Day 91 – Cervantes to Perth – Perff!!!! - Oct 20, 2009

By recent standards today was a leisurely 200 odd kms into Perth, or Perff as Evan insists on pronouncing it. Our approach to Perth was through the Swan valley wine region, oh what a shame. Showing a lot of self restraint we actually kept driving and arrived at the campground by about lunch time.

Once set up we drove into Perth itself to have a quick look around. It was a rather large surprise. My first visits here were in ’91, ’94 and ’97 (ok and a very quick weekend visit in ’06 where I hardly saw the city) so my memory is of a smallish city, where everything was relatively leisurely and uncrowded. Driving through the CBD on a weekday today was (almost) like driving through Sydney.

Not only is there now people everywhere, but there is massive construction everywhere you turn. Up on Kings Park you could count at least 15 construction cranes across the skyline. You can see the place growing in front of your eyes. (Looking at the airport as we flew out to Melbourne the next day there also seemed to be whole regional airlines dedicated to supporting the mining industry.)

I must admit, after not being in a ‘big city’ for some time (Cairns, Alice Springs and Darwin may have illusions of grandeur - wrong) it is very strange being in traffic jams and crowds. A small touch of claustrophobia has set in….I need my personal space people!!!!!!!!!!!!

A quiet afternoon followed with a sleep for Az while Evan and I explored and a BBQ for dinner to use up all the remaining food in the fridge before flying to Melbourne. I made an attempt to clean the inside of the car to at least make it respectable for its service in the morning but with two months of small boy rubbish in the back it was easier said than done.

One advantage of ‘civilisation’ though - we had a Baskin and Robbins ice cream shop within 15 minutes so Aaron and I got one for mummy for desert.