Singapore

So we got to Perth Airport the day before yesterday (Saturday night) to discover that they'd had an enormous security alert a couple of hours before and the whole international aorport had been locked down. Apparently there were 4 suspicious packages on a Malaysian Airways plane which had started to heat up whilst being unloaded and set off some alarms. (We still don't know what they were, but the airport duty manager speculated that it was likely that it was just some electrical equipment that someone had left the batteries in - you know how hot a laptop can get if it's left switched on and unventilated!)

The net result of this (after many hours of standing around waiting for news) was that our 1am flight was put back 'til 10am - Singapore airlines put is in a hotel in perth for the night, but by the time they'd decided to do this, we had a grand total of about 3 hours in the hotel. This of course meant that we missed our connecting flight to Heathrow at Singapore.

The Airline managed to get us booked into the equivalent flight the next day - which means that we're basically running 24 hours behind schedule. We've just checked in and will be boarding our next flight in a couple of hours.

Really big caves and really long jetties

I'm afraid I haven't got round to taking the cave pictures off the camera yet, but in thge morning we went to Mammoth Cave, a little south of Margaret River and then we went up to Busselton to walk along the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere (and the second longest in the world - apparently the longest one is in Southend, of all places, which beats it by 200 odd metres!), at the end of which is an underwater observatory. Then it was time drive the 260 kms back to Perth!

Kazza poses with the jetty.


Kaz examines the wildlife.

A fish.

More Jetty. I have hundreds more pictures like this!

280 more kilometres for some trees!

From Margaret river, we drove even further south to see the Valley of the Giants and go on the treetop walk.

This walkway is 60 metres above the ground!

Here's Dazza on the walkway.

And here is Kaz hiding in a tree!

260 Kilometres for a lighthouse!

We drove 260 kilometres south of Perth to Margaret River, famous for it's wineries and checked into a hotel before rushing off to see a lighthouse at Naturaliste Point (no... there were no naked people!). The lighthouse is significant because to the north of it is the Pacific Ocean and to the West is the Indian Ocean.

It was windy up the lighthouse.
Darren's perfect hair was ruined!

The Lighthouse. It's quite short!

A slightly artier shot of the lighthouse.

Mandurah

Today we visited Mandurah, a town about an hours drive south of Perth. Its just had a train line completed between it and Perth and is, according to Stevo, the fastest growing conurbation in Australia. Although it wasn't the sunniest of days, it was easy to see why - it had a bit of a small town feel, but the canal system there is reminiscent of Venice and there are some really impressive houses down on the waterfront.

We took a boat ride on which, as it turned out, we were the only passengers!

Darren captains his boat from the upper lounge!

Kaz enjoys the view.

This house is for sale. The skipper of the boat says it's going for $11m.
The sign says it has an indoor pool and 4 bathrooms.

The Mandurah War memorial.

One of the benefits of a cloudy day is that it makes for
great sunsets. Here you go, Dad.

We're driving right down south to Maragret River and Pemberton for a couple of nights tomorrow. No idea what the internet access will be like down there so you may have to wait a few days for the photos of giant trees, caves and, hopefully, more sunsets!

The Pinnacle of our Holiday

The Pinnacles desert is a 3 hour drive North of Perth and that's where we went today! Here are some piccies. I'm too knackered to write captions underneath 'em!

Island Fever

Today was a day on Rottnest Island, about 20 miles off the Perth Coast. It was a bit of a cloudy, blustery day at first, but later turned quite nice. We caught a boat out to the island, cycled most of the way round it and came back again.

Kaz and her little Yatch.

This one's especially for Chris.

Lookin' good, Dazza.

Kaz and her bike.

Darren's taller than the lighthouse!

A scenic shot. Not very arty. Sorry, Dad.

A bay. One of 67 separate beaches around the island.

When we got back to the mainland, we came across this sign. It made us think of of Lands End, but we were able to put that behind us and continue with our holiday!

Wombats and Sunsets

Well today was very busy and started off with a hearty meal of Emu Burgers near Caversham wildlife park. We then went around the wildlife park touching as many aussie animals as we possibly could. At about 6pm we then drove down to City Beach to catch a sunset at sea, followed by a meal in an excellent all-you-can-eat aussie chain restaurant called Sizzlers, and then onto the cinema for a late night comedy film. We went to a Gold Class cinema, which was a little expensive at $35 a head, but well worth it for the luxury reclining armchairs and having a waiter bring us drinks half way through the film.

Dazza enjoys his emu burger before going to visit it's

friends in the wildlife park

Kazza touching some of the local wildlife

Dazza making friends and influencing people

On reflection wombats make a poor substitute for Rochester

Dazza and the Dingo... it didn't eat his baby

Kazza touching more furry things

Dazza catching the sunset at City Beach

An arty shot for Dazza's Dad

Doing Time

Today's activities consisted of a drive down Highway 2 to Fremantle and a spell in the infamous Fremantle Prison!

Dazza enjoys a nice cuppa on Fremantle's famous

Cappucino Strip.

Kaz loiters outside a historic looking building.
(Yes, I know what it looks like...)

The Round House. Originally a fort. Then a little prison.
Now a tourist attraction. Er... and a windbreak according to a notice inside.

Fremantle's Town Hall.

Kaz doing time in Fremantle Prison. She's smiling now,
but she hasn't seen the state of the communal showers yet...

Dazza revelling in his freedom outside the prison!

An attempt at capturing the colours of the sunset!

Our tour around the prison was prsented by an Irish chap called Brendan Woods. He was most excellent and was not shy to unashamedly plug his extra curricular activities:

Stuff and things

We had kind've a bitty day today. First off we had to pop to the local pool supplies shop to get some chlorine for the pool which had turned an unhealthy shade of green. Then Darren got cholrine on his only pair of long trousers, which neccesitated a trip to the local shopping mall for a new pair of jeans. Then we drove up to the Whiteman Wildlife Park where we had a bit of a walk round, but ironically didn't go into the the wildlife park itself. We'll be doing that on friday!

Kaz on a jetty.

Dazza and a windmill thingummy.
He thought it was cool, anyway...

We couldn't decide if this was some kind of weapon
or a cart of some sort...

Kaz recreates the end of The Incredible Hulk.

You can just see the skyscrapers of Perth in the distance.