Pinnacles and Parks

My final three days in Perth, visiting the Pinnacles, Rottnest Island and Kings Park.

On my third day in Perth, I had to check out of my hostel and move to another one, down the road. I’d booked myself onto a full day tour of the Pinnacles: because I’m not planning on going through the red centre this seemed like a nice way of at least seeing some desert here in Oz. Plus they sound kind of cool and my day trip includes a ton of other cool things I wanted to do, such as sandboarding and stargazing.

But of course, I have to get onto my trip first. I booked the night before during my admin session, and the email had said that, unless told otherwise, assume my pick-up time is 15 minutes before the start-time of the tour (i.e., 10:45 so I was running on a pick-up time of 10:30). Of course, if I’d have checked my emails that morning rather than enjoying my last breakfast with my new friends, I’d have realised that my actual pick-up time had been sent through at 8am that morning, and I needed to be ready by 9:50am. At 10:20, just checking my emails whilst the checkout guy (Tom, an extremely tall Dutch man who was also part of the horror movie crew) kindly offered to download Game of Thrones for me as I was ridiculously behind, I realised this and let out a stream of curses in European languages (thanks to all of my new friends who have been teaching me). At this point I dashed off , dropped my bags at the new hostel where the check-in guy (who’s name I never learnt – its not quite Spinners after all) nicely called the tour for me, who then came back and picked me up. There I was, panicking about having to rebook for another day and whether there was a chance I’d even be able to get a partial refund and they just, no worries at all, came back to get me. What’s more, I got the front seat which had way more leg room and a better view than anyone else, and they apologised to me for sending the email through so late. Geezus Australia – I can’t even cope with how well put together you are.

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The tour was pretty cool. I’d read about this one and several others and liked the sound of this one the most – mostly as it had the stargazing element. I’m a sucker for a night sky, but I’ve rarely been anywhere with so little light pollution that you can see the milkyway, so star gazing in the desert was definitely a selling point. The first few stops in the morning were local businesses making honey/chocolate/wine. I’m actually still on antibiotics for my ear infection, but it was bloody Australian wine-tasting!!! Who would say no?? Okay, I know most sensible people would, but I can’t see myself being able to afford alcohol on this trip so this was my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do an Australian wine-tasting in Australia. At 11am. I only had a few.

Then I had to try the mead at the honey place.

Okay, I was pretty tipsy when we got back into the car at midday.

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We stopped by a nice beach for lunch, went sandboarding at Lancelin, which is fantastic as I’d missed doing this in Mui Ne so glad I managed here. It’s great fun but a massive struggle to climb the dunes after boarding down. Here’s a video of my very dignified descent.

 

We then drove to the Pinnacles, these incredible sandstone rock formations in the desert, where we witnessed a truly spectacular sunset that my camera doesn’t have a prayer of doing justice to, but I’ll post a picture anyhow. I haven’t edited this at all, the colours are completely natural, and even dulled by my little phone.

As the sun set we all gathered around with pillows and blankets for dinner, which was freshly barbecued hotdogs and a ton of salads, and uh, more wine. Full and slightly drowsy, we lay back to watch the stars with the binoculars supplied. You definitely could see a kind of fuzzy lighter patch where the milkyway was, but I am starting to wonder if, like the aurora, this kind of thing looks better when viewed through the right equipment, and to the naked eye will never look as impressive as a professional image.

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On the way home I managed to drop my phone down the side of the front seat of the bus. It was actually near impossible to get out as the dip was almost a foot deep but far too small for my wrist in most places. I eventually, after 20 minutes of struggling (I was having important messaging chats at the time) used my selfie-stick to push it to the end where I could get my wrist in. Crisis averted. Or was it? It would take me a day to notice, but I actually knocked the clicker from my selfie-stick into the gap whilst doing this, rendering it effectively useless. Still, at least my chats could continue.

 

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That night, I returned to my new hostel, did a very thorough bed bug check as is standard now, and talked briefly with my new dormmates. I was sharing a four bed dorm with three guys, which would have terrified me months ago, but now you just roll with it. Even when one of them sleep talks loudly in a bizarre language in the middle of the night, and you know the guy’s first language is English because you talked to him earlier.

Or when another one just stands silently in the middle of the room for ten minutes, not moving or talking to anyone. Multiple times during the day.

