Perth Western Australia Travelogue

By Tom Kane

What is there to do in Perth in Western Australia? Plenty, is the answer and there's a lot of places to visit in this beautiful city and its surrounding areas. I'm Tom Kane and my journey took me from Cyprus to Qatar to Perth, where I stayed in Quinns Rock and Bussleton. In words and pictures, journey with me to Fremantle's ecletic market. Read about the escapes and executions at Fremantle's World Heritage site, the old prison. We'll take a trip down the Swan River and a drive along the Indian Ocean coastal road. Visit Perth's history and see the beauty of the city from the highway (yes, it is a beautiful view) and from the Swan River. You can even walk with the sharks in Perth. We will visit Margaret River and spend a long time getting lost in a 23 year old maze. Join me on my journey of a lifetime to see all this and much more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tom Kane
• Release date: Jul 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201793319

Tom Kane

As a child, Tom Kane's family always insisted he was born in the corner of the living room, behind the TV. That strange assertion, true or false, seems to have set the tone for the rest of his life.  Kane's mother inspired him to write. Science Fiction, in the form of Doctor Who and Isaac Asimov inspired his love of the genre. Monty Python inspired him to be silly and he continues to blame Billy Connolly for his infrequent bursts of bad language  In the corner or behind the TV, what is officially known about Tom Kane's birth is that it took place in England on a dark and stormy night.  

Book preview

Introduction

This journey started with vehicle problems and ended with vehicle problems. I’m only thankful the pilots on our four Qatar Airways flights didn’t have the technical problems we had.

My wife Jo and I started our Australian adventure in the certain knowledge that there are things living in Australia that can kill you. Couple that with the ever-present thought that mechanical failure, especially at 34,000 feet, can also be fatal and you can see we had mixed feelings about how much we would enjoy our first foray to Australia. We need not have worried. Our voyage of discovery was more pleasurable than daunting and all thoughts of great white sharks and crocodiles the size of a small car lurking in wait were soon dispelled.

Perth in Western Australia is a fabulous city inhabited by a lot of welcoming and friendly Australians.

Perth itself is quite beautiful and even the highways meander in a lovely river-like way into and around this beautiful city. If you are reading this and contemplating visiting Perth, go book it now because nothing in this book will put you off and we certainly intend a return trip very soon.

Tom Kane September 11th, 2018

Countdown

The Scenic Route

We fly to Australia soon for a well-deserved holiday and my wife and I are getting excited. It’s a long journey from Cyprus to Australia, but we’re happy enough doing it and there’s plenty to do on board the aircraft. What we may have a problem with is changing planes in Doha, Qatar, especially since the countries surrounding Qatar have given the little country the cold shoulder.

So, instead of flying into Doha on the normal route which would be something like Cyprus, Israeli airspace and then Saudi airspace and into Qatar, we can expect an extra hour on-board and probably go via southern Turkey. So, it will be east across southern Turkey, then down to the Turkey-Iran border and then south-east through the mounts in western Iran followed by a right turn over the Persian Gulf and into Qatar.

So long as there are no trigger-happy soldiers or whatever in such a volatile region, it could be a pleasant trip. Naturally it’s at night so we won’t see anything anyway. Time to have a meal and a glass of wine and watch a film or two. Not sure I’ll get any sleep, I’m terrible for sleeping when I travel, especially on an aircraft. What I am looking forward to is sunrise over the Indian Ocean, but that’s on the second leg of our journey.

Not long to go now and even the news of a cyclone in Oz isn’t putting us off.

It seems there’s a potential tropical cyclone that’s maybe going to hit north-west Australia and cause a lot of windy weather in the Perth area of Australia... just about the time we are due to land in Perth. Never mind, I’ve flown into America, Northern Ireland and various airports in England and Europe with high crosswinds and so long as the pilot’s happy, I’m happy. Flying sideways into an airport may seem unconventional, but it works when the crosswinds are high.

What concerns me more is the 17 hours in the air going, the same or similar coming back, and the real problem of not knowing what time of day it is locally! Never mind the jetlag.

But nothing will deter us from having a good time, come cyclone or high water... just so long as if we do have floods then the sharks, sea-snakes and crocodiles don’t find a way into our rented accommodation!

Our countdown to leaving for our trip to Australia continues and the excitement is building now. But in all our preparations, we have sidestepped an important factor, where we are travelling to first, Qatar. It’s only a stopover for a couple of hours as we change flights. Nonetheless, it’s worth considering as a future destination.

The Gulf region in general is becoming quite an important area in both an economic sense and political sense. Indeed, Britain’s Royal Navy have now reopened its navy base in Bahrain (next door neighbor to Qatar) and HMS Jufair will have five Royal Navy ships stationed permanently in the region and no doubt the two new super-carriers will be visiting the region on a regular basis.

Qatar currently has its problems. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt have cut links and restricted trade and travel for Qatar. The root cause of the problem is a row between these states and Qatar which is accused of sponsoring terrorism. What’s probably at the root of this is the ties Qatar has with Iran. This all seems to boil down to the differences between the Sunni and Shia Moslems, which is, in essence, all to do with politics and who is the main power in the region. Saudi Arabia and Iran have long been at loggerheads. Whatever the cause, Qatar was given a deadline in the summer to agree to thirteen points that its detractors wanted Qatar to address. This was ignored and has now been reduced to six points. Though Qatar imports 40% of its food and other resources, it is rich in gas and oil. Food is