Bye Bye, Swan Valley!

We know that you expect a long update from us now, but even though it's been so many days, we haven't been up to much. Actually, 80% of the time we spent working in the Black Swan. But before you start feeling sorry for us: we had our last day at work last wednesday.

(Picture: Us after the last day of work)

Yes, we had our last day at work. We are planning to leave Swan Valley and the area around Perth this weekend to head off to the south of Australia. Even though our boss tried to make us stay longer by offering a raise of our payment, we feel like it is time to move on and see new places and cities in Australia. But don't expect us to stay in fancy youth hostels, we're going to do it rough and wild: we are going to camp. We already bought a 4-person tent (just to have some comfort at least) and this weekend we are off to our new favourite shopping center in Morley to get the rest of our equipment, like a stove or plates and a lamp.

But surely we did not only work the last weeks, we had some days off to do some outdoor activities.

(Picture: Perth City and the Botanic Garden)

On two days, we decided to go back to Perth to make sure we really saw the major attractions and sights the city has to offer. We went on a CAT, which is a free bus service, taking people around the city, to go to places like the Botanic Garden, Swan Bells, Chinatown in Northbridge and Kings Park. Not to forget the huge shopping area just opposite the train station.

(Picture: Us in front of the temporarily Perth/Hollywood-letters)

Another day we followed a misleading sign which had "Bassendean Town Center" written on it. Naive us thought of a fancy shopping mile, but instead we got around 20 real estate agencies, 3 book shops and a second-hand clothes shop. As you can imagine, our excitement level was rather low.
We also went to the Whiteman Park. It is full of attractions like a Wildlife Park or a Lollyshop, but we got there way too late, so basically everything was closed. We still had a nice time sitting in the huge, empty park with its old gigantic trees and mysterious ponds.

One day we tried to find some things to see close to our home, but all we could find was a playing ground, which Berrie seemed to enjoy very much. (See picture on the left)

Our most dangerous trip took us back to Bells Rapids, a nature park we went to see some weeks ago. This time we decided to swim in there, as the low waterlevel and the slowflowing river allowed us to enjoy the clear water. Adventurous us searched for a seemingly quiet place to swim to the other side. It went fine for Paul, but Berrie did have some difficulties reaching the other side. He felt some repulsing things in between his fingers and gave an Oscarworthy panic attack. Struggling for his life, he finally reached the lifesaving stones on the other side. Both shaking from this dramatic situation, we went back to grab our clothes and go back home. In the end it wasn't all that dramatic, as the repulsing things were just some plants floating in the water.

Another possibly dramatic situation you can experience here: going to the toilet at night and facing this right in front of you. It was the third time we saw a Huntsman in real life! And yes, we took the picture ourselves and no, the picture does not do justice to the actual size of the spider.

That was it for now from us and from Swan Valley. Next time we'll update the blog, you will get some pictures of new areas and cities in the beautiful south of Australia.

Us & The Apollo

OK, time for an update! We've been busy working last week, but we've also managed to drive to some places around this area.

Yes, we drove there with our car. We're having it for a week now, and we haven't been on our bikes ever since. We fall in love again and again, each time we see it. So far, we drove around 500km. We had some critical moments when it came to driving on the left side, but it's all fine now and we love driving here. Last week we played a driving game on the Playstation 2 and immediately caused an accident, because we started driving on the left! We really got into it now we guess... (Pictures left & below: our very own Holden Apollo SLX '93)

One of our first trips with our car took us to Midland Gate Ace Cinema! Yes, even though we should spend our time doing real Australian things like playing the didgeridoo or watching kangaroos, we like to spend our evenings in airconditioned, well seated, thick carpeted and dark cinemas! We went to see Resident Evil III, which we both liked a lot. And yes, it's in European cinemas too!

Walyunga National Park! That's the name of the first National Park we've seen in Australia. Our expectations were high and our raincoats were packed. It was indeed very nice but we hope to see more spectacular landscapes later in other National Parks. We took a walk along Swan River and walked Syd's Trail, a 2,5 km path up and down the river.

