It was a perfect sunny day, so we headed into Kings Park in Perth after paddling on the Avon River. Kings Park is 400 hectares of land (that’s a lot of land) adjacent to the city centre and overlooking the Swan River. It is Kings Park Festival this month and the wild flowers were doing their thing. I dragged the boys all over the place – pay back time. The perfume from the boronia plants was just amazing. It carried almost 100m from their bed of many plantings.

Boronia

The state emblem is the kangaroo paw – one of my favourites.

Why don’t they grow this well in my garden?

They had an area of plants and trees to represent each part of the state, as well as some great example of rare plants. Below is a photo of the amazing eucalyptus macrocarpa – the largest species of eucalyptus. (I think that’s what they said in the blurb).

Eucalyptus macrocarpa – with flower bursting from pod

The flowers are enormous and the foliage is a silver grey, with the huge branches going in all directions.

PIC gallery 5642, 76, 40 with captions

Teach them everything you know. That’s what we like to do. And when it comes to outdoor pursuits, John has a lot of teaching to do. So with the Avon River on Perth’s doorstep, we headed up the Swan Valley to paddle the white water rapids in the kayak. This section of the river was part of an event we ran a couple of times here in Perth and is well known in the paddling fraternity here.

They got kitted up at Walyunga National Park, about an hour out of Perth. Harry was doing a very serious, intrepid explorer pose.

Smile Harry!

Fergus got that sorted out.

I sent them off and did my taxi job, driving downstream to Bells Rapids to await their arrival. I’m good like that. I had great plans for a long session blogging while I waited, but they surprised me arriving after less than an hour. It was all smiles, and I think there may well be a new passion unleashed in Fergus and Harry – white water paddling.

Here’s a series of photos from the small section near the get-out.

Andrew has a yacht called Sandale, moored at Fremantle yacht club, so he took us for a weekend of sailing out to Rottnest Island.

Andrew in his favourite place.

The sky looks menacing, I know, but it was actually very mild, and it didn’t rain. We packed up the food, wine, dive gear and surfboards and motored out to Rottnest Island on Saturday. It’s a great way to spend election day! But it was quite strange to know the result before the WA booths has even closed, given the two hour time difference.

Andrew and Michelle

As you can see, the sea was like a mill pond when we started and we had to motor much of the way. Finally the wind picked up and Andrew gave Fergus some tuition at the helm.

And then he left him to it!

Captain Fergus looking very happy at the helm

Harry spent time at the wheel too, and Andrew put them both to work on the winches when it was time to change sails. The boys can now add sailing to their repertoire of new activities for our trip! We sailed around to the northern side of the island and moored in Marjory Bay, protected from the wind. We stayed the night there, falling asleep to the gentle rocking of the boat.

There was time to nip around to the next bay in the inflatable boat for a dive and a jump off the rocks. No surf for John though. It was here that they swam with seals. The seals were zipping all around the boys, and I think Harry wanted to swim off with them! They saw lots of fish and coral too.

Harry got back on board feeling rather cold

On Sunday we pulled in to Thompson Bay where the ferries from Perth dock and the original village is located. Rottofest – a music festival – was on, so it was a busy place. We had coffee in the sunshine, and then spotted the famous Quokkas.

The boys thought they were exceptionally cute, but I think they are like well fed rats!

We were back in Freo in time to visit the Maritime Museum of Western Australia. We saw Australia II and heaps of other good stuff. There was also a temporary photographic exhibition of the Abrolhos Islands telling the story of the decline of the fishing industry there.

And what better way to finish a day in Freo but with fish and chips!

I lived in Perth in the late 80s, in the years following the America’s Cup victory. They were great days. Perth’s had some ups and downs over the years, but it’s on one big upswing right now. We came in from the north (I guess that’s obvious) along a new road from Cervantes, via Lancelin and into the northern suburbs of Perth. Suburbs that didn’t exist when I lived here! I cannot describe how enormous the houses are at this northern end of town. Huge! Really huge! Either they have lots and lots of children here, or a lot of empty rooms. It’s not possible to need houses this big.

We’re staying with our good friend Andrew in North Fremantle. Andrew and John went to Uni together, and he came to live in the west while I was here too. So for the first time in our 10 weeks on the road (so far), we slept in a bed! It was very, very nice. Trevor the Trailer is good, but not that good. We had showers in a room you could swing much more than a cat in, and we even watched the news on the television. Actually, we haven’t missed the tv. It’s been a rather pleasant election campaign at our end. And best of all – a washing machine all to ourselves.

Perth marks something of a milestone in our trip. We’re enjoying catching our breath, staying with Andrew and meeting his new lady – Michelle. Perth is where John and I met, and we are having fun pointing out all the places we remember to the boys.

No one knows. The scientists have two explanations, but they can’t agree. You get that. What we do know is that there’s a huge number of these limestone pinnacles scattered throughout the area.

I tried to get some funny photos of the boys here, but nothing worked, and I’ve decided there really is no way to liven up the pinnacles. So we left.

Perth here we come!