Man you can tell I’m a geek when my first inclination is to title this “Site Seeing”!
Boy was it hot today. 34C! I nearly melted–not used to the big temperature difference. When I left Ottawa it was snowing. Today was my first “off” day where I could spend time dong the tourist thing. I was going to go to Rottsnest Island, but did not get up and get going early enough.
Instead I took the “Blue CATS” to “Woolys”. “Woolys” is the nickname for Woolworths, where you get groceries for the same price as in the suburbs. They also have a liquor store in them, so you can get all your essentials at one place. “Blue CATS” is the blue route for the “CATS”, the Central Authority Transit System, I think. I know they told me about 5 times, but that was at the end of two days of technical sessions and things were not registering by them. The CATS are free buses operating in the “downtown core” of Perth (or at least the central area, which I think is downtown). There are three routes, Blue, Red and Yellow. They run about every 10 minutes. The other really cool thing is the regular buses are also free in the central area. Once you are outside the central area, you have to pay.
About 10 minutes from the Pier is the Perth Zoo, where I spent the day. I especially enjoyed the Australian animals on the “Bush Walk” part of the tour. I’m glad I did it first as by the end of the day I was getting pretty tired my feet were sore. The other thing was, because it was so hot, most of the animals were just hiding out and resting in the little bit of shade they could find. The Koala bears moved slightly . . . but they normally sleep about 20 hours/day anyhow!
I did get to see all kinds of Australian water fowl, a HUGE crocodile (man those things are scary!), sleeping kangaroos, giraffes, lots and lots of monkeys (they were the only real active animal), the nocturnal animal exhibit (along with ghost bats flying around), rhinoceros, galapogos turtles, koalas, a sun bear, a red panda, and most other stuff I have since forgotten.
I’m not sure what I will be doing tomorrow . . . because at this point, my feet are “knackered.”
4 Comments. Leave new
I’m jealous of you now Babette – have a good time and find a nice quiet place for dinner.
niall
Just WAIt until I am done my trip…then you will be REALLY jealous
Great to hear you’re enjoying our great city, Babette.
You’re lucky :), this November appears to be an unusually hot month for us this year. Often our hot summers don’t kick in until Christmas, but we’ve already had a few scorchers this month. Best spot to go is the beach, e.g. Cottesloe or City Beach, or if you like relaxing shopping there’s a nice atmosphere at Hillary’s Boat Harbour (only downside is it’s a 1 hour train + bus trip from the city), and Fremantle (a 45 minute train ride from the city).
I was very lucky. When I was in Perth, the temperatures were 34, 36 and 37 ( for my three sight-seeing days). On the last day Connor McDonald took me to Cotteslow beach. Absolutely beautiful !!
Can hardly wait to check out the beaches here in Sydney.