Perth -29th May

I was perhaps always inclined to like Perth. Partly due to it not being Adelaide which was cold and drizzly. Partly because it always seems to have an optimistic ring to it. I've not heard anything said against Perth, only good things. A young city with 3000hours + a year of sunshine. A very "liveable" city.

It was my first internal Australian flight and I was inclined to be excited but after 3 hours in a very claustrophobic little plane my enthusiasm was dampened. However the novelty of being able to fly for 3 hours, cover nearly 3000km and still be in the same country, albeit a different time zone, remained.

Rolling out of the plane onto the tarmac the warmth hit. Only 25 degrees as it's winter but a welcome 10 degrees more than SA. The sky was intensely blue without a hint of a cloud and as the bus drove from the airport it passed as many palm trees as gums and even a banana tree. A contrast again to the European trees and Autumnal colours I'd been seeing. Over the river - the bluest I've ever seen a river- into a city with a modest handful of skyscrapers, wide streets and no sense of claustrophobic penning-in.

After leaving my luggage at the hostel I went exploring, back to the alluring river bank. I'm aware of the novel and welcome sensation of feeling hot again and needing to shed clothing- the sun is wonderfully warm and disorientatingly I've left winter behind again!

Perth seems to be designed in many places. All along the river are walking/cycle paths. When they get to a main road they go under. None of the occasional climbing fences and dodging traffic which is sometimes necessary in other, less well thought out cities! The only criticism is that it's not quite finished. In fact I think I read somewhere that as WA is doing very well economically (from the mining) they have money to expand and develop.

With my body clock at least 1 1/2 hours ahead of WA time I take an early night.