Home and away

The last stage of the Tour de East ended where I started, Perth. After 3.5 months of crossing countries by land, water and air by conventional (and lesser means of) transport, it can safely be assured that our bodies crashed spectacularly when we reached this penultimate destination, exaggerated by a whole day of flights across Australia because a delay in our first leg to Brisbane meant we had to go via Melbourne too.

As it was, Perth’s weather was also out of kilter, experiencing an unusual tropic start to their summer, that of rain and cool temperatures (sounds like a British summer hey), which further lessened out enthusiasm to make the most of our time. Though I had done all of what I have wanted to in Perth in the 8 months that I called it home, I was still up for showing Tanya the sights. We did the city centre in an afternoon and Leo drove us and Allie up the coast to do some sand-boarding for my birthday, which was awesome even if short lived by the sudden deluge of rain, so an early Ozzie pub lunch beckoned. To treat Tanya, we also hit the chocolate factory and a winery in Swan Valley for the free tasters and a few purchases and then we visited Bells Rapids for more beautiful scenery [see the Happy Snappy blog – Aug’12 for pics of the area]. And no trip to Perth would be compete without a jaunt down to Freemantle to see its colonial roots on the doorstep of Western Australia's largest port, where masses of immigrants first arrived. 

Unseasonal snow - no just a foam machine in the 'English Street' in Perth's CBD for the Ozzie children who have never seen the real deal

For the rest of our few days left, we stayed around ‘home’, seeing old familiar faces of friends/work colleagues and I even got to have a game some of my old 5-aside football team mates at the local sports centre J and hosted a barbeque to say goodbye to the amazing people who have made my time in Australia such a lovely and memorable experience… so even if we were shattered, we still could not break the habit of doing as much as possible.

Not forgetting an obligatory trip to introduce kangeroos to Tanya

The journey home via Dubai International Airport was a breeze having passed through it before; it was as ‘homely’ as any airport could feel for me after months of foreign checkpoints and departure lounges. And thus I came home, eyes firmly shut physically from travel exhaustion, but wide open mentally and many memories of awkward language barriers, super friendly hospitality, mind blowing scenery with someone who is still calls me a friend after over 3 solid months in my company. Win!

What can I say after nearly a year away? ... Take any opportunity you can to experience some of the East of our World yourselves!

So until my next travel adventure in the not so distant future, as is the common goodbye on the road…

''Safe travels''.