Down Under

Perth

Lots of pictures today. Hope you enjoy them. Look out for the explanations below.

I'm on my second swing through Perth. I've managed to get out into the neighborhoods outside the CBD (central business district) a bit more, and have discovered that to the extent there is nightlife in Perth, it tends to be focused out there. I'm staying in a different hotel this time, in West Perth (which is actually adjacent to the CBD and is itself not a terribly interesting neighborhood, or at least not the part where my hotel is; the hotel itself, though, is lovely). A key advantage of West Perth is that it is adjacent to a neighborhood called Subiaco, which has quite a number of interesting restaurants, as well as a theater and arts center. I haven't been able fully to explore the area, but it certainly looks interesting.

On Monday, I managed to get to two different areas. The first was the Swan Valley, which is about half an hour's drive outside Perth. There are some charming old towns, and the area is well known for its wine. I did a tour of some of the wineries but I have to say I wasn't nearly as impressed as I was with the wineries in the Margaret River region. I don't know if that was a factor of the particular wineries we went to or if it's the wine itself. It was nice to be out of the city, though, as the weather turned back to summer (interestingly, the weather here seems to go through quite significant swings in very short periods - after the chilliness of last week, on Monday and Tuesday it was well into the 30s C (upper 80s low 90s F), but today it was back down to 22C (about 72F)).

In the evening I met up with Clare, the friend of a friend (well, actually, the sister of the girlfriend of a friend) in a neighborhood called Leederville. There seemed to be quite a number of restaurants on the main drag, and there were a lot of people out and about, especially given that it was a Monday. Clare, and her boyfriend who joined us later, confirmed that the CBD is generally not the place to go for evening activity and that you do have to get out to the more local places.

As many of you know, yesterday (Tuesday) was my birthday, and I must say that it was a pretty good day. I spent the morning at the zoo which, while not as extensive as the zoo in Singapore, nonetheless was pleasant. In some of the exhibits, there's even the possibility of interacting with the animals. The day was very hot indeed, which meant the only sensible thing to do in the afternoon was go to the beach. The general consensus seems to be that about the best beach easily accessible from the city is in a suburb called Cottesloe. I can confirm that the beach is very nice indeed - lovely soft sand and good waves for playing in. Oh, and a gelateria just across the street! In the evening some friends took me out to dinner. Many thanks again to Brett and Catherine, as well as Craig and Tess, for a really nice time. And, just to confound my theory, the restaurant we went to was in the CBD!

Now, about those pictures. Today I was hosted by the Australian branch of the South African mining company I've done work for over the last 8+ years. I went out to one their mines, which is located near (in Australian terms) the town of Leinster, which itself is a little over hour's flight northeast of Perth. On arrival, I got all suited up (an attractive look, don't you think?) and went down (under - get it?) into the mine. Although I have been down other mines before, this time I got a much better sense of the mining process (helped in no small part by a very patient guide who was very good at explaining the technical bits to this lay person). The underground picture (the one I'm not in!) shows a stope face (i.e. the particular part of the mine where they're actually extracting ore). It's hard to see the detail in the picture, but it shows the result of a blast that very neatly caused the ore to come down so it could be trucked out (no, I wasn't anywhere nearby for the blasting - it had been done several days previously, and the ore had already been removed; today they were drilling the holes for the next blast).

In the afternoon I was taken out to an old mining town called Leonora. The house in the picture is out there, and aside from being an interesting piece of Australian history is actually a fascinating piece of American history as well. The house was designed by and built for Herbert Hoover (the 31st President of the US, for those who don't know), who came to Western Australia as the manager of the mine on the site, known as the Sons of Gwalia mine in 1898, when he was only 23 years old (apparently the company who hired him was led to believe that he was 35!). I won't burden you with all the details here (if you're interested, you might want to check out the following website: http://www.gwalia.org.au/), but it does claim to be the only house of a US president outside the US. The site has been beautifully maintained (the house is actually run as a B&B), and there is a wonderful collection of photos and equipment that documents what the town was like during its heyday - it really makes you repsect the people who lived and worked in such remote places in earlier times.

Now, the last picture. Obviously it's a kangaroo. But what's not clear is that it is just one of about 40 kangaroos that a couple are looking after at their home. They take in injured or orphaned animals and rehabilitate them for release back out into the bush (they take in other types of animals too - there was a young emu there - but kangaroos seem to the predominant ones). The older animals tend to stay outside, but the younger ones come into the house to be fed. Although they remain "wild", and will be released back to the bush, many of them were perfectly happy to be petted, and the youngest ones were even happy to be held. I still haven't seen a truly wild kangaroo out in the bush on any of my visits to Australia, but this was pretty close (and I certainly was able to get closer than a 'roo in the bush would allow!).

Well, that's it for now. I expect my next post will come from my next Australian destination: Melbourne.