Perth and Surrounds

After a few wild days, I was glad to be able to chill out in Perth and take it at a slower pace. That is, of course, once I had dragged all of my belongings into a much nicer hostel halfway across town. I wanted to see a bit more of Perth, bits that I hadn’t been able to see during my whirlwind visit with M.

This meant taking a gloriously long sunny walk along Swan River to Kings Park. It felt slightly strange that Perth City itself was not actually on the coast, but of course that didn’t stop them from building “beaches” along the shores of the river. Having wandered around the botanical gardens, admiring the many beautiful plants, I crossed the river to visit the zoo. Perth Zoo was over 120 years old, and had all the classic animals – lions, tigers, bears, rhinos, penguins, and of course a lot of native animals too. I was most impressed by their elephant enrichment demonstration. It was really informative and fun, with the elephants showing how they would raise their legs one at a time, or roll over, all to help their keepers. I was also amazed to see one of the girls do a lovely chalk drawing as we all watched! She did better than I ever could!

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The one thing I had been gutted about missing on my route South from Broome was The Pinnacles, so when I found a day tour there that left from Perth I couldn’t resist!!  I was picked up in the morning by Sue from Explore Tours Perth. There were only eight of us on the tour, so we had a great little minibus for our adventures. Naturally, I bagsied the front seat, and we were on our way!

Our first stop was Caversham Wildlife Park, a small family-run park full of native animals. In the homestead, we had the chance to meet a lot of different birds – owls, loud cockatoos, and a “bush thick-knee” – and lots of marsupials and reptiles too. My favourites were the adorable spotted quoll and the golden possum! I also queued to meet Neil the wombat, who was just the cutest chunky ball of fluff. He looked heavy; I did not envy the keeper who had to sit with him on his lap for hours! After feeding the kangaroos and wallabies, we got to visit Imogen, a koala. No matter how many times I got to stroke (or even be near) a koala, it still made me ridiculously happy.

It was soon time for lunch, we piled back on the bus to head to Mandoon Estate Vineyard in Swan Valley. We had a wander amongst the grapes, they had a lot of land, and there were rows upon rows of vines! It was another gloriously sunny day, so it was pretty busy in the restaurant. Luckily for us, we had a reserved table – in our very own separate room! I had a delicious burger and chips and, while the others sipped their fancy wine, I enjoyed my ice-cold water. Perfect.

We continued our drive and were soon in Nambung National Park, home of The Pinnacles Desert. The pinnacles were basically lumps of rock of varying heights and widths that protruded out of the desert, as far as the eye could see. The most fascinating thing was that no-one really knew how they were formed, there were multiple theories, but no way to prove any of them! We first visited the Pinnacles Desert Discovery Centre to see the Pinnacles' story and learn more about the plants and animals that had somehow made them a home.

We were able to drive around and between the clusters of rocks, stopping every now and then to get a better view. Sue knew all the good spots and insisted on taking loads of ridiculously silly pictures of all of us. We played around with perspective, hiding behind pinnacles, and of course, jumping shots. I loved finding the shapes in the formations, although I have to say a lot were all just a bit phallic! We visited the tallest pinnacle, also thought to be the oldest, at over 10ft! It made me feel so small, none of us could reach the top – even with a little jump and stretch.

I was sad to leave the awesome Pinnacles behind, but we had to get to Lancelin before sunset. On our drive there, Sue pointed out the only road sign in Australia with a warning for kangaroo, emu and echidna and convinced me into posing for lots of silly photos! She also showed us the native "Black Boy" plants; they were very unusual, quite tall and skinny grasses. Despite the racist sounding name, apparently the original reason was to acknowledge the aboriginal habit of standing on one leg. Still seems a bit questionable to me, so I’ll just say that there was a whole field full of the slow-growing Xanthorrhoea spines.

We finally made it to Lancelin sand dunes, and I was gobsmacked. It felt like we were in the middle of the desert, with the whitest sand piled high all around! It was bizarre to see the sea in the not too far distance. As much as I would have loved to, we weren’t just there to stare at the dunes, but to sand board down them. We were each given a sand board and we climbed to the top of a pretty steep dune. Right at the top, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go first – it looked quite scary! However, once a few others had slid down, I clambered onto my board, perching my feet on the end, and shimmied over the edge and down the hill. I was surprised by just how fast I travelled; it was hilarious! I kept going again and again, even after everyone else was tired and sitting at the bottom, it really was that fun!!

We stayed at Lancelin for the sunset, watching from the highest dune we could find. And then it was back to Perth, I was so glad I had treated myself to another great tour with a fab guide.

