There are the forestry walks, trails, small dam and all. In 2008, we drove through the car trails before and there was radio channel to explain the history, the fauna and the flora. 4WD would be nice but my sedan drove through nonetheless. We stayed at Pumphill in 2009 and this year we put up at Diamond Forest Cottages (20km from Pemberton, picture below), nearer Munjimup, actually. Of the two, Diamond is a bigger set up with huge land. Pumphill has nice farm stay experience. We also went King Trout to do farmed rainbow trout fishing in 2008. Was a lot of fun for people who have not fished in their lives - US! It was sure-to-catch day.