Flashback... Perth's Famous Wine Cruise

All photos copyright Robert May.

First written 14th March 2011

Today was all about Wines, Cheese and scorching Sun!   

We had a tour booked on Captain Cook Cruises to take us to the beautiful Sandalford Estate in Swan Valley about 30 minutes outside Perth by car, or over 2 hours (!) by boat.  The boat set off quite early from the Barrack Street Jetty and we were only about an hour into the trip until the first four wines appeared.  Before we could get drinking, the crew decided it would be fun to get a few of the other passengers to model the wine for the rest of us… to some dodgy music!  During the tastings, we really liked the Sauvignon and the Cabernet Merlot from the Jane Brook Estate, but weren’t that keen on the other two.

Just lazing around on the river...

The trip was good and we landed at the Sandalford Estate to a lovely view of grape vines and other flowers (apparently planted near the vines as they act as an early warning system for diseases and similar).  At Sandalford, we tried another 7 wines (and really liked about 4 of them) and 2 ports.  We bought a bottle of the rather special Sandalera Port as a anniversary present to ourselves.  We’ll open it at our first Christmas together as a married couple and share it with the friends & family that we see.

The beautiful Sandalford Estate

After quite a few more tastings of the nicer wines, we headed back onto the boat (just about walking in a straight line) to go to the Waters Edge Winery for a 3 course lunch and even more wine tasting – this time for another 3-4 wines that we could pick from a big selection, including a sparkling.  The tasting was in the the oldest underground wine cellar in Western Australia and it was fantastically rustic, although also a bit musty smelling… in a reassuring way.  We had another walk back to the boat and were hit with a wall of intense heat as soon as we got outside, which made the the wine go to our heads even faster.  On the boat, we were greeted by the friendly crew and even more wine.  

Swan River at Sunset

Once back in Perth, we visited the Lucky Shag Bar on the riverside for some water (!) and contemplated what else to do on our last night.  After finishing off the drinks, we had a wander down the rest of the jetty and then made our way over to Northbridge again for some food in one of the local restaurants.

Perth city at Sunset

It was a really lovely last day in Perth and we both agreed that we would come back again – lots of exploring around the city and suburbs to still be done.  I'd definitely recommend the wine cruise and Captain Cook Cruises in general, they were excellent.  Onwards to Ayers Rock tomorrow… apparently, the weather isn’t so good… oh dear, I can see a large bill from the Spa coming my way!!

Flashback... Rottnest Island

Still one of the most stunningly beautiful places I've ever been to.

All photos copyright Robert May

Written 13th March 2011

Absolutely amazing day out today on Rottnest Island, about 30 minutes from Fremantle on the coast.  It is possible to stay on the island, but just a day trip for us since we had so many other things to see!

Looking out towards Perth
(can you spot it in the distance?)

 There are so many beaches and bays on the island, and hardly any people on them all, despite the boat having been pretty full.  We bought a bayseeker bus pass from the visitor centre for later on and set off walking (plenty of other people had hired bikes).  We did a few km before realising we should get out of the sun for a while. There wasn’t much in the way of food and drink stops outside the main ferry stop/village centre, so we caught the bus a little further while we cooled off under their air conditioning and took in some more gorgeous beaches.

Beautiful clear waters

We decided to get off and have a walk a little further on, in fact when we got down to the beach we managed to get down to the clearest sea I’ve ever seen and it was beautifully cooling on the feet which were rather hot at that point and glad to be out of their sandals.  We walked on the beach in the water for an hour or so and it was so amazing and perfect.

Empty long sandy beaches

After that, we hopped back on the bus, back to the main centre again and saw some of the native little furry Quokkas just hanging around. We had a bite to eat and a mojito each in the bar, while we looked out onto the gorgeous greeny blue water and waited for the ferry to take us back to Fremantle.

Refreshments after a long day in the sunshine

A perfectly relaxing and beautiful day, couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Caversham Wildlife Park

All photos copyright Robert May

First posted 12th March 2011

We were going a little way out of town today and so managed to get up early. We caught a train to Bassendean, changed onto a bus at Whiteman park and then got the cutest little old courtesy bus into the main part of the park and to Caversham Wildlife Park.

Barking Owl
(one of my favourite ever owl photos)

Once inside we pottered around for what felt like ages, Rob snapping away on the camera. We both find the animals and birds very entertaining, particularly funny was the Barking Owl (we think the Barking might be Barking Mad). Too many other animals to mention them all, but we made a special point of stroking the kangaroos and the koala, lovely and soft they were too.  

Ignore the knobbly knees
(mine, not his)

Afterwards, we walked over to the main bit of the park and had a wander around. The park was brilliant in that it had lots of covered picnic areas where large family/friends groups were meeting up, great idea - I'd love to see this kind of thing in the parks in London - easier to take shelter from the usual rain or occasional sunshine!  It didn’t take us the whole day to get round which we were quite grateful for, so we headed back into Perth and stopped for a much needed afternoon coffee and berry cheesecake.

It's a very relaxed way of life...
being stroked endlessly while sunbathing

After a swift change back at the hotel, we headed out into restauranty area Northbridge again, as Rob had got his heart set on Mexican food. Zapatas was good with the portion sizes and incredibly tasty and we both enjoyed it very much, especially washed down with some cocktails.

We fancied coffee on the way back, but strangely the bar we ended up in only had alcohol (what a shame!) Some drunken Aussies got into a conversation with us before handing Rob a honeymoon pint to drink… oh dear. Then they got thrown out for their clothing choice, so it was just like being in the UK, hahahaha!

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.

Flashback... Perth

This time last year, we were in Perth having a wonderful honeymoon.  It's been a bit of a depressing thought this week while I've been at work, so I dug out the blog we wrote while we were away and I thought I'd share some of the things we wrote and photos that my hubby took.  All photos copyright Robert May.

Fremantle

11th March 2011
Last minute change of plans today.  We had planned to get up and go to Rottnest Island, however, an evening of drinking and a bit of jet lag meant that we didn’t surface early enough to get a whole day trip, so we decided to pop to Fremantle and then have dinner not too far away on Cottesloe beach.
First up though was a breakfast in a little cafe we spotted yesterday close to our hotel.  After munching down Eggs Benedict (Rob) and Eggs Florentine (Joanne) and doing a little trip research using their wifi, we left Tom’s Kitchen and headed towards the train station for the short hop to Fremantle.


It was quite an interesting place, with many little shops, and a few large harbours. We found a lovely little bar called The Monk Bar and Kitchen where we sampled some house wine and lager, and Rob had his favourite espresso yet. Then we meandered to a small beach, and stopped to take in the beautiful blue-green sea. We stopped quickly to look at a gallery of stunning underwater photography, (www.glencowans.com) and then headed back towards the station to catch the train a few stops to Cottesloe.


In Cottesloe, we had our minds on dinner in a restaurant pictured on the gift list site, but they were having a private function so were unavailable. Thankfully, we wandered further along the coast and found a quieter grouping of restaurants, including the gorgeous beachside Barchetta restaurant, who were able to fit us in. We happily watched the sun set as we ate fantastic pizza and scoffed some delicious Rose fizz.