Flashback...Perth Walkabout...

The weather in London is utterly miserable and I've been thinking a lot over the last few days about Australia since we've been there twice in March.  I thought it might be nice over the next couple of weeks to go back over some of my older blog posts from when we were there and to post some photos up here to cheer things up a bit.  All photos copyright Robert May.

Perth Walkabout - Written 11th March 2011

Perth from Kings Park

We spent the day in Kings Park – had someone told me that it was up the steepest hill I’ve seen for ages, we might not have skipped breakfast and gone straight for lunch.  However, we did feel like a bit of a lie in would be a good idea to try and get into the right timezone.  Of course, after that, the more important consideration was to get one of the devices online so that we could make everyone jealous at check-ins along the trip as we go.

So, we set off up the big hill and reached the park, trailed round for an age looking for the restaurant and ended up back where we started, realising that it was closed for refurbishment, and so we ate in the Botanical Cafe instead. Rob had some mammoth Bruschetta, and I tried a delicious goats cheese and fig salad – to be honest it was way too hot for anything more substantial.  The thing I noticed most was how delicious and fresh all the salads are here.

Fresh & delicious for the hot weather!

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the park, we did the law trail loop, which was half down a sandy path and we got very dirty. The park was beautiful and we wandered in the botanic gardens before enjoying an ice cream. Then we walked back down the hill to the hotel, laughing at all the sporty types who were doing crazy running up and down a steep set of steps to the top and back.

Running up here...in that heat!
... crazy people!

In the evening we had a walk into Northbridge, which seemed to be where the majority of nightlife close to the city is, quite a studenty/backpackery area, lots of young, fun types! We found a lovely Italian restaurant called Valentino’s, I enjoyed some delicious veal on mashed potato in a yummy mushroom sauce and Rob had fettucine pasta with chicken and bacon in a creamy sauce.  Sitting outside to eat was just the nicest thing.

We were going to go back to the hotel at that point but could hear the sound of live music close by. We thought we should check it out. it was coming from an American bar called the Mustang Bar, quite hard to describe, there was quite an array of different funky shirts going on and patrons of all ages. We saw 3 bands, with the first being the best, 4 young lads who sounded like a cross between the Beatles, Oasis and Arctic Monkeys. 

I had some crazy drink called Mother, which I tried to order in a pint, thank goodness it only came in a half pint as it seemed to be a nicer tasting vodka/Red Bull that was going to probably keep me awake all night. Thankfully though we realised the mistake and switched back to beer so we could fall into a peaceful, deep sleep.