After spending a week exploring south and north of Perth, I arrived back in the city with a couple of spare days before the cricket. And, as it turned out, 3 spare days after the cricket…

Back to hostel life and the first thing on my hit list was to do some laundry. Long time readers of this blog may recall my previous quests for cheap hostel laundry…my first impression of 2025 hostel laundry is that there has been a significant increase in price in the last 10 years. $6 for a wash and $6 for sufficient drying time is a lot more than I remember…anyway, at least I had a bag full of clean clothes.

The next day I was up bright and early to head out to Fremantle to catch a ferry to Rottnest Island. I’d booked ferry tickets the previous week (doing it 7 days before travel gives you a discount), though was obviously a little tired when doing so as I’d booked the outbound ferry from Fremantle rather than Perth City. This meant a slightly earlier start to take the train out to Fremantle and to be there 30 minutes before departure. It all turned out fine, and Perth is a city that gets going early so despite being on a train at 7.45am on a weekday, it was not busy as most people had already got to where they were going.

Rottnest Island is home to a large population of quokkas. There were also more flies so I was glad yet again for the fly net!!

I hadn’t really made any plans for my 6 hours on the island, but spotted there was a Catherine Bay that I thought would be worth visiting… This turned into a 7 mile round hike in some quite sticky weather, but I passed through a number of extraordinarily beautiful beaches along the way.

After returning to the main settlement, I had lunch and was joined by a few quokkas who clearly knew where to look for food. There are signs everywhere telling you not to feed them so I was very careful about not spilling any of my Subway!

Quokkas are really quite odd animals, mouse-like, yet hopping along like a rabbit, or a small kangaroo. But very endearing

Caught the ferry back to Perth City (as intended) at 4.30pm. One of the advantages of getting the ferry all the way back to the city is that it cruises up the Swan River so you get some lovely views of the outer suburbs of the city, and then a great view of the CBD as you come into the jetty.

The next day was a moving day, from the hostel into a hotel for the next 6 nights. This was part of the package I’d bought for the cricket. I’ve done a hotel and ticket package through Gullivers Sports Travel for the 3 test matches that I’m attending. It was quite nice having my own space, and the room had a decent-sized fridge so as I was on a room only deal, I went to the local IGA to stock up on healthy breakfast food and snacks.

The next day I was up and eager to get to the cricket. The Optus Stadium was about a 30 minute walk from the hotel and I followed the crowds towards the ground. It’s a very impressive stadium and after the usual security, I was in my seat just before the toss. I was sat amongst the Barmy Army and it was great fun with all the singing and clapping, trying (and one might argue failing) to encourage England to bat. The first half of day 1 was less than ideal but the second half, with Archer and Wood steaming in, was incredible to witness.

The next day was Saturday, which means parkrun. Parkruns in Perth start at 8am so I just about had enough time to walk the 20 or so minutes to Claisebrook Cove parkrun, huff and puff round the 5k in 35 minutes, walk back to the hotel to shower and then walk the 30 mins to the stadium in time for the first ball of day 2 at 10.20am. It was a slightly frantic morning, which included some interesting warning signs along the parkrun course…

The less said about day 2 at the cricket, the better…it did mean I had 3 extra days in Perth though, to see things I’d so far missed.

I started by meeting up with some old travel companions from my Peru trip 10 years ago who live in Perth. It was so lovely to see Janine and Pat after all this time, we had brunch and a scenic drive around the city

That evening I ended up going to see the Kaiser Chiefs, who were in town and playing their debut album (out when I was at university) in full. It was great fun relieving my uni days as they blasted through Employment and some of their other hits.

My remaining 2 days in Perth were full of walking. I went to Kings Park, for wonderful views of the city, and also a lovely walk through the Botanical Gardens. And on my final day, I failed to find any kangaroos during my walk to Heirisson Island Kangaroo Sanctuary.

After 2 and a half weeks, it was time to leave Perth. I’ve really enjoyed my time here, and exploring Perth, Margaret River and the coast up to Monkey Mia. The coastline is absolutely stunning, the people are friendly and laid back, and it seems like a really good lifestyle here. The only bugbear (!) was all the flies!! I highly recommend a trip to this part of the world, and don’t forget you can fly direct from the UK and Western Europe to Perth, if you can stomach 16 hours or so in the air at once!