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.