Perth

Nothing to do so sit in the sun and read my book till the bus comes to take me to the airport. The plane is delayed by 2 hours so I hang about the airport for 4 hours before we take flight. Which gives the opportunity to start and complete my book (a birthday present from Sandy) I arrive in Perth and check into the Exclusive backpackers (don’t be fooled by the name, it was nothing special). I had the joy of sharing a room with 14 guys who came in drunk at 3am then left for work drunk at 6am, so not much sleep had. The plus side being i meet Peter. A 50 year old NZ miner who had come to WA for work. He is a really interesting man with loads of story to tell.
Saturday
I get hold of Matt and Gill (people i climbed with at the Arapiles). So I head for breakfast with Matt. We come back to his house and meet his mate Dan. We spend the day doing boy shopping which involved visiting many DIY shops and mush talking about DIY projects. We then do to the butcher where Dan buys half a goat (a rather large leg really) which is to become tonight’s dinner. We head back to the house where the boys ponder for ages before they do some DIY this involves putting two coast of varnish on a book case/bed head they started building months ago. The rest of the evening involves drinking and eating.
Sunday 08/07/07
We get up early with the plan of going climbing. Just to make a change it’s raining so we go the gym. Where we boulder for a few happy hours before heading to town for coffee. I get chatting to one of the guys working in the shop and discuss possible plans/lift to the local climbing. (Its miles away from anywhere and a real pain in the ass to get too so fingers crossed he will get back to me in a few days. I have no idea what we did the rest of the day.
Monday
I adventure to the coffee shop to use their internet i draw a map as i go writing down the street. I write the names as i pass the street signs, as the last thing i want is to get lost in the big city. I feel a bit of an idiot as i stop at each road sign to rotate my map and write the next street name. (I am staying in north Perth where they have not got tourists information as yet). Once safely in the coffee (which turned out to be straight down the road no turn off so no real need for the map). I can excess their internet or free as long as I drink coffee. So I pick the comfy seat and go though the many e-mails that have built up over the last week. It’s cool to get mails from home keeping me in touch with the real world. I happily waste 3 hours this way when my phone rings and makes me jump. It’s Neal the dreadlocked ferial from the climbing shop, asking if i want to go climbing. What a silly question I always want to go climbing. We plan to meet back at the house in 45 minutes. Which gives me time to nip to the shop and get some munch then walk back. He get their before me and rings to ask where i am i lie and tell him i am half way there, the truth is i was still in the shop trying to decide whether to buy cheese or chicken to go with my bread or do i want rice cakes. I have to make a quick decision and go for pre baked cheese rolls. (Which later turns out to be a bad choice they are really dry and tasteless).
We have a fun drive through the city and onto some country roads. We turn left under the power lines and follow the service road for 2 Km then turn left. Sounds easy, yeah right. The road becomes less of a road the grass becomes longer the rocks become bigger. Neal’s mum’s car is taken a battering. Then we get the road blocks. Trees have fallen in our path so we get out (which is a relief after being bettered about for what seemed like hours). We move the obstruction with some moaning and groaning, just to find bigger and better road block. We shift this one with more moaned and groaning. Only to hit out three tree block. This time we discuss getting out the chain saw to solve the problem. Dam we forgot to pack it. We then discussed using the saw on my leather man. We were defeated we had no choice but to turn back a very sad day. We suffer another hour of bone shacking till we return to the country road. Refusing to be beaten we decided to bush whack to Mt Cook. Which is always fun. We get to the top in time to watch the sun set. Very impressive it was to. Bush whacking downhill is always easier. Once safely down we have a celebratory roll before heading back to Perth.
I am sure Matt and Jill l not take offence at this next paragraph. They are lovely people they have let me stay in their nice house and given me the most comfortable bed ever but they are totally hopeless on the food front. They live on a diet of cheese, chocolate and beer. So we head to the climbing gym for a few hours before eating the previously mentioned food.
