Perth and Peter’s 60th

Days 255 to 280

Perth is a great city – very easy to get around. We stayed at a caravan park that had a bus stop outside – so……. onto the bus, 10 minutes to a train station, then we were in the city. Once there there are free buses that get you most places you would want to go.

A highlight of the city was Kings Park.

Tree top walk Kings Park

A wildflower spectacular was on when we were there.
All the wildflowers we had seen while on our trip were there plus many more! The park is also home to the WA Botanic Gardens which includes a treetop walk and spectacular views of Perth. <a A great afternoon!

The Perth coastline is amazing – with a scenic drive along the beachfront. Hillarys Boat Harbour is the home of the Aquarium of WA, Australia’s largest aquarium and underwater tunnel. A great place to visit! We also had our first experience of a Sushi Train Restaurant there. Something we will definitely be doing again.

Perth is centred around the Swan River and a visit is not complete with a River cruise. We combined it with wine tasting by doing the Swan Valley Wine Cruise!! This included visits to lots of wineries, beer tasting, cheeses AND chocolate!!!

We Began celebrating Peter’s 60th early with a lunch at Fremantle with Toni and Tony – at The Mussel Bar on the water!!!! The day was perfect! Fremantle on a sunny weekend is one of the places to be in the Perth area.

The birthday continued with Will flying in from Sydney. We had 3 nights in an apartment overlooking Scarborough Beach. Great location, great views!
A highlight was a V8 drive at Barbagello Raceway!!!! Peter and William both drove a race car (with a race driver in the passenger seat coaching them!). Sheena did 3 laps around the circuit as a passenger – hair raising! An experience we all want to do again.

Beer tasting was on our agenda as well – we visited the James Squire Brewery in Perth and the Little Creatures Brewery at Fremantle Harbour. At Little Creatures Sheena loved all of them! Most unusual?!

Will gave Sheena a bunker lesson at Burswood Golf Course. Hopefully it means the bunker play will improve – Good shots were being hit during the lesson. Will also helped Pete out with his driver swing. We are very proud of our young man – if he decides to be a teaching pro he will be an excellent one.

Perth is a golfer’s paradise – everywhere you go there is another immaculate looking course! Burswood is on the Swan River with dramatic views of the city skyline.

We played Sun City, Joondalup and Araluen. All are fantastic courses and are very different from each other.
Sun City is north of Perth and the course borders a national park and undulates its way through fantastic country side which abounds with native flora and fauna.

Sun City Fauna

The design demands a lot from the golfer with many long par 4’s, heavily undulating fairways, long and blind tee shots, big elevation, changes, double dog legs and slick greens. We were lucky enough to play in a competition there with a couple of members so got good directions as to where to hit off each tee.

We played at Joondalup GC with Will. What a great course!!! We all agreed it is spectacular and sublimely manicured. Built on a hilly site, part of which was a disused limestone quarry, the course is routed past and over rocky ravines, bordered by lush bushland and affording frequent sweeping vistas of the surrounding countryside and suburbs. The signature hole is called “The Moon Crater” and the photo shows why. Every hole was impressive with another challenge thrown at the golfer playing!
Araluen is a challenging 18 holes east of Perth in the hills bordered by state forest and the Canning River. It features large undulating greens, testing changes of elevation and strategically placed water hazards and bunkers. Sheena loved the course but Peter was not impressed with the large number of blind shots we had to play. It is a course that you need to play more than once!

We had our van serviced in Perth and the roof checked. A little resealing got done and guess what! On our last day in Perth we had rain and wind and NO LEAK!!!