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After another chill day, just walking along the river and enjoying the sunniest state capital, I booked myself in for another day tour. You can tell I was on my last few days in Australia – I really was splurging! I was so excited for a once in a lifetime experience of swimming with wild dolphins!! I have loved dolphins for as long as I can remember, my room was dolphin themed for years… and now I would get to swim amongst them?! I could barely contain myself.

After a short transfer to Rockingham, a gorgeous beach location, we were given an orientation and a wetsuit, snorkel and mask as we set off in our search. We were split into teams of seven depending on our snorkelling experience, I was Team Yellow, and given a guide. Out in the open water, it didn’t take long for our skipper to spot a pod of dolphins. I was ready, with my wetsuit on, camera on my wrist, snorkel mask poised – get me in that water!!

I couldn’t actually believe just how many wild dolphins were surrounding us, I could see them just below the surface as we waited on the swim deck for our turn. The guides had an aqua scooter that they used to wind in and out of the animals, all we had to do was hold on to the tow rope keeping us as a team and float. Finally, it was go go go for the Yellow Team and we slid into the water. It was most surreal, but calming and peaceful being in their world. I could hear them clicking as they swam around us, diving down deep and resurfacing so close to me I could have wept with joy. We were not allowed to touch the dolphins, they are wild after all, but one definitely swam past my foot, gently nudging it!

We were back on the boat all too soon, had to make sure everyone had a turn with them. It was just as fun watching from above, it was amusing to see the line of floating humans following the dolphins. We also got to see them jumping and spinning in the air – the dolphins that is, not the humans! As it always seemed to be on every boat trip I’d been on, the lunch provided was delicious, and we were even provided bottomless tea, coffee and hot chocolate. Luckily, the dolphins were still with us, so we got to get back into the water again and have a play! With the initial astonishment lessened, I tried to concentrate on particular dolphins, find their markings and follow their actions. It was so much fun; I still couldn’t actually believe that I was allowed to swim with these beautiful creatures!!!

On our way back to shore, I was delighted to see the dolphins following us, surfing in our jetstream. They were having the best time, leaping in and out of the waves, it was amazing to watch! I just couldn’t stop smiling, even when we had returned to Rockingham. We had a little time to relax as the crew cleaned the boat, so me and another girl took a wander along the gorgeous beach. She had a proper camera, and so had got some incredible shots of some of the dolphins that she very kindly sent to me. We also had some photos to look forward to from our guide. I was glad that I would have some great mementos from one of the best days of my life!!!

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I had a crazy day planned. I had thought yesterday may have been the most amazing, liberating, wonderful things I had ever done… but today I was heading to Rottnest Island to jump out of a plane!

I caught the ferry across bright and early, feeling pretty pumped for another awesome day. My email confirmation had told me that the airport was only a ten-minute walk from the port, so I figured I had time to do a little quokka spotting en route. Quokkas were adorable little marsupials who were always smiling – I couldn’t wait to find one and get the ultimate “quelfie”. It wasn’t long at all until I saw them hopping about all over the place, they basically ran the island! I tried to take a picture with one and failed miserably. I then came upon a signpost and realised I’d been walking in the complete wrong direction for fifteen minutes. I was now a twenty-five minute walk from the airport, with just twenty minutes to get there. Typical.

One frog march later, I arrived at Skydive Geronimo sweating like a pig, but at least I arrived on time. I checked in and was glad to see there was another Brit going up in the plane with me, it was her 50^th birthday! I had a lot of forms to read and sign, making it all feel rather real and scary! I then met Ben, who would be my tandem and in charge of all the crucial stuff – most importantly, the parachute. We had a health and safety briefing, where we were shown the safety features on the parachute, on the instructor, on our own harnesses. These did all help to reassure me but I still had to have a few nervous wees before we got our kit on.

I had paid for a video package, which meant recording some incredibly cringy interview thing outside. Which, of course, I messed up. And then, before you could say ‘insanity”, we were being walked out onto the runway to the tiniest plane I’d ever seen.  We were going up in that?! As we would be travelling to a higher altitude, myself and Ben had to get into the plane first, squishing in against the window. The others followed, we were all strapped in and the door was closed. And we were off!! The views were amazing, I hadn’t realised just how many lakes were on this tiny island, the beaches all looked lush and I was closely admiring the stunning blue water and reefs… mainly to stop myself from overthinking the whole jumping out the plane thing.

All too soon we were at 10000 feet, with views over the Indian Ocean, Rottnest, Fremantle and even over to Perth itself. My fellow passenger was getting ready to depart. The door was opened, the wind seemed so loud all of a sudden, and she was gone in the blink of an eye. My heart was really hammering now as we climbed higher and higher, my mouth felt really dry and I was seriously doubting my sanity. I kept thinking “what the hell am I doing?”. It was too late to back out now and hey, if I could do this, I could do anything!

