Adelaide and Perth

We started of Adelaide with a self guided walking tour that took us to all of the prime tourist spots including the museum, library, art gallery, Oval, convention centre and all other sites that the people of Adelaide wanted to brag about. We entered the museum to find a wide range of exhibits from immigration to the South pacific to animals found all over the world. Devon and I really enjoyed the museum as we usually do because we learn a lot and it's always free admission! During the tour we wandered the Botanic Gardens, these are found in every city, and went on a self guided tour of the Wine Centre of Australia where we learned how it is made and where the best places are for growing wine. We walked along Rundle street where the large square full of shops of all shapes and sizes are and had lunch along there too.



(picture of Ben and I)

<------The next day we met Ben who took us up Mount Lofty, which is the highest part of Adelaide. The hike was demanding as the heat makes the climb much more difficult than you would first think. I tuned a lovely shade of red which splotched out after I reached the top. After cooling down at the hostel we went to a wonderful Fringe show with Ben who was reviewing it and another fella from England. It was written, composed, and performed by one girl, with two girls as back ups. The show was phenomenal! Ben took us and a few other people from the hostel to a cricket game the next day. I started to understand the game though I know I only scratched the surface of the complicated and admittedly boring game. We left this 'thrilling' game a few hours and a day early (as these things take three or four days to play out) and headed to a chocolate factory!!!

(Picture of Me at the Heights Chocolate factory)

We were very late getting to the chocolate factory tour. We were so very late because we ended up asking three bus drivers where the free tram was that got us part way there then ran about ten blocks to arrive five minutes late (but only missing the first taster!). We enjoyed the tour and got some amazing chocolate to boot! After our delicious afternoon we headed next door to do an hour of intensive kickboxing!! Lets just say that we were sore for the next few days but felt it was well worth it.

<----- The very next early early morning (ie four am) we headed for the airport to jet off in the darkness to Perth. The sun rose behind us as we flew west towards our next destination.

At the airport we were met by two of the most wonderful women who are a family friend of Devons. They put us up for five glorious nights at their home and were amazing hosts. We got to see so much more of Perth than if we had stayed in a hostel and got to relax too!

The day that we arrived Norma took us around town and Swan Valley. If you thought that a chocolate tour in Adelaide was enough you don't know us very well. We stopped in a a chocolate factory in Swan Valley as well and got even more testers and checked out the chocolate menu available at the restaurant.

The heat in Perth was dreadful. We were subjected to temperatures up to 38 degrees during the day and 24 degrees over night though the humidity during the day felt like 44 degrees. We went to Scarborough beach on our first day for ice cream and to dip our feet into the Indian ocean!!

We tried to do a walking tour of the city the next day but the heat was so heavy that we headed home within a few hours. Thankfully the neighbours were kind and let us use their pool; personally I think this was key to our survival in Perth. That evening we headed out to see a live moving theatre show that paraded through the streets of Perth. It was a french circus show.

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The show focused mainly on music and spectical, with large giraffes that were about 35 feet tall and manned by three people (two inside sweating bullets and one outside guiding their movements). The story was of two people who fell in love, then fell apart and ended up singing themselves to an early death. The loud explosions and fire displays were very engaging while the story was less captivating.

The day after that was fantasitc! I went with Norma to the local wild life centre. I had such a great time I saw a huge range of different animals and I have included some here which are found often in the wild though this is far from the amount of amazing animals I saw.



This is the Kookaburra bird-------->

He sounds like a monkey when he calls. We have seen this bird all over the south and west of Australia.

We have seen many Cockatoos in this country, white, yellow, and pink, but we have not seen the black red tipped Cockatoo. This one was very brave, he came right up on the fence right up to my face and started sharpening his beak on the cage... so maybe he was less brave more mystcevious.

Here I am ->

with a pack of Kangaroos. They are eating food out of my hand. These Kangaroos were extremely people friendly. They would let you come right up and pet them and would jump up on you to smell you out to see if you had any food. It was pretty neat.

Many of the Kangaroos had Joeys (babies) in their pouches. Joeys are born premature with no eyes and no arms. They are put into the pouch to continue maturation until they are much older and have hair as well as the other missing body parts. This one as you can see is pretty big and flexible with his hind legs poking out over his head!----------------->

I also got to see a Wombat. This animal was held by the trainer so that you could see and pet the animal. I felt sorry for this animal as she didn't seem very happy with her job. I couldn't believe her size; Wombats can take out a car if you hit them!

<-----Finally another animal that I have found in the wild but couldn't' see as well and as close as this is the Koala. They are very sensitive animals as they are very picky about their food, water and their habitat, which they destroy as they live there (reminds me a bit of humans). They also have two thumbs, seen in the picture below, and three fingers. I was lucky enough not just to get to touch one but I also hear them 'talking' and one came out of the tree it was in!

On one of our last days in Perth we headed to Fremantle, an area south of Perth on the open ocean. We met a British fellow here who came with us to the Fremantle Markets and to the Fremantle prison. This prison was built by man power only and was open until 1991. During the last few years here convicts were allowed to paint on the walls, the art work was mind bogglingly beautiful! We got to see how the prison changed over the century it was open. In the beginning the cells were so small people died of suffocation so they had to enlarge the cells by combining two cells into one. We enjoyed our time here and headed back into the city to have dinner with my cousin and her boyfriend.

<---- My cousin Shannon and her boyfriend Matt met us at a local Greek restaurant and enjoyed catching up. I was so happy to be able to spend some time with her as she has lived here for the last couple of years.

The next day we took off, you need to rest sometimes as it gets so very busy travelling. The day after that we went to the museum to see the Fem Fetal exhibit that talked about the history of female criminals. We also saw the war exhibit Shell Shocked. Both were wonderful and I highly recommend them if you get the chance. After that it was off to the airport by noon.

We arrived in Alice Springs today where the heat isn't much better and the bugs are much worse. We are off on our tour of central Australia including Ayers rock. We are very excited and I will report on it when we get to Cairns on the East coast. So in the meantime enjoy the snow!!!!!

;)