Pictures of Perth plus New Holiday Plans (Dec 03)

We've been getting some really nice weather in Perth, so on Saturday, Steven and I went around the southern suburbs photographing some nice spots - South Perth foreshore, Narrows Bridge, Mt Henry Bridge, etc on a disposable camera left over from my last interstate trip... One real surprise (shock?) was going back to the place I lived in for my first 3 months in Australia, which I do have fond memories of. What used to be known as Noalimba Migrant Centre in Bateman (which later became a temporary home for visiting athletes and conference centre) has now (as of Oct 2002) been simply abandoned - it was a good facility and it seems almost a tragedy to see it so rundown.

On Sunday morning, I went for a big long walk to North Beach (the suburb, not the beach itself) and Star Swamp Reserve. On a beautiful fine morning, I can't think of a better place to go at sunrise... Considering they're probably able to be considered as borderline inner suburban, one is a village with associated ambience (and a happening cafe culture at 8am on a Sunday!) and the other is a misty eucalypt forest. The only downside of said big long walk is that I have a burst blister on my big toe, making the likelihood of any walking in the next few days rather low...

In brighter news...

Following the successful annual tradition of traipsing around south-eastern Australia for a number of weeks in early-mid December, I'm officially doing it all again! :)

1/12/01 - 16/12/01

    (1-5)   Adelaide

    (6-10)  Melbourne

    (10-16) Canberra



29/11/02 - 20/12/02

    (29-1)  Adelaide

    (2-4)   Wayward ADL-MEL coastal tour

    (5-9)   Melbourne

    (10-16) Tasmania

    (17-19) Melbourne

My 2003 holiday continues the eclectic trend of the last one. In fact, it's slightly more eclectic, because the last one didn't have contingencies on it like "if this company goes out of business, here's plan B, and just to be sure, plan C."

27/11/03 or 28/11/03 - Leave Perth for Adelaide. This will be booked after my exams are more certain, as a 27/11 exam will mean my time in Adelaide will be reduced to a mere airport stopover.

28/11/03 7:40pm - Arrive in Mt Gambier, South Australia, aboard an airline that calls itself "Rex". It's a thriving town of 25,000 whose major attractions are a blue lake (as in, REALLY blue), caves and ex-volcanic mountains, and the highest motor vehicle accident rate in Australia.

30/11/03 or 1/12/03 - Leave Mt Gambier. How exactly I get to Apollo Bay is anyone's guess (the company who originally was to do this is having some, ahem, "troubles"), but it's beginning to look like a 3am departure time by public transport. There is, however, the option of spending 3 times as much and repeating part of last year's Wayward trip.

1/12/03 - Arrive in Apollo Bay, VIC, 200km SW of Melbourne, and spend a couple of days there. Nice coastal town, the sort with a population of 1,000 but teeming with tourists that seems to exist about that distance from any major city anywhere you go :)

3/12/03 - Experience the virtues and vices of Victorian (the place, not the times) public transport and arrive in Melbourne at my friendly, affordable hotel/motel, the Miami.

10/12/03 - Hit the water on the Spirit of Tasmania luxury ferry for an overnight trip across the Bass Strait to Devonport, en route to Launceston.

11/12/03 - Bed down at the North Lodge Motel and start exploring Tasmania with my 7-day travel pass (haven't decided on which company will get my business for that yet). For the non-car-enabled like myself, Tasmania is probably the least friendly state for non-urban travel - it's inexpensive to travel, but there's only like one or two services a day each way even on major routes. But it's such a nice place that I consider it to be worth the trouble :P

16/12/03 - Return to Melbourne by the more commonly accepted method of air travel - my first flight since November :P It almost seems not worth it for a 45-minute flight.

19/12/03 - Thanks to Virgin putting on more convenient routes, I depart Melbourne for home at a slightly later time of the morning (last time it was a 7:10am flight - keeping in mind Melb is 3 hours ahead, it was 8:30am when I arrived in Perth and I still had a whole day to go!)