West Coast

Post tournament I spent four days in and around Perth, exploring the sights of one of the most isolated cities in the world. Compared to Melbourne it is a pretty small and quite city but great for a visit. I couldn’t really see staying there for any length of time, I think if I stayed any longer I would have had to do some camping and touring around the coast.

My four days consisted of doing a walking tour around Perth, visiting the Valley of the Giants and climbing a 60m tree, biking around Rottnest Island and visiting Fremantle. The highlight by far was Rottnest Island. Jess and I biked over 25km around the island, took in the sights, got to pet a Quakka and go snorkeling. The beaches were beautiful and it was just really nice to do something different. I think it has been about ten years or more since I used a peddle bike, highly enjoyable.

The tree top walk was a lot of hype but wasn’t anything really amazing. I also did it in an all day tour, which meant over nine hours of driving in one day…you would have to show me something pretty spectacular for me to feel like that much of a commute was worth it. The best part of that day was earlier on when I got to climb the tree. I was the only one from our tour group to do it, and I can see why. There is basically a ladder of bars with chicken wire on the outside. It was pretty much the minimal amount of safety precautions that could be put in place. If you fell between the bars you would have had no hope… fortunately I got through with minimal drama, I still greatly dislike heights but at this point I feel like I have done everything possible to face my fear.

Fremantle and Perth were okay, nothing too spectacular. There was some nice architecture, beautiful weather and a great brewery that made cider. While I miss the nice weather, it is good to be back in Melbourne…even if it was only five degrees. Welcome to winter…