Way Out West

Hey Guys, welcome to Perth

Sorry its been ages since I posted, but I really didn't know how much you would be interested in the very exciting country news like the arrival of 3 sheep to keep the grass trim, which I went on to name Will, Al and Luka =P

The Occasional Appearance of the Llama

And the Biggest creepiest spider I have ever see in my Life!

But After a week in Adelaide re-adjusting to the amount of people and lack of sheep. I jumped on a plane and 3 hours Later was in Perth. (A lot shorter than the last plane journey I was on!).

Its Pretty Big, one of the most isolated Cities in the World. But being that Western Australia is huge in itself, its 1/3 of Australia, with a population of 2.2 million. Very tall buildings, although not recommended to walk around town constantly looking up. Neck gets sore and people don't appreciate getting bumped into!

Its on the River Swan, named so by Dutch explorers when they came up the river and saw, yup, Black swans, ironically enough.

Down by the River, there's the Jetty and The Bell Tower, home of the Swan Bells, a historic set of bells given to the people of Western Australia in 1988, 12 of the bells in the tower are from St Martin-in-the-fields church in Trafalgar Square.

Its also this really weird combination of places , there are lots of Scottish place names around, Aberdeen, Stirling, Silver Sands. There's a Scarborough beach, There's even a little bit of London, as well as the bells

And then there's the tribute to, Percy Button, local Perth Street Performer, who used to entertain people with handstands and cartwheels while they were waiting for the theatre of the cinema. He was known for his grubbiness, so in November 1929 , the local newspaper dressed Percy in a long-tailed suit, placed his picture in the paper and created a reader competition, the first person to name the person in the picture would win a guineas worth if goods.

Out of town, I've heard that Western Australia has some of the most amazing wildflowers in the Country, and while I haven't been out to see them yet, I have found some one's around the parks in the City.

So there you go, A little piece Perth, I've been exploring surrounding areas, so more to come soon!

Autumn leaves, Fire, Lights and Afternoon Sun

Hey Guys

Sorry for lack of posting lately, however there's not a lot going on that would make for interesting writing. Autumn just passed by, which is really weird, being that its May and June, and people back in Bournemouth are having BBQ's on the beach. It does get surprisingly cool here, cooler than I thought it would, so I'm making the most of it. Also, Autumn being my favourite seasons, makes it fun that I've experienced it twice in 6 months! I'm also lucky to be in one of the few parts of OZ that allows me to see the seasons change

A Pass time out here, build a fire, sit around, drink. Its good stuff, despite most people complaining that its cold! (Cold like Scottish summer!) Lotsa stars, frosty evenings. Oh Yes. Also.

Fire Pretty!

Unfortunately, due to me being the camera geek, i do get asked if I am in fact a pyromaniac, due to amount of time spent taking fire photos. . .

A Local Party, in the Woodshed, Amazing time, lots of lights, food, and crazy wigs!

And Finally, just a few shots from outside my front door. The Light in the late afternoon is kind.

I just loved the fact that I could see the whole moon, and a tiny little crescent

Wake up, its morning!

Thanks for listening!

Where On Earth?

Its Funny

Or Ironic, whichever you think fits best. A few weeks before coming out here, I remember My Mum saying something along the lines of 'You'll end up somewhere totally random, in the middle of nowhere. Although 'ending up' sounds a bit final, I am in fact in the middle of nowhere, and will be for a few more months, which in travel time is a fairly long time to stop in one place. Ah Mum, how did ya know!

The actual name of where I am is Willalooka. Its in Southern Australia, about 3 hours South of Adelaide, and the nearest town are Keith in one direction, and Naracoorte in the other, both about half an hour in the car.

Willalooka has within it, the Shop/tavern/motel where I live and work, a park, 3 houses, a town hall, Hockey field and lots and lots of farm land. Its pretty quiet, but a good place to save money, as there's not much to spend it on! Once you get over the novelty of living in a shop/pub. . .

Its pretty gorgeous, scenery-wise, which as I'm sure you've guessed by now. These are a few from just outside my door

The Following photos are

Road to the left

Road to the Right

Road directly in front

As I said, pretty remote

The Park. . . . in case you didn't guess

And a few of the Tavern, from the outside. The light is pretty awesome here about 4-5pm, being that its autumn (yay!)

And,

Although there is nowhere where I can get a direct picture of the sunset, as its kinda up and down hilly, with lotsa tree's, in the true spirit of being a sunset geek, I persevered, and did not tooo badly

More next time, trying to stretch it out, as I'll be here a while =P

Cheers for Listening!

w

The Day I Went To Jail

Question for you

What does an overactive imagination + too many thriller/murder mystery book and arriving at a location that looks a bit like this. . . . . . . .

Equal to?

If you think its me, arriving at a hostel in the shape of a jail and feeling a wee bit eerie. . . . . then your right. Plus the locals seemed a bit odd, there were lots of llama's in a field beside the Jail and there was a small dog giving me evils at the front. Seriously, glaring! Although, to be fair, when i got inside, sure, it still looked a bit like a prison but it wasn't toooo bad.

The location of this hostel, is Mount Gambier, 6 hours south of Adelaide, where I went for a few days as I was told that it was pretty. And to be fair, 10 mins from my prison there are the lakes of Mount Gambier, which is a town built on and around lakes, caves and volcanic craters. The Blue lake, given its very imaginative name due to the extreme colour of its waters

It was, ironically, pretty blue. Although peak time for the colour is summer (Nov-Jan). There's a few walks around, lots of hills, which, due to the fact I've had no exercise for about 2 months, was fairly knackering, but most defiantly worth it!

These are the second lake, which has the hill walk around it, and due to the '4 seasons in one day weather' I experienced it actually managed to remind me a bit of Scotland

In the picture above, you can see the hill behind. There's another hill, higher and slightly to the left. Unfortunately, at this point in time, the battery in my camera died. So there are no pics from the top, which is a bit of a bugger. However it did allow me just to look, and watch and enjoy the sights around me, which sometimes i forget to do, because I'm so excited about being able to take photos of stunning scenery.

However, at the end of my walk (about 10k's overall, it hurt for 3 days after!), I asked my camera very nicely, and it gave me one final photo. . .

So, the lessons of this story are, If your going to somewhere called The Jail, yes, its going to be weird, and. . . .Always charge your batteries!!!

Thanks for watching!