Winter 2019 - OZ 2 First day in Perth

2019 OZ  2   First day in Perth

Exploring Perth

I found the hotel Peppers Kings Square Hotel online and booked a 1 night stay. It was an easy drive from the Airport to downtown Perth and we found this new Hotel relatively easily. Parking the car was handled by the hotel staff and the room included breakfast, so we are all set for some time in Perth.

Where do we go? Perth is not a huge town, but not that small either. About 2 million+ inhabitants make up the greater area population but we concentrated on just downtown Perth. Perth is the most Western major city in Australia and a somewhat ‘forlorn’ tourist attraction. 

The Swan Tower

Carol and I have no itinerary; all we know is that in a month from now we have to be in Melbourne for our flight back to Toronto. We have this rental car, which we’ll drop off in Melbourne and that will be it. We have absolute freedom of movement, of what to do, or see or not go to. 

Do we go north from Perth?  Or do we go south?  Do we drive through the desert, or as they say here the ‘Outback’?  It is all up to us. It all starts here in Perth, what will we do, what is there to see? 

A Small Corner of the Opus Stadium

We opt to take the HoHo bus for our short time in Perth; it should give us an overview as what Perth is all about. I don’t expect much and my feelings were confirmed. I know the Tourist Office of Perth wants to attract tourists, but… there just is nothing ‘spectacular’ in or around Perth. Our HoHo tour was a bit boring, I took some photos but Carol might disagree. She liked the Bell Tower area, we did not get off the bus however, it was a bit late in the day to explore, so we just rode the bus. We saw and passed the Optus Stadium, but, again, it was just a drive-by.

Entering King's Park

The most impressive section of town was in the Kings Park. I liked the vistas of the shoreline offered from this vantage point but also, given one had weeks to spend in Perth, there are activities that I could have explored more deeply.

View of the Shoreline From King's Park

Yet we have to make choices, I am a traveler, just traveling through town, seeing what there is to see while I am there. I am sure that if I lived in Perth I would have a totally different outlook on the city, but for me Perth was just a stopover.  

An Idyllic Scene in King's Park

Outdoor Sculpture

We did notice a wonderful assortment of public art sculptures throughout Perth, though. It shows me there is a much deeper, artistic side of Perth I know nothing about. 

The Cactus

More Sculpture

Carol took some pictures of some intriguing sculptures yet I did not take notes of who the artist was nor what each sculpture represents.

I did however like this one:  James Angus’ “Grow Your Own”  Sculpture which the locals call ‘the Cactus’. 

Traditional and New Architecture

So, on day one we had to decide, do we stay here a week or do we travel on?

We have 3500 km to drive, and there is …hopefully… lots to see on the way.

Half-Timbered Building

What a Contrast in Architecture

We decided to head towards Melbourne and see how much time is left over at the end, maybe we’ll stay someplace closer to Melbourne later. And thus, we picked the ‘southern’ route, a traveled route, but not so much traveled as the route from Cairns to Melbourne, for example.

We had a good day on day one…

Now we are off to explore Western and Southern Australia as we see fit. We will not write down each day… that would be too cumbersome and even boring, but we will pick highlights that will add up anyway.    

See you down the road!