The pilot of Air Asia flight D7263 announced we were approaching Perth International and flying over Freemantle. The temperature was 17 degrees and it should be a sunny day ahead, it was 5.30 in the morning. We landed faultlessly - good morning Perth - good morning Australia!
Flight time from Kuala Lumpur had been roughly five and a half hours, we were met by our genial host and ex-work colleague of mine, Jim Webb, Cockney Millwall fan. He remarked we weren't bedraggled and jet lagged as many he meets here, that short hop from Asia with no time difference makes all the difference.
The first thing to hit Lynn and me was the temperature, our should I say, lack of. In mainland SE Asia the night time temperatures hardly ever waivered from the day but here we were at the start of the Aussie Autumn positively cold. Don't think I packed the thermals.
We spent an hour on the freeway south from the airport to Jim's home in Mandurah (pop 81,000) where he basically gave us a historical and geographical commentary on Western Australia.
The first thing we needed to know was Perth and its surrounding districts are in the bottom left corner of the country the most remote capital city in the world. The next thing to realise is Adelaide, Perth's nearest city is over three hours away - by plane! It appeared nowhere is really near to anywhere in Australia. Another superlative he gave us was a cruise to explore just the north of Western Australia would be a nine day round trip, this was one big state, one massive country.
His house just outside the town is a sprawling five bedroomed bungalow with five acres of land, a swimming pool and a barbie! As we weren't jet lagged we dropped off the bags and were on our way into town for a spot of breakfast. Little did we realise we would be discovering more wildlife as well as the kangaroos we'd just spotted on the way in.
Think Home and Away, think Summer Bay. Okay, you've got that in your head now imagine it being even better - you've got Mandurah. We had a pleasant walk round the foreshore and amazingly spotted dolphins out in the estuary. You don't see too many of those out in Morecambe Bay. The sands along the sea front were golden and clean and we worked it out that the next land due west across the Indian Ocean would be Port Elizabeth - South Africa, very remote indeed.
After breakfast, eaten outside we took a leisurely drive to the small town of Peel where we visited a small zoo to get to know even more of the wildlife. Emu, kangaroo, koala bears, possums, you name it they had it as well as a whole range of parrots; these being tame, many others could be seen flying all over the countryside.
On our way back we took a detour through "the bush" and came across an unwanted guest in the middle of the road. The Dugite is a poisonous, deadly gray or brown coloured snake, native to Western Australia and one slithered out of the bushes at the side of the road to warm up on the Tarmac. I naively asked if I could photograph it but was told under no circumstances - get out! I snapped it through the windscreen then we were off on our way. I was told they are quite a rare sight, we were lucky to have seen one on our first day.
The remainder of the day was spent round the pool although we didn't go in. To ease the load on our hostess Clare, James's wife, we plumped for fish and chips from the aptly named Flip Flops in town. Very nice they were too.
The next day was to be a lazy one as we geared up for a night out to watch a live band. Lynn and Clare went shopping in nearby Rockingham and I tagged along with James to watch the local football team Mandurah City (West Lancs League standard) play the Western Knights. I don't think I heard an Aussie accent all afternoon as the predominant Scouse brogue was in evidence, not only from the bar staff but also the mix of Liverpool and Everton supporters in the crowd. (All getting their Saturday afternoon football fix) 2-0 to Mandurah, by the way.
That evening we met up with Jim and Clare's ex-pat mates in the Peel Ale House, had a great meal and watched a cracking band called Mod Squad. They played what it said on the tin and once again it was Brit heavy on the accents - it was like home from home.
So, after two days in Oz I reckon we were now well acclimatised. The weather so far had been kind to us, I'd come across some great Aussie beers and Lynn was finally sampling good wine. We'd seen plenty of wildlife not only in the bush but in the bars as well!
Next day we were going to sample the delights of Perth and Freemantle plus, a chance meeting with a difference.
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