I did not sleep well. #hostellife

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My next day was my planned trip to Rottnest Island to see quokkas! If you don’t know what these are then you need to Google them, in fact- I’ll do this for you! Click here, now! It’s not a virus I swear, but it’ll add Perth to your destinations list if it wasn’t on there already (It did for me). You may also find yourself following @instaquokka.

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I’d booked the 9am ferry, and naively trusted Google Maps when it told me that leaving at 8am would get me to the ferry port on time. I, of course, did not check the email telling me I needed to be at the ferry check-in 20 minutes before 9, nor did I remember my absolutely appalling navigation skills. As such, I got completely lost on the way to the train station, found it eventually but had to get the train later than I expected. The original one was only going to get me to the pier at about 8:50 anyhow so actually, I think I was always doomed to miss it based on my sheer lack of organisation as of late. I rocked up to the check-in desk at 9am, again, expecting to have to grovel and hope they’d let me transfer my ticket to another ferry and not just charge me twice. Ridiculously, as soon as I said I was too late for mine, the woman was like ‘The 9am hasn’t left yet, I’ll hold them: run’. And I made it. No one even checked my ticket but I made it on to the ferry that I had assured, through my own incompetence, that I would miss. Now, I shouldn’t get into the habit of having an entire country make up for my utter lack of organisation but DAYUMMM AUSTRALIA. YOU GOT ‘DIS. My mind is blown by how well this place is equipped to deal with incompetent and slightly gobby Brummie girls. I feel like I need to get my act together just to be worthy. Because everyone is so nice about it too!

So there I was. Safely on Rottnest Island. Chasing quokkas and trying to cycle on the correct side of the road, which I’ve only just learnt is the same as in the UK. I had a pretty nice day actually, apart from the discovering that my selfie-stick was now useless. That was a pretty heavy blow. All my quokka selfies are very close up… I also thought I read (on the official sign on the island saying how to get the best quokka selfie) that they like water and you’re allowed to give them some, but a friend later told me that you’re not meant to give them anything. So I’m not sure if my selfies are legally acquired or not. I already jaywalked a ton in Perth before I realised this wasn’t allowed so I may legit be a felon Down Under now. Just blame my badass alter-ego, travel Cassi.

Let’s hope my cutie selfies are worth it. I even stylised them for you.

 

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That night was the Spinners hostel’s night out, and as official Spinners’ alumni I had already promised at least four people that I would be coming round to get ready, pre and party with them all. I was explicitly told ‘just wear whatever you’re comfortable in’ by my new crew, when I lamented the fact that all of my clothes absolutely screamed backpacker at any unsuspecting local wondering around the streets. Since they were all long-termers with cute wardrobes and a full supply of make-up and hair products, I did worry a little about feeling underdressed. Upon turning up in my Asia-night-out-wear, and quickly noting everyone else’s heels and lipstick attire, I thanked my lucky stars that I had thrown my far-too-miniscule-and-cold-for-cities beach dress in my bag just in case. Turned out that mini dress was entirely the right tone and after borrowing a curling tong I didn’t feel too awkward. I know this seems like a shallow tangent but it’s foreshadowing the Cairns post where my backpacker-wear really is out of place.

I loved pre-gaming and dancing with my new crew at the backpacker’s night at Hip-E bar, although the night ended far earlier than expected when one of my faves needed escorting home due to the contents of her stomach deciding it might prefer life in the outside world.

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My final full day in Perth (how did we get here so fast?) was spent having a lazy breakfast with my Spinners crew (I may have just crashed there after the drunken walk home) and being taken on a tour of Kings Park to see the viewpoint, which was my last remaining Perth bucket list item, followed by movie night with my crew.

I was so afraid of missing another flight (I find that this happens when part of me really just isn’t ready to leave a place and this was definitely true of Perth) that I made utterly sure I got this one. A lovely Austrian man found me wondering the streets looking for the bus stop and kindly escorted me, but it was pretty smooth sailing otherwise.

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I loved Perth. It was so unexpected. I’ve heard people rave about Sydney or Melbourne, but Perth has always sounded a bit crap. I know the people made most of it, but as a city, it’s beautiful and small and lovely – I can’t believe how underrated it actually is. If I hadn’t had several flights booked to get me to Sydney, I really really would have stayed. I’m still not certain I won’t go back. I’m starting to realise that travelling round the world means you’re on a distance countdown, even if you’re not necessarily on a time countdown. The further East I travel, the closer I get to my old life. And I’m nowhere near ready for that.