We are now in South-West Australia.
The flight from Singapore to Perth was uneventful. We got to our room and that is where our exitement dropped. It was
a very small room and thus also a very small bed. But we are good friends, so no problem. Then the light fixture in the
ceiling was cracked, and there were no bed lamps.
We went for a walk in the city centre. It was getting to 18.00 and the shops were closing - and so was the city
centre.... We had expected restaurants and bars to stay open, but no, everything shut down. And it felt cold too, after
SG, so we went back to the hotel.
We send an email to our travel agency, asking them to find us another hotel when we come back to Perth.
We had dinner across the road at Miss Maude, which is a Sweedish (inspired) restaurant. Very nice.
Then we found that not only was the bed small, it was also very soft, so every move of one person was felt by the
other. And then the A/C was placed in the window frame on level with the bed and it was noisy. Not as bad as the one in
our first appartment in SG, but still. So we did not sleep well that night.
In the morning we walked over to another area called North-Bridge, because there is a museum with a display of
contemporay aboriginal art. In front of the museum was an exhibition of photos 'the Earth from above', which was very
interesting. The aboriginal art was ok too, but we found the museum to be a weird mixture of new and old in the same
room.
The city centre was now quite lively and the temperature had gone up as well. So we walked around for a couple of
hours. The park by the river is quite nice, though mostly just a big lawn. But no parrots! At our first trip to
Australia they were everywhere.
There was an answer from the travel agency, they had fund us another hotel for when we are back in Perth.
So the 2nd day in Perth was a definite improvement.
Friday we found our bus to Albany. We had to wait 15 minutes for the taxi, so it was good that we had plenty of time.
It was a 6 hour trip, with one 25 minutes stop after 2 hours. The hotel is actually a motel on the edge of town, about
3 kms from the center. And the rom is big, compared with the one in Perth. The weather is nice, though a bit windy. We
went for a walk in the area around the motel. There we saw the first parrots this time. The parrots were grey with a
red breast and head. The houses in this area looks almost like a lot of Danish houses. We are close to Denmark by the
way. And guess what, there is no highrise in the horizon..
We have now been 3 days i Albany. There really isn't much to say about Albany itself, it is rather small and after
6pm it is pretty dead.
The first tour was just the two of us and a guide. Highlight of that day was the Tree-top walk in Walpole national
park. It started to rain heavily just before we arrived, so it was a cool(and cold)and wet tour. But it kept other
visitors away, so we had it mostly to our self. It was fantastic, the walk being constructed so that the rise was
gentle, but still the highest point was about 40 meters above the ground. And the whole structure swayed when you
walked on it. The guide said that it was constructed to do that, and we decided to believe him. After the treetops we
walked around on the ground. The trees are really amazing. Some are hollowed out by fire, but still alive.
The next day we went on a river boat tour. The weather was cold, especially out in the sound, but we had a
fascinating tour, where we saw a lot. The skipper hand-fed a stingray, which was approx 1.5 meter across. There was
Percy the dancing pelican (it turned around itself) which is actually a female, but they did not know that when they
named it. The skipper picked up mussels and let (had) us try mussels cooked in only their own juice. A white-breasted
sea-hawk catching fish thrown to it. There was wine tasting, followed by tea and dampers. And all along the skipper
commented the scenery and told stories about the area. Very entertaining and highly recommendable.
The third day it was again the two of us and the guide from the first day. We did Albany itself (just a drive-
through), and then we did some of the surrounding areas. It is a fantastic nature that they've got here. The coastline
is absolutely breath-taking. And the plantlife is also great. It is hard to imagine that there nowadays only are 7% of
the orginal species of vegetation left, compared with the vegetation at the time of the first settlements. We could
have done without the flies though. The small ones are annoying - the big ones bite!
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