Life in the world's most isolated capitol city

There are no weekend trips to [insert big city here] when you study abroad in Perth. The nearest city with a population over 1 million is Adelaide, a short 2,700 km away. So, you explore Perth. And you explore Fremantle. And when you've had enough of that for the week you day dream of taking weekend trips to exotic locations like Sydney and Bali. And then reality hits, and you realize that weekend trips aren't going to revolve around major cities and tourist destinations. Instead, you'll be driving eight hours in a bus all day to go check out the Pinnacles and some sand dunes on the coast of the Indian Ocean. And you'll realize just how remote Western Australia is, and how the overwhelming majority of people live in Perth, leaving the rest of the state pretty remote. And you'll finally realize that studying abroad isn't always about the exotic travels you go on, but exploring the area you're actually studying abroad in. After all, I'm about to reach the t-minus 2 months mark...

So with all of this said, I got out of Perth on Friday and played tourist with a girl from my Marine Biology class. She wanted to head up to Nambung National Park to check out the Pinnacles for a paper she's writing, and I decided to tag along after having a week of frustration/realization of where exactly I'm living right now.

We played tourist for the day and caught a day trip up the coast that was advertised as a day trip to the Pinnacles, but actually included two other side trips: Caversham Wildlife Park and a stop in Lancelin for the sand dunes. Here is a map, so you have an idea of where everything is in relation to Perth.

Our first stop was at Caversham, where we took a very quick 30 minute tour. We stopped in and saw the quintessential Aussie animals: koalas, kangas, and a wombat. No real information about the animals, just a chance to stop in and feed them and get our photos of them. It was a quick stop, and definitely the most touristy thing we did that day. But a great chance to finally see more of the Aussie animals.

someone knows he's adorable

no worries, mate

marsupial pouches in action (!)

After our stop at the wildlife park, we got on the bus and drove about two hours up to Cervantes, just outside of the Nambung National Park, for a picnic lunch. From there, we drove into the National Park, got off the bus, and took a walk through the Pinnacles.

The Pinnacles are basically limestone outcroppings no taller than four meters, and are everywhere. I was expecting to see maybe a hundred of them, but they cover a pretty sizeable area. We were able to walk between them and check them out. In some of them you could see calcified tree trunks, and others were just really random shapes.

jaws?

After walking through the Pinnacles for about an hour, we got back on the bus and drove for another two hours (!) to Lancelin. Before we could tackle the sand dunes in our tour bus, we had to make a pit stop at the beach to let the tires deflate to about half their pressure. We walked down to the beach, and I realized it was the first time since I've been here that I've been cold on a beach.

fall is here

With slightly deflated tires, we headed into the sand dunes for a little off-roading experience. It was quite an exciting time on the bus and many shrieks of excitement could be heard as we drove up and down the sand dunes.

the hill we drove, and later sand surfed down

After driving around and scoping out the scene, the driver pulled out the wood boards we were to sand surf down the sand dune on. It was a pretty steep hill and was about a two second thrill ride down. It was basically like sledding, more or less. But in shorts, on a sand dune, next to the Indian Ocean. Ok so maybe not like sledding.

But the views from the sand dunes on a clear Friday afternoon were great, and we were heading out right at sunset.

late afternoon on the dunes

We stopped at a roadhouse to refill the tires (and grab some Toblerone, of course) before driving another two hours back to Perth. Everyone else got dropped off at hotels, but we still had the train ride back to campus. Tourist time over....until the zoo the next day!

The next we headed to the Perth Zoo, a much more local attraction, and one that has been on my list of things to do for some time now. It's a really nice zoo, very well laid out and we were able to see all the attractions within a comfortable four hours.

Tasmanian Devil

and everything from frogs to little penguins

and orangutans

The next day was ANZAC day, Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. It's kind of the like Memorial Day, but with specific rememberance to the battle at Gallipoli. There are two dawn services in the Perth area, one at King's Park in Perth and the other at the war memorial in Freo. Both are very popular events, and are staples of the ANZAC day celebrations. But celebrations is too positive a connotation-the ceremony at King's Park in Perth was somber. And quiet. The ceremony began with a bugle call, which signaled everybody to face the war memorial and be quiet. Groups of people brought up wreaths and placed them around the base of the war memorial. When this finished, another bugle sounded. This started the moment of silence, which was broken by a third bugle call. And so ends the formal cermeony. But most everyone stayed for the rest of it, which was just a speech by....someone I don't remeber (it was a dawn service, and I did have to leave campus at 4:30 AM!). So after about an hour an a half in total of standing and watching the ceremony, the sun was just about to come up.

dawn service at King's Park

Normally, King's Park isn't open this early and so it was a great chance to catch a sunrise over the skyline of Perth. King's Park is known for having one of the best vantage points on the city, and it's true. I had never been before, but was amazed at how beautiful the morning was at the park.

sun rise over Perth CBD

I had plans of wandering around the park for the rest of the day, but when it's 6:30 AM and you've been up for almost 3 hours, walking around a botanical garden just doesn't seem appealing anymore. Thank god I'll be spending my weekends in Perth for the rest of the semester and will have plenty of time to check it out another day...