Thursday 6th January - Perth, WA

 A couple of the super modern buildings in the Marina area of Singapore

 My new Australian Jaccaru hat - better than the baseball cap

We have been away over a week already and only just got around to creating this blog. Sue survived the long flight from Heathrow to Singapore and we had a couple of nights there to get used to the time difference. An interesting place to visit - very clean, almost crime free and lots of history that's well preserved. Hot and sticky at this time of year though. It seemed strange to be in the heat and have the best Christmas decorations we have ever seen all around Singapore City. Had a Singapore Sling in Raffles and tried to eat our body weight in the free peanuts to offset the cost of the drinks!

Arrived in Perth on Friday 31st December.  Sue was stopped by customs as the sniffer beagle smellt that an apple had been in the bag and that is equivalent to bringing in the worst type of contraband.  Very strict the Aussies about smuggling in fruit.  We went straight into a long New Years Eve, but we made it past midnight. We are staying over 30km outside the city, but can use the mate's Ute whenever we like so we can get around. It is stinking hot here and does not cool down at night, but we had a respite yesterday when it rained all day and the night temperature dropped to 20 degrees and that was manageable.

One of the best places so far has been Freemantle which is near Perth and is where the first convicts were sent.  The first job they had to do was to build their own prison and this was used up until 1970s. Note clear blue sky - temperature was about 35 degrees.

We are now down in Albany which is the Southwest point of Oz and it is a bit cooler here.  The beaches are white sand and the sea is turquoise.  Apparently at one time the sea ran red with the blood of the thousands of whales that were caught and processed here.

Here Sue is with the Utility vehicle.  We feel a bit like a pair of hillbillies - no comments please.

This beach was where the settlers found fresh water back in 1781 and is amazingly quiet and unspoiled.