Getting used to the Australian accent, visiting the city of Perth. Playing with animals at the Zoo, trying our luck at a musical quiz down at our local pub, enjoying the little creatures’ pub in Fremantle, seeing hundreds of parrots in the trees near Cottsloe beach, sleeping in our baby hippo for the first time.

Day 35 (06/10/10) Bank account open!

Today finally after annoying my bank in France and the one here I finally have a bank account! Only 3 days, crazy stuff to have to beg to have a bank account, but now it’s done. This is great news as now we can transfer money over and in a few days we can own our van! We still have to wait around near Perth before heading off as we are waiting for our bank cards to arrive, but at least as of tomorrow we can start enjoying the city and not living in the bank. The city of Perth is really nice, it’s clean, there is a free bus service that goes around the centre of the city, and the people are friendly. More to come on Perth in the next few days.

Day 36 (06/10/10) The Brass monkey & South Perth

Sometimes you just don’t feel like getting out of bed, and that was the case for me this morning, we had spent the last 3 days running to the bank and back and we still are hardly anywhere closer to getting our money from France here is Australia to get our Van. So after lying in bed for half of the day, it was lunch time, so we headed in to town to get some brunch, we found a bar/restaurant/comedy club called the Brass Monkey, that had a Thursday lunch special of a Beer and Burger for $15, huge burger, nice lunch, while we were eating we found out that today there was a music Quiz night.

After lunch we took the ferry across the river to south Perth, it’s very petty, quite and lots of parks and sporting activities, I could see myself living in south Perth.

After dinner we returned to the Brass Monkey to try our luck at the Music quiz, we were not very good, we also tried some of the local Western Australian Beers.

Day 37(08/10/10) Perth Zoo

After finding the Zoo yesterday when we were in South Perth, we decided to return today and spend the day there. The Zoo is very big and if you want to enjoy it, you should plan to spend the whole day there; the Zoo is part is part of a wildlife conservation plan and breeds many different animals from all around the world. The Zoo Is divided up into three different parts, Australian bush, Asian tropical rain forest, African Savannah. We saw lots of animals I have never seen before, including a tree kangaroo, these guys have to be the cutest things on earth; they look like a wallaby, but have long tails that they use to attach themselves to trees. We also saw some creepy snakes and spiders that we have to watch out for once we start our trip in the van.

Day 38 (09/10/10) Fremantle & Cottsloe Beach

In the early afternoon after a home made lunch of salad and nachos we took the train from Perth to Fremantle, a small town 20min away from Perth, the town is known as Perth’s weekend spot. The streets near the harbour are lined with inviting cafes, pubs and restaurants all tempting you to go inside and enjoy a fresh cup of coffee, snack or beer. On the weekends a market is held in the old market square; you can buy lots of things, its fun just to have a look around and see what is for sale.

We were walking in the park near the esplanade and came across a Saudi exposition, they were displaying there food, culture, religion, history, future of the country, they invited people to come look and learn about their culture openly. I really like the way that people in Australia are open about sharing their different cultures, I think this comes from the fact that the country was founded by immigrates from many different countries and they have to learn to live together in this new land. What is different here from another country that was also founded by immigrants, Mauritius, for example is that in Mauritius the different communities do not mix, they stay within their own, this makes business and life some times difficult, as it is openly discouraged to do business with or have friends of different ethnic groups. Where as in Australia, people are encouraged to interact and learn about the origins of all the fellow Australian citizens. Here people regardless of where they come from are treated equally and discrimination is not tolerated. Here everyone is part of the Australian community, that is has its rules, but the rules are the same for everyone.

On the way back from Fremantle we stopped at Cottsloe, the best know beach in Perth, only 10 minutes from the city by train, you find yourself on a beach with fine white sand facing the Indian Ocean. The beach is kept clean, and users of the beach are asked to respect the wildlife they find by not touching or taking it. Watching the sunset over the Indian Ocean is something that I will never get tired of, the sky turns so many different colours and no two sunsets are alike. As we were leaving to go back to Perth, we saw hundreds of Western Australian Parrots in the trees near they beach, making their home for the night, they are so beautiful, green, red and yellow, I feel so lucky to see them up close.

Day 39 (10/10/10) First Rainy day in Perth

Since we arrived in Perth a week ago today, we have only seen blue skies, which of course has been great for us, but not so great for the region, they had one of the driest summers on record, which is very bad news, less rain means that everything is more dry and more prone to bush fires, they have implemented a water restriction usage for watering your garden, for the rest of this month you can only water your garden once a week on the given day for your area. The government has also started warning people to prepare themselves and their houses for possible bush fires, which they believe will start sooner this year as the earth is so dry. So let it rain, I really hope it does rain enough, but that seems hardly likely. In Europe, we sometimes have water restrictions, and fire alerts, but it is not on the same scale as it is here.

Day 40 (11/10/10) Buying our Van

So 40 days after we started our adventure we have bought our home, for the next few months, our van. We went to Chris, the mechanic that sold us the van, did a part of the paper work with him handed over the money and the van was ours. Now, I had imagined that once we had brought of van, we would drive off into the sunset and camp where we liked, well no, you can’t just do that. Instead of riding off into the sunset, we went to register the van, it’s the first car I have ever owned, and so I am learning the ropes of been a car owner. Once the car is register, we started shopping for insurance, we have not chosen one yet, but we will do before we leave Perth.  We spent the rest of the afternoon looking for the things we will need in our home, table, chairs, bedding, and food, everything you need in a home.

In the evening we met up with French guy that sold us a radio, and some guide books, he was leaving to go back home to France that evening and asked us if we could drop him at few places then at the airport, so we did, in exchange he left us everything he didn’t need so we can us what is useful to us.

Day 41 (12/10/10) First Night in the Van

Its 9pm and I am sitting on our bed in our van writing about the day. It is our first night in our van; we found a campsite just outside of Perth. Our day was good, we checked out of the hostel and headed off to a camping shop we never found, instead we found Kmart, where we picked up some of the important things we need for the van, before we could stay in it, we still have a few things to buy before we can go out on the open road but we have the basics. It is really hard to organise a very small space that you need to live in, in our van we have a bedroom, kitchen, and wardrobe all in the space of a van. I am really excited to be travelling and living in this van, even if it is small, I am in the heart of nature and that is what I love.