Ben opened the door as we reached 14000 feet, my whole body felt like jelly as we had to shuffle over, I swung my legs out the door and was surprised by how cold it was. My mind went blank as I tried to remember what I had been told to do. My instincts must have kicked in as I found myself bent like a banana, tipping my head back onto Ben’s shoulder, holding on to my harness. This was it. The plane disappeared beneath me as we tipped forwards and were tumbling down through the air.

Holy moly.

The next sixty seconds were just pure adrenaline, I felt the skin on my face pull back as we fell down towards the Earth. I could now release my arms from the harness; but could hardly control them in the g-force. The rush of air felt so strange… it felt like all of the breath had been knocked out of my body, my lips were so dry, and my eyes forced wide open. The island seemed so small from up here, everything seemed so small from up here. I loved seeing the different shades of blue all around me; the sky and the ocean bore so many varied tints and hues that I had never noticed before. I had been down on the solid ground just a few moments before, the change in perspective was mind-boggling.

I felt a jerk as the parachute was deployed. Silence. I had never experienced anything like it, all I could hear was my own breath, and gentle flutters of wind in the parachute above me. I was shocked by the volume of our voices as Ben checked in with me. I almost felt like I was ruining the moment just to talk, the silence was so loud and all consuming. But once I had opened my mouth all I could say was “wow”, “oh my god”, “this is crazy”; I felt like a stuck record, but I just didn’t have the words.

After floating around for a while, I was allowed to take the reins, so to speak, and steer us through the air. Wow. I can’t say I was the best at navigating, but it wasn’t bad for a first go, dipping left and right as we got closer to Earth. Ben took us on a massive spin in the updraft, my stomach lurched - I wasn’t the biggest fan. The beach came into sight, and the matchstick people grew bigger as we came into land. We floated down and were expertly guided onto the landing zone, a skid and a bump and we were on solid (ish) ground.

I fell backwards as I was released from Ben and the parachute, glad to feel the sand beneath me. I felt amazing, but also like I was in a dream; I couldn’t quite believe that the last hour had even happened.  Ben asked, “would you do it again?”, I had barely even considered the question before I heard my own voice reply… “NO!”. Me and my jelly legs now had to make it across the beach and into a buggy as we were taken back to base. I was still struggling to string a full sentence together, had it really been me up there? Had I actually jumped out of a plane?!

Once we had gathered our things, arranged delivery for photos, and had a cuppa, we were taken back to the main square. It was here that we parted ways, I was keen to find some lunch before continuing my quokka spotting. I ordered some chips and a lemonade from a fancy café on the beachfront, and sat enjoying people watching. Unfortunately for me, I was also being watched, by a hoard of seagulls. They were after my chips, I had to chastise a few when they got a bit too brave – with one even stealing a beak full!

Feeling pretty full myself, it was time for a wander around to the other parts of the island. Knowing that I wouldn’t want to leave if I went into the sparkling sea, I headed inland. This also meant more chance of seeing some friendly quokkas! I decided to walk towards the Wadjemup Lighthouse. I couldn’t believe my luck, within minutes of walking, I came across a group of little quokkas. They were eating, so I just took a few photos, I didn’t want to disturb them! However, they seemed genuinely intrigued by my camera, sniffing it and posing for me. They were so calm, apparently used to human interaction, even letting me take a few silly selfies. Further along the track, I made more friends and took more photos. They looked so happy all the time it was impossible not to smile with them… This was just the best day!

On my walk back through a more residential part of the island (how amazing would it be to live here!?) I spotted quokkas everywhere, they really did own Rottnest! It was a glorious walk across the island back to the ferry port. I had a little more time before my departure, so walked along the coastline trail. The views really were stunning, the water looked incredibly inviting and it was great to see families playing in the calm shallows. I hadn’t told anyone of my plans for the day, so hoped now would be a good time – checking the time difference I figured it could work. Unfortunately, no-one answered their phone, so I had to leave very ominous voicemails – sorry about that. I wandered along the beach waiting for someone, anyone, to talk to. Eventually, Dad rang me back and I was able to ramble about my adventurous morning!!

It was time to head back to the mainland, waving goodbye to another tiny paradise island. I hopped on the train to Fremantle to enjoy the sunset. On the very popular Bathers Beach, I managed to find a rock to perch myself on. I sat and reflected until the sun disappeared and it was time to go home and pack. It had been one hell of a day, and a great way to finish off my Ozzie adventure. I had just two more days in Australia; and was flying back to where it all began the next day – Sydney.