So we've successfully got out of the city centre after 2 weeks of urban living, now we're completely out in the sticks, miles from anywhere and surrounded by kangaroos! Well, we had wanted a change of scenery. Perth Hills is absolutely lovely though, really tranquil and perfect for a relaxing few days away from the hustle & bustle.

Sunday was our time to leave, so, as organised, we successfully caught a train then a bus out to Mundaring, a small town about 35 kilometres out of the city centre. Luckily this went pretty smoothly and we didn't miss our connections - something we'd definitely been a little anxious about the night before. In Mundaring we had about 3 hours to kill before our courtesy pickup was to arrive so we did a bit of shopping to last us a week, without really knowing what facilities were available we did what campers do and stocked up on food that can be heated with just hot water (ie cup of soup or pot noodle) or that which doesn't need to be cooked at all. Then we waited outside Hills Fresh for about half an hour, our pickup was late, but it was the manager who came to fetch us, and what she lacked in professionalism she made up for in niceness, so we forgave her :)

The YHA itself was tucked away behind the main road, but it wasn't much of a main road and if you sat outside our lodge you couldn't hear a thing! We were initially put in the cottage - a separate part of the YHA - as they had a school group in the main lodge and Claire decided to stay away from the rabble!

Right outside, on more than one occasion this week, we went outside to have breakfast (as for some reason it was warmer outside than inside?!) and some kangaroos were waiting for us! They were all wild, but really friendly. A group of about 10-20, it varied at any one time, lived around the hostel, and Ralph & Liz, the owners, treated them more like pets as they left water outside for them, and fed them leftovers everyday. Which made them very greedy, and very inquisitive! Of course the baby ones were the cutest - there weren't any tiny joeys but some smaller younger independent ones who were just so funny to watch. They would hop up to you and poke their noses in your vicinity and have a good sniff to see if you were carrying food, and once one noticed you were there, they would all hop over to have a look. They especially liked bananas, skins and all, and our favourite was Bailey, one of the younger ones with a white spot on his face. There was an older one who Liz said was about 11 years old, then one which had been hit by a car a year or so ago, breaking its tail so it hopped a bit strangely, and growled if you went too close.

Today we walked up to the visitor centre, about 2km away - yes - to get some maps and information about what we could do this week. We hoarded loads of leaflets home and made a bit of a plan of what to do - only for Ralph to turn around and say most of the activities were only really available by car. We were quite annoyed as on the web and every advert we'd seen for the place had offered bike hire, and had said these amenities were 'close by', but close for cars obviously - and they also told us they'd stopped hiring bikes out, which meant we were left with only a couple of the do-able activities left, and our own feet to take us there.

When we got back Liz was crouching down by a kangaroo on the pathway - we learnt that it had most probably been hit by a car and couldn't get up. She said it wasn't one of her regulars so she was going to keep putting food & water near it and hope it got better.

Tonight we had our first official Aussie BBQ! We'd bought some sausages from the supermarket in Mundaring and we tested them out on the provided gas BBQ around the back. Despite the mozzies (yes, even this time of year they're still around apparently) it was yummy and we had some left over so we're going to take them up the hill to the lookout for another BBQ at some point this week :)