A tale of two halves (First Installment) Perth & Adelaide
Christmas time, is never my favourite time of year. Yet, when my father and brother proposed coming to Australia to see my other brother Sean and I, I was excited at the prospect and was optimistic that this year may buck the trend. Sean had made Australia his home for the last two years and was currently residing in Melbourne. However, he did have a habit of moving and when I booked my flights he was currently living outside Perth. When I say outside, he was at least 4 hours away in a small mining community but rather than meet in this tumbleweed town, Perth became our meeting point. Yet by the time, my departure from the UK loomed he had moved to Melbourne and we were stuck with flights to Perth. I didn't see this as too much of a problem, I had always wanted to see the west coast and we decided that we would still spend 8 nights there before flying to Adelaide and collecting a camper van and meandering leisurely along the Great Ocean Road towards Melbourne for the iconic Christmas day barbie on the beach. Christmas in a camper with the family, barbies on the beach, the sun on our back and wide stretches of deserted road. It all sounded to good to be true, and was it going to be? Only time would tell.
Perth, greeted us with wall to wall sunshine and Papa Kirk was quick to showcase his freckled white arms and wrinkly knees. It was also my father's first experience in a hostel and I had haunting memories of Louise's and the transvestite receptionist back in October. Despite my concerns we had nothing to worry about, I had luckily checked us in the best hostel in Perth and probably the best in my entire trip so far. It was small and intimate, great communal space, friendly staff and free tasty food which brought everyone together each night. This also pleased two Yorkshire men whose British pound was not so favourable in comparison to the Aussie dollar. We enjoyed staying, so much so, we didn't leave and just used it as a base to explore other places. We spent our days taking long strolls, or taking the train to nearby places of interest with our evenings spent teaching my dad the card game "Bullshit" and drinking brews. It was a brilliant week and on our final evening, a group of the residents and us went out drinking in the centre of town. Papa Kirk finally hung up his dancing shoes around 3am and Joe star- fished the couch shortly after. Yet the younger ones with a little more stamina decided we might as well continue drinking back at the hostel then soon before the sun came up, we decided to go watch the sunrise and go kangaroo spotting! Drunken faffing and slow stumbling meant we missed the scenic sunrise yet after walking down by the river for a short while, we were greeted with a magnificent sight. A bakers dozen of kangaroos feeding from the flora and hopping excitedly around from one bush to the next. Even when we edged ever closer, the kangaroos barely took any notice of us, as they stretched in the early morning sun and nibbled on their breakfast. My week in Perth couldn't of ended on a higher note and coming home to a bacon sandwich cooked by Papa Kirk reinforced my idea that I should travel with my father more often!
That afternoon we took a domestic flight to Adelaide and upon our arrival the wind chill made me reach for my jumper. Temperatures in Perth averaged at late thirties early forties whilst in South Australia its common for them not to exceed mid twenties. You may frown at this and say mid twenties is still warm and I'm not going to deny that fact. However, having spent the last 3 months in hot and humid climates you are somewhat surprised when goose pimples appear on your thighs and your short shorts are now too short. Despite this, we really liked Adelaide even if our stay was brief. It's visually attractive and much greener than Perth with a nice mixture of old and new architecture. We also stumbled on a free open air Christmas concert and food festival which was a lovely way to spend a Sunday. It was our first taste of an Aussie Christmas and humming along to Wizzard's "I wish it could be Christmas everyday" lyrics in our free elf hats, we couldn't of been happier.