Round and about Perth

It's lovely to be staying with Gav's uncle Tony and Pat, they've made us very welcome and it's lovely to have homecooking and home comforts again. They've got a beautiful house with a swimming pool and views over the city. We've hired a car so that we can get out an about. We spent 3 days down in a place called Margaret River, SW of Perth near where the Indian ocean meets the Southern ocean. I had a cold so I drove Gav around the various vinyards tasting wine. We finished up at a brewery where a naked Aussie was running round the lake and doing press ups in the rain.

I climbed up a giant tree called the diamond tree (52m). It's used as a look out post for bush fires. Gav only got 30 steps up when his palms got clammy and he had to come down. The wildlife in the forest and on the beaches is so tame, even the wild birds and kangaroos let you get really close.

The bottom picture is of me outside freemantle prison. It's a fascinating place. It was built in 1849 and only closed in 1991. The original convicts had to build it for themselves, quarrying the bricks out of the cliffs. Some of the first convicts were given 10 years for stealing things like 1 leg of ham and a few loaves.