(Picture: an impression of Walyunga National Park)

Our first long trip took us to a place called Hillarys, a beautiful city on the westcoast of Australia. We first went to a beach and even though the sun was shining brightly, the wind was a bit cold so we decided not to go swimming. There were some nice colourful tiny little shells though, and the little box below our handbrake looks like a miniature beach now! Later that afternoon we went to Sorrento Quay Center, a nice shopping/eating/kitsch/boats/water combination in Hillarys. We had our coffee at Gloria Jeans (which is by the way our new favourite brand, Muffin Break is so yesterday!). Afterwards we went to another, more natural beach near Hillarys. (Picture: Paul enjoying Gloria Jeans and Berrie in front of Sorrento Quay)

(Picture: one of the beaches we went to see)

The day after reality hit us in the face again as we went back to work. We made a huge blooper at work some days ago. We had to start at 9.00am. Right. We set the alarm at 7.30am to be sure that we would be on time. Nothing wrong so far. But! The alarm didn't ring! Luckily, Paul woke up at 8.30, waking Berrie immediately with just the words "It's 8.30!". We hurried our arses off to be on time and indeed, we were at work just before 9! We were finishing our breakfast on the walk from our car to the Black Swan Restaurant, and entered the building totally confident and proud. We were all cool saying "Hi guys! How are you doinggg?" to our collegues. Then there was Kathryn, a loud but very cheery and nice cook, who came to us, accusing us for being late! "It is 10am guys! And I'm not joking! You're late!" Confused us. She then explained to us that due to Daylight Saving Time the clocks were set one hour ahead last night. So, it wasn't 9.00am as we thought, it was 10 already! We really were late! No one was mad at us though and one (native!) cook did the same. After work we made sure all our clocks were set 1 hour ahead. (Picture: Black Swan Restaurant seen from the back)

One day we climbed over a closed fence somewhere in the hills surrounding Perth, and walked up the hills. It was extremely steep but the views were very nice. We saw the skyline of Perth in the distance, but unfortunately the camera didn't capture this. It did capture our faces though. Just imagine you see Perth Skyline somewhere behind us! We saw kangaroos hopping and stomping (they really are loud!) around us, which was nice and so close to where we actually live here!


We had one more big trip, which was yesterday. We drove into the Darling Range (the hills around Perth) and went to Mandurin, Mandurin Weir (the drinking water supplier for a huge area) and Kalamunda (a very neat and relaxed town with an idyllic shopping center). On the way back we did the scenic one way zig zag drive down the hills. We could've taken the most amazing pictures BUT we did not have our camera with us. Sorry mates, we'll spare you more details because we can't show you anyway. Believe us, it was a breathtaking view.

Some days ago we embarrassed ourselves in Sanity, the local CD store. We were out to buy Britney's new CD (which is amazing!) but then Pauls eye fell on (!) the cover of the Spice Girls Greatest Hits! He shouted Berries name and together we hurried to the desk, grabbing the CD case to find out that it was only a promotional item, stating it'll be out November 10. The shopkeepers gave us amused looks, and told us we should pre order a copy as "this one's gonna be huge". We couldn't help smiling.

That's about what we've done during the last days. Tomorrow we'll be working even harder than usually as we're having a wedding during the day and the restaurant will be open for dinner in the evening again. That means starting at 9.00am, having a little break in the afternoon and working again until the last guest leaves the restaurant and maybe even later. We expect to be home at 11.00pm.

Right, one of our sources at home told us that many of our readers would like to leave a comment for us but don't know how to do this. Understand us well, we don't complain about the big response we already get but we do want to give everyone the chance to share in this amazing experience. We'll explain it in English, German and Dutch.

English:
1. Click on "... Comments"
2. Write your comment in the box on the right.
3. You don't need to sign up, just tick the "Anonymous" box as your identity.
4. Click on "Publish your comment"

Deutsch:
1. Klick auf "... Kommentare" ("... Comments")
2. Schreibe deinen Kommentar in die Box auf der rechten Seite.
3. Du brauchst dich nicht anzumelden, klicke auf "Anonym" ("Anonymous") als Identitaet.
4. Klicke auf "Veroeffentliche Kommentar" ("Publish your comment").

Nederlands:
1. Klik op "... Comments" of "... reacties"
2. Schrijf je reactie in het veld dat nu rechts in beeld verschijnt.
3. Je hoeft je nergens voor aan te melden, klik op "Anonymous" of "Anoniem" als identiteit.
4. Klik op "Publish your comment"