G'day Pommes

(photos at www.flickr.com/photos/jilllucas - 'Perth'..'Busselton'..and..'Kalamunda')

Brrrrr!!!! Perth is bloomin cold! Boo-hoo I hear you cry!! I know, it's a hard life travelling around all the time! hehehehee
Well my time in Perth is almost up and I have to say I've loved it (apart from the cold obviously!)
I was first staying with Jess (who I met on the Northern Thailand tour) and her auntie and brother.It started with a tour around Swan River, which is a huge beautiful lake that flows out to the big ol' ocean, and continued by the lovely Susie (the aunt) taking us out for a free meal (on her work account!!). Of course we had some cocktails and there was a gorgeous one which was a toblerone chocolate cocktail!! yes, you heard correctly...toblerone!oh yummy..although I think too many of those would be a huge mistake....alcohol.....cream...chocolate...not always the best mix!!
We went to another sea life centre and I again marvelled at all the alien looking fish and sharks! bless me! hahahaha. andJess showed me many absolutely beautiful beaches....SO MANY OF THEM!!!! There's one..then literally a few hundred yards down the road, is anotherone, just as breath-taking...and it just goes on! It's not just the beaches that are fabulous, it's the trees and rocks surounding them too. My eyes were very happy let me tell you!
My love of caves were fullfilled again when we visitied Ngilgi caves. A good spirit chased away the bad one so I was happy to enter knowing i'd be looked after! It was quite a sweet story actually. But too long to write in here. Look it up if you're interested!hahahaha not that i'm lazy of anything!) and just after that we visited a cute little lighthouse. It wasreally interesting (which kind of surprised me!) Did you know that each lighthouse, everywhere, has it's own calling card, if you like, in regards to how the light flashes and how many seconds are in between each flash? I'm sure someofyou did, but I didn't and thought it was a great idea! hahahaha. Then all the Sea men knew where they were!

My god though, the lives that these men who looked after it had. They had a short life expectancy, had to deal with fumes high enough to kill you (hence the shortlife span), didn't get anyholiday for quite a few years and many other things! poor b*****s!
Fremante market was next and what a market that was!It's a beautiful place, very quaint and the market was everything from food,arts, crafts, etc etc..all that kind of stuff. I almost did some serious damage to my wallet, but managed to stop and just one long skirt! A pat on the back for me! hehehehehee

I then went down to Busselton to spend a few days with Anita (Jess's mum, who I also met in Thailand) The winerys!!!! oh my goodness....the amount of them dotted around the place is amazing! and they all do sweet wines! yay for me! hhahaha. Bill, Anitas husband, worked at a winery, called Happs, so I managed to try all the sweet wines there (and around many others too!hehehe). Also tried a few liquors (one which was apparently jaffa flavour...........Have no idea why they thought it tasted like that!) and an ausie beer, though it tasted no different from the ones back home really!
I had a cute (and extrememly cold) little ride on a tram in Pemberton and climbed the outside of the 'Gloucester tree' (Just picture it....a huge tree...of rungs on the outside, winding round to the top...no safety precautions..you just take your life into your own hands! ekkkk!!!) I never thought i'd be fit enough to get to the top as the rungs were pretty far apart and it was a blooooomin big tree, but I surprised myself, and made it all the way up.....the way down was really odd and a bit scary actually. I had to go much slower and my legs got all wobbly coming down and then they wouldn't let me forget what i'd done for the next two days!!! i'm so unfit! hahaha
There was an abolutely amazinging beautiful rock formation called Elephant cove, on the far west coast...just have a look at the photos..
and after all that exercise, we finished it off with a visit to the chocolate factory and Candy Cow! (a sweet/chocolate place) Fudge, fudge, fudge!!! hhahaha. Now, as my family know, I have a thing about fudge! but I managed to restrict my buying to only 2 bits. Lemon cheescake and jaffa flavour. NOW...THAT...was a proper jaffa flavour...and I was in heaven! hahahaha
Oh and we stopped at Margaret River too, which really was a lovely place! So much to remember!!!!!!!!!

I then moved on to spend some time with a couple in Kalamunda, who i met when i did the Great Wall of China, back in June. They have such a friendly family and we spent a lot of time with them....eating meals mainly! hahaha.(and had my first chocolate fondue! yummy!!) And it as Fathers day when I was with them, so we all had a BBQ at a park.
I can't tell you how much i enjoyed my 4-5 days with them. They were so welcoming. into both their home and their family (and friends) that I felt completely at home.
They took me to Caversham Wildlife park. where I got to milk a cow, had a go at cracking a bloomin heavy whip (funny photos!) got very close to koalas (and saw a 4-5 month old one which was the cutest thing i've ever seen!), saw a few hours old lamb, feb some kangaroos, and spent a lovely day with my 'faux' family! hehehehe
Oh god, please, please have a look at the photos..In the Kalamunda ones,about half way down, have a look at the video of the odd looking bird, making his call. It the most odd noise i've ever heard a bird do. let me know what you think!!!

So, the beauty, kindness of people and fun of this place is what i will take away from it. I only wish i'd come at a warmer time.Although if i had, i'd have missed all the lushness of the trees and grass (looks quite like England at the mo). I'm told in a few weeks, it will be mostly dry!

Well, enjoy the photos everyone. Hope y'all are well!! Off to Darwin next and the Northern Territory! woo-hooo!!!
me
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