Organisation Day

Today is our last day in Perth so today it was time to get organised. I was disappointed to discover I had a small hangover after a few drinks last night and I'm still suffering from jet lag and the weather still isn't great so I think it's time we left Perth in search of the sun. We went to a couple of backpackers travel agents and picked up some more brochures for things to do over the next couple of weeks. The plan is the head north but we have no definite idea of how far we'll get or how long we'll spend in each place. There are loads of tours going from Perth to Exmouth and beyond so we'll probably follow the routes described in their brochures and see how it goes.

I don't really know much about Western Australia at all but managed to pick up some surprising facts about it today. It's massive, bigger than the whole of Western Europe but less than 2 million people live here, and 90% of those live in or around Perth. The Kimberly region in the north is 3 times the size of England and has a population of just 26000.

We had Indian for dinner which was very nice even if they did forget to bring us our Poppadoms and then went for a walk around Northbridge before getting an early night - we'll have to get up earlier tomorrow than we have in the past couple of days to pick up the car.

Jet Lagged

Woke up feeling exhausted this morning (almost afternoon really). The plan was to see a bit more of Perth, go to King's Park and maybe even go for a jog, but unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side. It was very changeable. One minute it was nice and sunny and the next lashing down with torrential rain. We managed to get into town for lunch in a food court without getting completely soaked but when it clouded over as we headed to King's Park for a walk we panicked and legged it back to the hostel. We're both wrecked anyway -- the jet lag is really getting to me and Matt also has "jet lag" from the two hour time difference between here and Cairns (I'm sure it's nothing to do with the boozy week he had in Cairns!).

The plan for the evening was to go to Rosie O Grady's as they have a backpacker's "session" on Sunday nights. First we had Italian for dinner, and then we had to wait ages for a break in the lashing rain so that we could make it to Rosies. In the end we decided to just run for it -- so that was our jog for the day after all. The session turned out to be a little bit disappointing -- the pints were cheap but the live music only lasted for about half an hour -- to be fair we missed the first half of it, but it finished a lot earlier than we expected. We tried to find some more craic but ended up in a couple for fairly rubbish bars and ended up giving up and heading back to the hostel. I'm hoping to feel a lot less tired tomorrow.

Day One in Perth

I woke up pretty late today after a long day's travelling yesterday. I had a long overdue shower which reminded me of one of the things I love about Australia --
great showers everywhere. After a very slow start I finally managed to drag myself out of the hostel and wandered into central Perth around lunchtime. I picked up a quick lunch and then sorted out some admin stuff -- like going to the tourist office and picking up some brochures and buying an Australian SIM card. The sun was shining but it was cloudy and anytime the sun went behind the clouds is was pretty chilly. I wandered down to the Swan River and saw the Swan Bell Tower - reputedly the largest musical instrument in the world. Then it was time to go to the airport to pick Matt up.

We went out for dinner in Northbridge tonight and ate in a nice Thai restaurant before going to Rosie O'Gradys for a couple of drinks and some soccer on the TV. Matt was exhausted after a busy week in Cairns and a long day travelling so we headed back for an early night.

On the plane

This entire day was spent either on a plane or running between planes. I didn't really sleep that much on the flight to Singapore, as I was cramped in a middle seat. I watched The Pursuit of Happyness -- pretty good - and read loads. Unfortunately at Heathrow the check-in lady wasn't able to check my bags through to Perth so when the flight into Singapore was delayed by about an hour leaving me with about 30 mins to changed flights I started to get a little stressed, especially when they started announcing the gates and boarding times for ongoing flights and my flight was due to board about 20 mins after we were due to land. Thankfully Qantas customer service proved amazing and there was a guy with my name on a board waiting for me as I got off the plane telling me to quickly go the flight transfers to get my bag checked through the the next flight. So after a quick dash to flight transfers and another jog back to my gate I was on the flight to Perth - didn't even have time to go to the toilet.

After another 7 hours I was in Perth, and surprisingly so was my bag. I managed to find my way to a shuttle bus which took me to my hostel, Governor Robinsons in Northbridge. The hostel seems pretty nice and I have a massive room so I'm happy enough. Now I just have to try to sort out the jet lag......

Another trip to Heathrow

Yet again, I made the trip from Swansea to Heathrow on a Thursday afternoon. This time I'm heading off for just over a month -- how exciting is that? The journey was uneventful and apart from a bit of confusion at check-in when there appeared to be three Niamh Gills booked on the flight (seems unlikely!) everything went smoothly. Managed to get a bite to eat and pick up a few books and magazines before getting on plane for the first leg of my long trip to Perth. Fingers crossed I manage to get some sleep.

I'm off again ....

Flights are booked....off to Australia on April 26th for a month. Yipee!