Out and about in Perth

We have just spent a bit over 2 weeks in Perth which gave us a chance to catch up on some essentials - caravan and car service - a bit of relaxing, and some sightseeing. Weather was a bit of a mix of some beautiful Spring days and some horrible, awful, cold wet days.

We stayed in the Swan Valley area of Perth and it was convenient to the train for our trips into the city. Some of our excursions included:

The Perth Mint - home of the largest solid gold coin in the world. Weighing one tonne, it has a face value of $1 million, a gold value of over $181 million, and as a collectors item.....priceless. We saw a gold pour to create a gold bar (value around $800000), and picked up a gold bar worth $2 million. It was an interesting tour, unfortunately they didn't hand out free samples.

Swan River lunch cruise - a pleasant cruise from the city to Fremantle and return with a nice lunch included.

Kings Park - lovely botanical gardens and the elevated Federation Walkway gave great views of the city. Also, check out the crocheted dresses in the info centre ( see photo)

Cottesloe Beach - this was OK but not what we expected. Quite a small beach with a lot of (smelly) weed. Possibly it is the lovely old pavilion that it is renowned for.

Would have liked to do a bike ride around the Swan River, however, the replacement bike battery for Brads bike (that we ordered when we were in Broome) only arrived a couple of days before we left and the weekend weather was lousy. We also had a day down at Mandurah but will cover that in another footprint.Read more