ESL Blogs

This is another continuation of My Perth Diary.

Day One : 29th Dec 2013

Day Two : 30th Dec 2013

Day Three : 31st Dec 2013

Day Four : 1st Jan 2014

Happy new year, everyone. After a late night celebrating the new year in Mandurah, we decided to take it easy today. Everyone woke up late. We had not decide where to go, what to do. We will just go with the flow.

We agreed to meet up at the hotel lobby at about 9.30 am. After contemplating a few places and browsing through the map, we decided to go to the North of Perth, since Mandurah was the South side of Perth. Thank God for one of my friends who loved to do all the research well before hand. She suggested we go to Scarborough, because the beach was beautiful.

Scarborough Beach was roughly about a 14 km drive from Perth City. As always, the drive was smooth. We did not talk much, maybe because everyone was a bit tired. In no time at all, we reached Scarborough Beach. Reaching the beautiful beach made our eyes wide opened. It's really beautiful; clear blue sky, turquoise water, white sandy beach, and wind blowing, really made the tired eyes sooth. How I wish I were a poet and have all those romantic words to describe the beach.

After basking with the warmth of the beach, well, I had to admit, we did not strip down to our bikinis or what, if you guys wondering, our empty stomachs were calling us for lunch. Unfortunately, it's only late morning, and some of the cafes were closed. Maybe because of it's the new year. We just decided to buy something in the Coles Supermarket, and have our lunch somewhere else.

Next destination was Hillarys Boat Horbour. It was just about 12 km from Scarborough Beach. It was another famous attraction, less for the beach but more because of its educational attractions such as AQWA and Naturaliste Marine Discovery Centre. We did not visit any of these places, but rather its famous cafes over looking the ocean. 

We reached Hillarys Boat Harbour right when people were having their lunches. Restaurants and cafes were fulled to the brim. OHMY! My poor stomach was singing out of tune opera by that time. Though I had eaten some nectarine and peaches while in the car, but my poor stomach still insisted to sing. 

After walking from one end of the jetty to another, we decided it's hopeless to have a proper lunch. So, instead of lunch, we had Spanish churros; a stick doughnut, dipped in various chocolates' flavours. I don't like chocolate, never do, and never will. But maybe because I was hungry, I was enjoying the churros. And I never thought that there would be various chocolate flavours. Chocolate is chocolate, right? No two way about it.

While enjoying our churros, we discussed our next destination. After debating a few choices, we decided to go further up North and depending on the time, if we can, we will go as far as the dessert, or if not, just up to Lancelin. 

Lancelin was about 128 km further from Perth City, or about 111 km from Hillarys Boat Harbour. It was famous for its sand dunes. Before we continue our drive, I managed to buy two boxes of fish and chips. Well, I can't survived on chocolate dipped churros, now, can I? LOL

Driving to Lancelin exposed me to various Australian plants habitats. They were quite vary. I think it was somewhat the Australian outback. There was some Australian bush land, and I can see some of them were charred by bushfire sometimes way back. There were some big farms, though for the life of me, I don't know what kind of farms they were. I can't see any wheat plants, the sheep were too few, and no cow! I thought Australian was famous for it's beef, but no cow. Hmm.

After a few kilometers of driving, I noticed my friend was getting tired. She had been the designated driver from day one because her name was in the rental car, and my other friend was the second driver. But she was sleeping, and I was the only one who was wide awake. Thus, I offered to drive. At first, she was reluctant to switch places with me because my name was not in the document. However, after a few minutes more, reluctantly she asked me to take over the wheel. 

I drove in silent. All my friends were taking a nap. Residential areas were very few and far between. The drive was a very long. It took us about one hour and a half to reach Lancelin. It was really a very small town. Most of the houses seemed to be empty. We parked next to the beach, but there was no sand dunes in sight. Well, they were only the normal beach sand dunes. 

We decided to refuel before proceeding. At the petrol station, my friend asked the direction to the sand dunes. Apparently we had missed the turn to the sand dunes a few kilometers away. Well, at least we had the opportunity to see the Lancelin township. 

After a few minutes re-tracking our drive, we found the turn to the sand dunes. We chose a spot to park our car since the area was accessible only either by walking, 4-wheel drive or RTV. From afar the sand dunes looked like snow-capped mountains. 

I was out of breath by the time when I reached the sand dunes mountains. When we reached there, a few people doing some sand boarding from one of the sand mountains. We can hear them screaming and laughing. Some of the guys were seen tumbling from the board. We don't have any sand board, but that did not stop us from trying to climb to the top and try to do some 'clumsy stunts' actions. LOL

Did I say climb to the top? Hmm .. that's just a wish. LOL. We only managed to climb about two third of the sand mountain. Though it was not that high, but sand climbing was very exhausting. After a few failed attempt to sand boarding using a card box, I just sit on the sand mountain and enjoying the sunset. 

Reluctantly we had to walk back to our car when the day was getting darker. Everyone was silence during the drive back to Perth. Our fourth day in Perth ended with an exhausting 'good night' to everyone. 

To be continued in My Perth Dairy : Day Five 2nd Jan 2014