Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Perth - Beach Art

As part of a local arts festival, they put some sculptures on Cotesloe Beach. Do we appreciate art? Youbetcha...

An xmas tree at the end of the breakwater and a boat. I don't think the boat is art but, then, what is? (answers on a postcard, please)

A warning to small marsupials.

The Silver Surfer having been kicked in the nuts.

Oh, I don't know. Flags? Pizza boxes? The Connection Between Man and the Forces of Nature? You decide.

Must...resist...the...innuendo.

That's better - a Shipwreck.

Sticks. With heads on.

A wooden person climbing up some wood.

This one's all see-through and there's a plant inside.

That floaty thing - the one with the stick, not the boat - is a piece, too.

Lots of upright mirrors. If you look carefully, you can see me in one of them - grey shorts / knobbly knees.

What Western Australians actually look like.

Aha, a proper carving. This looked really good. Nice finish, too.

Similar quality but made of metal. Noice welds.

This one is made out of loads of magazines stuck together.

A sort of wire snake. You can get in there and play with it, too.

A twiggy cave that you can walk through.

Dunno what this is supposed to be but it was well made. I suppose you could stand in it and bash your head on those bars or something.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Perth - Quokkas

It's all right for you, I'm the one that has to resist rhyming 'quokka' with a variety of rude words.

OK, these guys are cute - very cute. They used to live in various places around WA until people started eating / shooting them. Now, they all live on Rottnest Is because there is a nice pub. Yes, they really do go to the pub.

They sort of don't look real - more like little fluffy toys.

There's one of the little ones.

Dunno what this one's doing but it looks saucy.

This one has just woken up. They sleep sitting up.

help...........meeeeeee.

Amazing what you'll find if you go rummaging around.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Perth - Rottnest Bus Trip

These are great - a bus trip around the island. It was either that or a push-bike. And that most definitely ain't going to happen.

The bus at the first stop at the main lighthouse.

A great big gun. This was part of Fremantle's harbour defence. Sadly, there is no big red buttom labelled 'FIRE GUN'.

Some sort of tea tree that looks a bit like broccoli.

The main lighthouse.

Looking back to the settlement area.

The tower where they used to check where the gun's shells landed. Manned by ladies, apparently (or should that be ladied by ladies?).

The next stop was at the western tip of the island which was very windy and pretty wild. This looks like a nice snorkelling bay.

A great big blow-hole.

Some sort of skink.

We were told that sometimes dolphins come here to surf. Yes, really.

It's a nice coastline round here.

Inland there are a few small salt lakes. This is where they used to collect the salt for the store. I like this sort of thing because of all the different colours.

A kind of red moss on the lakeside.

There is one big windmill on the island.

Anothe one of the lakes with salt foam round the edges.

This from a lookout over the lakes.

Perth - Rottnest Diving

There would be a lot more on this post had the underwater camera batteries not gone all flat at exactly the wrong time - i.e. the second I hit the bottom.

The dive boat with about 20 divers and kit.

Over one of the dive sites.

Perth - Rottnest Trip

We went off to Rottnest Island for the weekend.

Western Australians have such small attention spans, they struggle to get to the end of multi-syllable place names, thus, 'Rotto'.

Sadly, dogs are not allowed on Rotto - one of the few times that the dog-hating westies actually have a point; fragile eco-system and all that - so Brandy was packed off to dog prison for the duration. It appears that she entered the general population without too many compromises.

On to Rotto, then...

As Rotto is an island, we thought the best way to get there was by boat.

Perth's ex-brewery, now a hotel.

There's the cops.

And that's what happens if you don't do what the cops tell you.

The Oriana and Fremantle's maritime museum.

2 hours later and we got to the island. Here's the main shopping mall. Those two at the table are probably escaped criminals of something - there's a lot of them in WA.

The jetty where the ferries come in with the Perth skyline on the horizon.

Was the salt store, now a tourist info point. They used to collect salt on the island for the whole of the state who, presumably, spent a lot of time waiting around for a delivery with bags of chips in their hands.

The harbour in the settlement area - and the dive shop.

Kim getting churched-up. I went in later and had a chat with the vicar who was setting up for a wedding. Not too long, though. Something aimed at me might have missed and got the poor bugger.

Pilot Boat station with a replica of the original boat. Lots of ships used to run into this island - there are at least half a dozen wrecks about the place - and the pilot used to have to go out in all weathers to help them into Fremantle port.

Kim, waiting for dinner.

Me, likewise.

Cheeky monkey - tried to nick all the chips.

Sunset over the harbour.

Aaaaaarrrrrgh. More of this later.