Tuesday
I am having a day in the city. The plan is to meet up with Peter (a guy who i met when staying in the backpacker on Friday). The aim is to see the best sights Perth has to offer. So after breakfast we go to the Perth mint opened in June 1899 as a branch of British Royal mint to refine gold being produced by the rushes to Western Australia’s goldfields region. We wonder about looking at tones of tacky expensive jewellery and amazing coin collection including the first coin produced at the Perth Mint. Then we embarking on the 20 minute tour and demonstration in the Gold pour/melting house. Regular gold pours are conducted in the original melting house which began operating in 1899 and only ceased operations in 1990 when refining was moved. In 91 years of operation, 2,596 tonnes of cold – most of the gold ever mined in WA went through this room. Might sound boring but it was really cool. We got to watch $100,000 worth of cold being melted down and turned into large gold bullion. A very interesting demo that took only minutes but really knowledgeable. We then got to lift a 400 oz gold bar worth $200,000. Which was enclosed in a case with a small hole for your hand. The bar then had a steal frame around it so it would only more ¾ inch in any direction. Then we go to stand on some scales and find out how much we were worth in gold. I am worth approximately 2 ½ million. The plan was then to go to the museum so we walk to the other end of Hay Street but for some reason we decide we have gone the wrong way so we walk back again, before realising we were right in the first place. The reason for this confusion being a poor ability to read a map, complicated buy the poor map with 2 keys listing places of interests. One key was for accommodation the other was tourist attractions. The two keys used the same numbers which were identical on the map so when we got to number eight it turned out to be a motel not the museum at this point we gave up. Instead we went to Freemantle, which is Western Australians chief port. It is also renowned for little creature’s brewery. It was really neat to watch the process of beer making while sitting on sofas. You could see all the hop vats and piping. You could see all the magical works of the brewery and the pumps. This followed by a walk along the docks. We finished off the evening with a very pleasant Thai curry a very enjoyable meal and far better for me that chocolate. A great day with the added plus that Peter refused to let me pay for anything his argument being that he earns $105,000 a year and i am a dirt bag (fare argument i guess).
Wednesday
My dreadlocked friend phones again so we are off to climb again. We take a leisurely drive out of the city down a few small roads that were all sealed the parked on the side of the road before walking the 4 minute walk to the rocks. Where we wounded about climbing a few routes it was tuff going and very hard on the fingers. Everything looks pretty and very tranquil. We enjoy a few easy routes before we pick something harder. A small finger crack that traverses right, there are no foot holds just some dodge smears. So we spent awhile getting spat out before we succeed but the payback was sore tips. We enjoyed ourselves till our fingers will take it no longer then we head back for chocolate and beer. Another fun filled day in Perth.
Thursday
I take another little walk to the coffee shop to sort out booking a bus to monkey Mia. I then head to the shop as i have promised to cook Thai green curry for dinner. I am so use to walking about north Perth now i forget to look while i walk home and realise i have walked 20 minutes in the wrong direction. So i have to about turn. Not really impressed as i have all the shopping. Will pay then off to another bouldering area with Neal. Where we spend hours walking up and down hills looking for goo climbs we have some success but were not overly impressed so we kept looking with determination. We did find some quality rocks about 3k’s away from the road but by this time we were kind of tired and sore but we kept going with sheer determination. Once the power was gone we went for a walk further down the track to check out the views. Very nice. Home again to cook. I must have cooked 30 Thai curries since i have been travelling yet i still have an issue with the curry past. Once again it’s too dam hot. So i add a little sugar and some extra milk to dilute the heat. We enjoy curry with only a few small glasses of water to wash it down with. It tasted pretty good after a week of chocolate and cheese.
Friday
You would think after all the travelling i have done i would be used to it but i still get stressed the bight before i move on. After poor night’s sleep i give in and get up at 6am. Pack up and re-pack 3 times. I have read that Monkey Mia is really expensive so i decided to buy all my shopping for the trip yesterday. Seemed like a god idea until i packed it all up with my other stuff and weighed it. I now have a 30kg backpack and a 10kg small pack. The hour walk to the bus stop should be fun. I really think i should re think the whole scrooge bag think and take a taxi. I moan to myself the majority of the 2k walk to the bus stop but i get there in plenty of time. Only took ½ hour so all is sweet. I now have a fun filled trip up north. Once again i get to sit next to the hyperactive kid who insists on talking utter rubbish hour upon hour i try sleeping but she is persistent. 12 or more hours are going to be very painful. I get the feeling i was just the same as a kid and now pity the people who sat next to me when i was on a train to Scotland every summer. I make it to Overlander without killing her and change bus to Monkey Mia. Patients are pretty fraught now and all i want to do is go to bed and lie down and sleep. As the bells are ringing out midnight i am arguing with the tent which is definitely winning the battle. (Mine has gone back to the shop because it keeps leaking) i evencialy find my head torch and i win the war. I crash within minutes.